From: Eric
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 23:44:38 GMT
> Subject: Re: [CB] Intonation thread
>
> Eric,
>
> You are right. I don't recall seeing your initial question
actually answered, including
> by me. Were you speaking of scales, perhaps? I think the
mention of WTK is what
> had everyone thinking about tuning schemes.
>
> Craig
Actually, I was thinking of intonation systems.
And I agree that the 12-tone system has deficiencies, as already
elaborated by many in the group. I'm finding this discussion most
fascinating, and hope it continues (nicely, of course -- no
"dissonance"! ;-) ). I find myself, both in singing and in
orchestral situations, "fiddling" (ahh, another pun from a string
player!) around with tones, making me out of tune with the rest of the
section at times. (I wish all the tonal "variants" coming from me
were because I intended them to be so -- guess I gotta practice some
more...)
Personally, I'm big on adjusting the 3rds and leading tones, and hang
the rest of the group! It's not too often that a string bass uses
a leading tone anyway. Hey, our little orchestra plays out
of tune regularly, so if I do some intentional stuff anyway, so what?
I'm babbling now (had a 23-hour workday, so I'm tired). Keep it
coming! I'm cool talking about scales, too!
I would be interested in coming up with a somewhat more concise list of
intonation systems, with their... their... idiosyncrasies? Is
that the word I'm looking for?
Eric in
MN
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 09 Oct 2004 14:35:48 -0400
From: Lawrence de Martin
Subject: Re: [CB] WT or not WT, that is the question
Thank you Mr. Ticker for the Brief History of Temperament, a
text almost as remarkable as Mr. Hawking's book.
Willard Martin made a harpsichord with nineteen notes per
octave. It was intended for playing a twelve note scale,
but with split keys for modulations. He had interchangeable
keyboards with normal key and octave spacing, but with different sets
of seven notes split for playing in different keys. The strings
had to be re-tuned for the keyboard configuration, but one has to tune
a harpsichord daily anyway. I found that this keyboard made the
most sense to me after a year of Werckmeister and a lifetime of WT.
It is possible to make a synthesizer that automatically plays
all intervals as pure by shifting like a string quartet, but all I have
found is a look up table that lets you define the keys for the split
notes, using more than eight keys to play a diatonic scale. This
takes away accidentals and can get really confusing if you use more
than 12...
Larry de Martin
On 10/6/2004, Robert Howe wrote:
>>It's not the "Conservatory System" (that's an oboe mechanism)
but rather,
>>"Equal Temperment". Just try building a piano or
organ that allows you to
>>shift notes.
***End of Contrabass Digest***