source file: m1526.txt
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 11:34:54 EDT

Subject: Re:  Blues tunings

From: DFinnamore@aol.com

Michael Dixon wrote:

>If ratios can describe intonation of 'blue' notes then the 11-limit would
>describe such notes better.

I agree, though I'm not sure the term "limit" is applicable, and I'd go so far
as to include 13s or higher.  Recordings I've made using black gospel choir
members support that idea, IMHO.  Oddly, many blues and black gospel singers
seem to prefer ratios (if indeed rational analysis is appropriate) adding 11s
and 13s, or even higher-primes, to a Pythagorean series, than those adding 5s
or even 7s.

In solo guitar work, as Neil Haverstick pointed out, the pitch is often in a
state of flux, and if/when it settles on steady pitches, it's usually on
different pitches at different places in a piece.  The particular pitch might
to have more to do with contrast than with achieving a consonant resonances.
Or as Daniel Wolf put it:

>the choice of melodic blues notes may reflect some
>qualitative assesment of the dissonance to the underlying harmony

In choral singing on the other hand, there is a tendency to use a set of
different 3rds and 6ths simultaneously, making a texture that seems to defy
objective analysis, though it reminds me of Mandelbrot and Julia set graphs
somehow.  It may be that chaos theory could provide a more accurate picture of
the situation.  We're certainly not talking about out-of-tune singing here -
it's an intentional, and far more pleasing, effect than that of a simply bad
choir.  That's not to say that they are conscious of whatever mathematical
principles are underlying what they're doing.

Speculation aside, I agree that blues intervals should be defined as neutral,
not sub-minor.

David J. Finnamore