mr. beardsley can likely explain this to shreds. but here're the parts that strike me as most signficant: 1. a scale in just intonation, as david said, derives its notes from the harmonic overtones series. hence the argument by harry partch and others that it is "purer" than equal temperment because JI uses notes as they occur in nature, while ET is a manmade scale. 2. again, to say it just a bit differently than david, a scale in just intonation generally finds a different sized interval between each successive note. that's why modulation is more difficult and that's the problem that was addressed by equal temperment -- or "well tempered" as they described that famous klavier. in equal temperment, the interval of a half step between each successive note is exactly the same. martin
----- Original Message ----- From: <mwisckol@ocregister.com>
mr. beardsley can likely explain this to shreds.
Maybe...I'm not that much of a theorist, more of a practicing musician. So of like a practicing doctor, just practicing...;)
but here're the parts that strike me as most signficant:
1. a scale in just intonation, as david said, derives its notes from the harmonic overtones series. hence the argument by harry partch and others that it is "purer" than equal temperment because JI uses notes as they occur in nature, while ET is a manmade scale.
Yep.
2. again, to say it just a bit differently than david, a scale in just intonation generally finds a different sized interval between each successive note. that's why modulation is more difficult and that's the problem that was addressed by equal temperment -- or "well tempered" as they described that famous klavier. in equal temperment, the interval of a half step between each successive note is exactly the same.
Any Just scale is unequal (there are smartass exceptions). In 12tet, there is the cycle of fifths. In JI, because of the slightly larger 5th, we end up with a spiral of 5ths. This is why there's a problem with getting all 12 tonal centers in tune. And there's a lot of JI composers who don't care about modulation at all. Harry Partch and La Monte Young, for example. * David Beardsley * microtonal guitar * http://biink.com/db
mwisckol wrote to zorn: m> that's the problem that was addressed by equal temperment -- or "well m> tempered" as they described that famous klavier. A minor point (hey, let's be pedantic!): "well temperament" != "equal temperament". "Well-tempered" could be any number of tunings, but the intervals in any of them are *not* equal; that "famous" suite was written to demonstrate the *different* tonal qualities of the keys, not their identity. (For those of you who like Bela Tarr: "Werckmeister" is the name of *one* well-temperament, one with occasionally, um, unfortunate harmonies. (H.A. Kellner gives Werckmeister's pitches in cents as: 0.0 90.2 194.6 294.1 389.1 498.0 588.3 697.3 792.2 891.8 996.1 1091.1 1200.0 (in equal temperament those would all be multiples of 100.0).) -- Jim Flannery newgrange@talmanassociates.com When you can't give anything, you can also receive nothing. Through giving, you also receive. You can never stop giving. When you have nothing more to give, you're dead. -- Mustafa Tettey Addy np: nr: Claude Lévi-Strauss, _Tristes Tropiques_
participants (3)
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David Beardsley -
Jim Flannery -
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