The Future

I would maintain that except on fixed-pitch instruments, people have
always, and will always, play in a kind of adaptive JI, as far as the
actual sound is concerned. (How they thought about what they were doing
is another matter).

>
> Subject: Re: Re: A Real Future
>
> What about folk or expressive intonations? My Violist friend knows how
> to play F# differently if it's a P5, M3, or m3. When I'm playing on my
> Theremin or my Acoustic Theremin, I use lots of glissandos and melodic
> intervals that aren't calibrated to anything. And when I'm
> throat-singing, I use some portion of the overtone series, but I don't
> even know which one.
>
> I think folk intonation is the next big thing, at least in
> outsider/visionary/untrained music.

On 12/4/05, Christopher Bailey <chris@...> wrote:
>
> I would maintain that except on fixed-pitch instruments, people have
> always, and will always, play in a kind of adaptive JI, as far as the
> actual sound is concerned. (How they thought about what they were doing
> is another matter).

But on fixed-pitch instruments as well, I think folk-intonation works
splendidly. All of the Gamelan scales are non-just non-equal, and I
have been told that Mbira players in the Shona tradition retune their
instruments frequently and nearly arbitrarily. And the chewing-gum
temperament of the broken piano at Seattle Central Community College,
though "bad" in terms of piano tuning, sounds great.

--
~Tristan Parker
http://www.myspace.com/rozencrantz
"Western music is fast because it's out of tune"
-- Terry Riley

>I have been told that Mbira players in the Shona tradition retune
>their instruments frequently and nearly arbitrarily.

This is true, though they tend to sound roughly diatonic to me.

-Carl

the mbira is not tuned arbitrarily at all. there scale often is in the 7 semi equally spaced or mavila range

Carl Lumma wrote:

>>I have been told that Mbira players in the Shona tradition retune
>>their instruments frequently and nearly arbitrarily.
>> >>
>
>This is true, though they tend to sound roughly diatonic to me.
>
>-Carl
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> >Yahoo! Groups Links
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--
Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Rozencrantz the Sane
<rozencrantz@g...> wrote:
>
> On 12/4/05, Christopher Bailey <chris@m...> wrote:
> >
> > I would maintain that except on fixed-pitch instruments, people
have
> > always, and will always, play in a kind of adaptive JI, as far
as the
> > actual sound is concerned. (How they thought about what they were
doing
> > is another matter).
>
> But on fixed-pitch instruments as well, I think folk-intonation works
> splendidly. All of the Gamelan scales are non-just non-equal,

So are all meantone scales, which were the Western standard c.1480-
1780. Same for well-temperaments which had an overlapping period of
predominance in the West. How does that make any of these "folk
intonation"?

> So are all meantone scales, which were the Western standard c.1480-
> 1780. Same for well-temperaments which had an overlapping period of
> predominance in the West. How does that make any of these "folk
> intonation"?

I suppose it doesn't. Perhaps Sonic Youth's guitars are a better
example, then, of fixed-pitch instruments with folk intonation.