mod groups & rhythm; math and music; szanto on 57tet

Three items:

(1) I don't want to become the Tuning Forum's resident apologist for
Princetonian serialism (especially as I am a Wesleyan experimentalist), but
fairly thorough work on moduli and rhythm has been produced by the Babbitt
crowd (Andrew Mead, Josef Straus et al).

The discussion about **tempered** rhythms - may in fact be moot for
rhythms executed by players (as opposed to machines). The volume on the
psychology of music edited by Diana Deutsch some 15 years ago had a
fascinating study of performed rhythms (one of the researchers was Paul
Zukovsky). It seems that the degree of tolerance for durational ratios is
significantly higher than that for pitches. (The performance by the famous
conductor ''P.B." was especially tolerant!).

Since the Babbitt time-point system is not comparing durations but points
of attack within the measure modulus, and that a metre typically introduces
both accentuation and unequal real durations for beats of equal notated
durations, it is possibly here that a reasonable analog to temperament
might be found.

(2) The discussion on modular math has illustrated vividly one of those
points where the domains of mathematics and music diverge. The operation of
inversion is mathematically transparent in a way that is quite foreign to
music. Both our pitch perception and time perception are decidedly
directional, and this is, to my ears at least, the great failure of the
various serial projects in all their variations. (Babbit, at least,
realized this and decided that the row (or set or whatever) was not a
theme, and that no version of the row had priority over the others, but the
perceptual problems remained when one tried to relate the rows (or segments
thereof) to one another.)

That said, I would be curious to hear if any list member are composing or
have composed serially in some tuning besides 12tet (a perfectly reasonable
proposition: quick: what are the all combinatorial octochords for
16tet?)... or has the whole serial era really passed?

(3) I am sure that I speak for the majority of the list when I say that
eagerly look forward to Jonathan Szanto's review of Robert Goulet's 57tet
extravaganza.

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 16 Dec 1996 01:24 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA05057; Mon, 16 Dec 1996 01:26:41 +0100
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA05061
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id QAA14774; Sun, 15 Dec 1996 16:26:39 -0800
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 16:26:39 -0800
Message-Id: <199612160025.QAA29079@dnai.com>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu

> This is none other than the tuning that Charles Lucy has attached
> his name to and has been trying to sell as a musical panacea for the
> past several years.

And (again recapping old tuning-list ground here) it is also nearly
identical with Erv Wilson's "Meta-Meantone", which is the meantone tuning
with a consistent beat-frequency between 1 and 3, and 3 and 5 of its 4:5:6
chord approximation, but not necessarily other voicings of major triads.

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 16 Dec 1996 12:07 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA05398; Mon, 16 Dec 1996 12:09:29 +0100
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA05395
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id DAA17436; Mon, 16 Dec 1996 03:09:26 -0800
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 03:09:26 -0800
Message-Id: <009ACED1C60D7B20.D434@vbv40.ezh.nl>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu