RE: TUNING digest 951

Matt Nathan wrote,

>If you had instruments which could provide you as easily with any pitch
>as any other, would you still do this?

Well, in that case I might not necessarily use equal temperaments, but I
might not use just intonation either. For example, for diatonic triadic
music I would use meantone temperament, perhaps changing the exact amount of
temperament from one section of the piece to another, if it helped the mood
get across. I prefer the deviations from just in 12-, 19-, 26-tet, or any
other meantone tuning to the comma difficulties of 15-, 22-, 27-tet, or pure
JI, when it comes to diatonic triadic music.


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Jo A. Hainline wrote:

> Although improvisation may be a skill helpful to the
> mastery of a particular musical instrument I am not convinced that in
> itself it adds anything to ultimate musical experience. Nor do I feel
> that improvisational skill leads to more creative musical expression. In
> fact it much more readily falls into the realm of noodling than much of
> the so-called Western classical repertoire.

Hm; spoken as a non-improviser I suspect?

> I do not believe
> there is a single place in the United States, or Europe for that matter,
> were it is possible to experience silence.

When I was a kid and went to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico USA, the tour
guide at one point stopped the group and turned off the lights and had
anyone with glow-in-the-dark watches cover their wrists, and asked everyone
to stand perfectly still and make no sound, and just look and listen. It
was absolutely black and silent. I think I might have heard a drop of
water echo as it hit some distant stalagmite. It was great. When I went
back recently, like 30 years later, they were no longer doing tours.
Everyone was tramping in and out on their own like ants.

> I am sure there are very few
> who are aware of the effect that airplane and automobile noise has, and
> when one can escape from that, the hum of the refridgerator or computer or
> the electric lights,

How about the ever-present hard-drive spin noise? I hate that! I hate the
fridge noise. It always sneaks into even headphones and interferes
with the pitches I'm trying to tune. During a sever wind storm here in
Los Angeles last week, our electricity went out for a full day and night.
The lessening of the noise level was pleasurable.

Floatation-tank places make money from people's need for sensory silence.

> even on the tops of mountains the "inaudible"
> electromagnetic radio and TV and short wave radiation impinges upon our
> psyches

Hey, just wrap some metal foil around your head like Timothy Leary and you'll
be fine! ;)

> HOW CAN WE EXPERIENCE THE SILENCE FROM WHICH SPRINGS THE MUSIC
> OF THE SOUL!!!

Move to the countryside. Hold all calls. Toss the radio. Keep the fridge
in the barn. Meditate. Wait.

> Bruce Kanzelmeyer

Which is your name; Bruce or Jo?

Matt Nathan


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> Nor do I feel
> that improvisational s kill leads to more creative musical expression.
In
> fact it much more readily falls into the realm of noodling than much of
> the so-called Western classical repertoire.

I suspect that Neils' and some others' response to that would be, "but
REALLY GOOD improvisation doesn't sound like just noodling around".

I personally would be inclined to both agree and disagree. I find that
the best usage of improvisation is in live performance, more so than in
recorded performance. I say that because in that scenario, you can
actually react to the audience ("oooh, they liked that lick; I'll expound
upon it a bit").

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