wolves: last words

The term _Wolf_ and its plural _Woelfe_, were established tuning terms in
German in the early sixteenth century, and were rapidly imported to English
as _wolf_ and _wolves_. The fact is, the name was chosen because of a
perceived resemblance of certain intervals to the howling of wolves. As
wolves' calls do have a distinctive steady beating, and are often
dichordal, this is not an unreasonable metaphor. Any qualitative judgement
about this sound is a function of time and place, and we are now - given
our modern, urbanized reverence for animals - free to admire both sounds,
and recognize certain similarities, much as listeners in the past
apparently found both sounds disagreeable, while recognizing similarities.
Your regular ( -s) ending for a synechdoche form is without precent
grammatically and unnecessary, because the term _Wolf_ was used initially
as an unaccompanied noun, and not in the adjective-noun combinations (_wolf
interval_, _wolf tone_) found later (my earliest example is nineteenth
century - but Jonathan Walker may know an earlier source). As I indicated
before, the _wolf_ is a metaphor, and a metaphor must retain the declension
of the borrowed term.

Furthermore, English has so few surviving Germanic plural endings that it
certainly adds to the surface variety of our language to be able to use one
when we can!

Let�s get back to tuning...

Dr Daniel Wolf, Frankfurt

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Dan Wolf brought up some issues in regard to the topic of ornaments and
intonation. I can't provide a reference off-hand, but I do remember my
harpsichord teacher years ago pointing out where Bach had a explicitly
indicated a trill, according to him, in order to obscure the wolf. (Not
really a wolf, since this is well-temperament, but a triad that's
relatively less pure.)

Whether an ornament obscures or spotlights intonational relationships I
guess depends on the type of ornament. A quick trill would tend to obscure
them because the pitch's duration each time you heard it would be very
short and the other note in the trill would compete for the impression of
pitch. However, certain Indian gamaka are defined as much more broad
elaborations of the melody (as Dan demonstrated).

The portamento, so important in most Indian instrumental and vocal
traditions, often to me creates a tension that is only resolved when the
pitch reaches its target frequency. In that sense, I think it helps focus
more attention on the intonation. Recall that Nazir Jairazbhoy advocated
the use of temperament as a way of increasing the tension associated with
certain notes of the scale.

Bill

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^ Bill Alves email: alves@hmc.edu ^
^ Harvey Mudd College URL: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ ^
^ 301 E. Twelfth St. (909)607-4170 (office) ^
^ Claremont CA 91711 USA (909)621-8360 (fax) ^
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On Wed, 11 Dec 1996, Bill Alves wrote:
> Dan Wolf brought up some issues in regard to the topic of ornaments and
> intonation. I can't provide a reference off-hand, but I do remember my
> harpsichord teacher years ago pointing out where Bach had a explicitly
> indicated a trill, according to him, in order to obscure the wolf. (Not
> really a wolf, since this is well-temperament, but a triad that's
> relatively less pure.)

I have noted that, while F# major triads do occur in baroque music, they
are often of short duration. A favorite example is in the big Organ
Prelude and Fugue in D. In the Prelude, the second section (dotted
rhythms) there is a cadence on F# major which is notated as an eighth note
followed by a pause. Immediately following is a sweep to a HUGE D major
triad (very bright in well-tempered systems!), followed by a glorious Alla
Breve. I am sure that the 'wimpiness' of the F# cadence creates a greater
contrast to the glorious D major. This difference does not exist, of
course, in equal temperament.

I have also noted examples of this in Scarlatti sonatas.


Joe Downing,
in Syracuse


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Bill Alves wrote:

**A quick trill would tend to obscure
them because the pitch's duration each time you heard it would be very
short and the other note in the trill would compete for the impression of
pitch.**

**Quick** here must refer to the duration of the trill rather than the
speed. A trill of any duration and sufficient speed will tend to create an
audible dyad (especially on the Harpsichord, whose damping mechanism is
rather slow: Ligeti's _Continuum_ uses such rapid playing to striking
effect and the tuning is quite transparent).

Bill�s remarks about portamento are, I think, more typical of Hindustani
music than Karnatic where a portamento of more than a fourth and more than
one beat in duration is extremely rare. Many list members may be familiar
with the exhuberant octave-or-more ascending portamenti used especially by
Muslim vocalists. (I am especially fond of long portamenti that overreach
the target pitch, then fall back to the target precisely with a strong
position in the tala). The ideas of Nazir Jairazbhoy about tempering raise
a really different and interesting conception of _temperament_ than is
usually encountered in this forum, that of deliberate deviations from just
intervals to put those intervals into a kind of audible relief. (Perhaps
deliberate **out of tuneness** would make an interesting discussion
topic!).

In answer to a question posted off the list: The gamakas I indicated in my
posting are practiced at all speeds, from ca. one step 60 to two, four,
eight times as fast, where the dyadic effect is quite pronounced.

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