5 Apr
2007
5 Apr
'07
2:25 a.m.
On 4/4/07, Paul Davis <paul(a)linuxaudiosystems.com> wrote:
however, i can't agree about equal temperament.
other tuning systems are
not arbitrarily assigned, but are based on complex cultural and
technological ideas. ET is a compromise not between nature and older
ways of dividing up an octave, but between the simplicity of simpler
tuning systems and the desire to modulate between modes. if you don't
need to modulate between two or more modes, ET serves little purpose,
which is why many musical traditions have not adopted it or anything
It also serves little purpose outside of fixed-pitch instruments, like
fixed-fretted strings or keyboard instruments; 12-tET Is very
difficult for string sections or a capella choirs to create, even when
they have been saturated with it.
We hear a just major third as being in tune, and no Centuries of ET
can change that. Benade found that even trained musicians, on hearing
an isolated ET major third, reported that it was a "slightly sharp
third".
if you're stuck in one mode. ET made it possible
to modulate more or
less equally well between many different modes, and thus allowed what we
broad-brush label as "classical" music to evolve. the fact that it was
almost all in either 3 or 4 time and has the level of melodic complexity
that 10 year could come up with is not relevant :)
Again, ET made it possible to do all this on fixed-pitch instruments.
The human voice can do it in any tuning system.
-Chuckk
--
http://www.badmuthahubbard.com