source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 10:20:35 -0800 Subject: Limits: Well... From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@compuserve.com> > Harmony is a recent development in music; a fixed set of pitches has proved > an extremely valuable basis for organizing compositions and improvisations > for much longer. Sorry for, in my last reply, launching into one of my lectures about the much more general topic of limits and systematization from this statement by Paul E. I probably sidetracked the topic a bit, and may have (or may not have) put some words into Paul's mouth. But I think that Paul is certainly correct about this: Although at first glance imposing an organization upon tuning would seem to limit your freedom, limits of this sort can actually stimulate creativity. But such a systematization, on my opinion anyway, doesn't necessarily have to imply a fixed set of pitches, although it certainly could. As with meantone or JI, it could equally well imply a certain size of major third or fifth used consistently with an indefinite number of pitches per octave. I'd probably better hush up before I start sounding like a fanatic! Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 12 Jan 1997 20:22 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA32616; Sun, 12 Jan 1997 20:25:51 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA32562 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id LAA21390; Sun, 12 Jan 1997 11:25:49 -0800 Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 11:25:49 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu