source file: m1478.txt Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 12:46:53 -0700 Subject: Duodene From: Carl Lumma >>My piano is retuned to have three chains of just fifths, one >>starting on Eb, one starting on G at a just major third above Eb, >>making the fifth C to G flat by 21.5 cents, and the third chain of fifths >>starting on B at a just major third above G. > >This is exactly one of the tunings on my Ensoniq. It is identical to >Ellis' "Duodene", is it not? It seems to me it is, although it is usually more common to center it on "C", rather than on "D", as most people find the fingerings easier this way. >I was playing with this the other day and started playing Pachelbel's >Canon in D. D major is in fact one of the two "major" keys available in >this tuning (the other is Bb), where each key has the I, iii, IV, V, and >vi chords in tune. The Canon has exactly these chords, so it should have >worked perfectly, right? Not at all. The E in the melody over the >B-minor chord, though just a passing tone, sounded horrible, and the B >neighbor tone sounded awful over the A-major chord. I must conclude that >the only reasonable keyboard tuning for even the simplest triadic >diatonic music is some form of meantone temperament. I agree- if I understand what you mean by "triadic diatonic", and if we are limited to 12 tones. I will add that this tuning is good, even with only 12 tones, for types of music other than "triadic diatonic". Terry Riley has done some nice minimalist-type stuff with it on his album "The Harp of New Albion". Carl