source file: mills2.txt
Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 04:57:20 +0200

Subject: Church mode & JI jargon

From: DFinnamore@aol.com

Hi, Greg.

>What is the term Phrygian JI scale ?

Sorry, I stated that in a confusing way.  I don't have an academic background
in matters of tunings, although I do have a B.Mus., so I will no doubt need
alot of correction for a while until I learn the jargon.  Everyone please
feel free to correct my terminology, let me know when I could have used a
term that would have been clearer or more concise, or simply ask me to
clarify my point.  I appreciate it.

By "Phrygian," I meant only that it is similar to the so-called Phrygian
church mode in its intervalic relationships.  The step from tonic to the
second note of the scale is roughly a half step, and otherwise it is close to
harmonic minor in 12t-ET.  Since the particular ratios I chose all happen to
be quite close to 12t-ET, it sounds really alot like what we think of as
modern music composed in Phrygian church mode under most circumstances when
1:1 is taken as the root of the scale.  Of course, church mode usage itself
differed somewhat from that, which complicates the issue.

Oddly, I didn't choose that set of ratios because they were close to 12t-ET.
 In fact, I was a little disappointed to note it.  I had combed through
dozens of different methods for organizing ratios of prime numbers over
powers of two, and chose the ratio for each member of the scale on the basis
of frequency of appearance in the various lists.

Despite its closeness to 12t-ET tuning, when using it to play melodies with a
ringing sound like harp or vibes, where the notes of the melody can overlap
and resonate together, the effect is strikingly different (to me) to the same
thing played with 12t-ET.

Further, John Chalmers says:

>I'd come across the tetrachord of your scale before and have it in
>my book (Divisions of the Tetrachord). Of course, I would call
>it the Dorian mode, rather than Phrygian as the names got mixed
>up sometime around the time of Boethius or even later with Glareanus.
>I've also tried the version 19/18 x 9/8 x 64/57, which generates
>what one might call the enneadecimal major, 1/1 9/8 24/19 4/3 3/2
>32/19 38/19 2/1 (the retrograde of this tetrachord, 64/57 x 9/8 x
>19/18, generates the enneadecimal minor, 1/1 9/8 19/16 4/3 3/2
>64/57 57/32 2/1).

Very enlightening stuff.  He would be more qualified than I to fill us in on
the usage of church mode terminology in connection with JI, and evidently
covers that topic in his book.

David J. Finnamore
Just tune it!

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
           with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 12 May 1997 07:10 +0200
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA09502; Mon, 12 May 1997 07:10:42 +0200
Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 07:10:42 +0200
Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA04710
Received: (qmail 29926 invoked from network); 12 May 1997 05:10:37 -0000
Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1)
  by localhost with SMTP; 12 May 1997 05:10:37 -0000
Message-Id: <3376A98B.12E2@dnvr.uswest.net>
Errors-To: madole@mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu