20 Dec
2004
20 Dec
'04
2:29 a.m.
On Mon, 2004-12-20 at 01:40, Lee Revell wrote:
On Sun, 2004-12-19 at 23:29 +0200, John Anderson
wrote:
Well-tempered tunings were compromises between "pure" just intonation,
and the ability to play in more than one key, and modulate between keys
without retuning the instrument. In well-tempered tunings, the intervals
are slightly different for each key. Which explains why classical
composers used to argue about what "colour" a given key was. And why you
never find baroque music in F# (the 5th was about 20 cents out - the
wolf fifth).
bye
John
It's a long story, so I won't go into
detail. Google for Just Intonation
if you want to know more. It sheds a different light on various
questions like, where *is* that confounded blue note? Why do major
chords sound crap on overdrive? What's the deal with barbershop and
string quartets? Why is D minor the saddest key? If I tune the B string
by ear to the G string, why is it out of tune with the E string?
I think this is called "well tempered tuning".