the Universe and sound

Haverstick here...when Ray Tomes says the Universe is oscillating
as a giant musical instrument, that must be what the Book Of The Hopi
means when it says "The Universe quivered in tune;" what the Indians
(East) mean by the OM vibration; what the Bible means when it says
"The Word was God." I am, unfortunately, not much on math, but I do
believe it is possible to unlock some of the secrets of this Universal
instrument by intuitive means, by "ear," so to speak, by trying to
"tune in" to the absolutely zillions and zillions of vibrations that
form this rather large instrument that we live in. I'm glad other folks
are interested in this same phenomenon...Hstick

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------Quoted Message----------------
>Date: Sun, 2 Mar 1997 10:52:01 -0500
>From: Gary Morrison
>To: "INTERNET:tuning@ella.mills.edu"
>Subject: Re: Sympathetic Vibrations, etc
>Message-ID: <199703021052_MC2-11F3-649D@compuserve.com>
> Although I've only done so much with electric guitars, what I have done
>with them suggests that most of the feedback from an electric guitar, the
>strings aren't much involved at all. It comes from the guitar pickups
>directly (electromagnetically) picking up the magnet of the speaker.
>That's pretty apparent from the fact that you can damp the strings entirely
>and it continues.

----------------Reply----------------
The strings ARE involved in the feedback from an electric guitar. Listen to
electric guitar music - it is an important part of many styles. Controlling
the energy coming back in will either give longer sustain or make a chosen
pitch increace in volume. By pinching the string with the plectrum, second
and above harmonics can be excited. Using a finger vibrato makes the
fundamental a "moving target" so that only the higher harmonics get re
energised by the feedback.

The strings of an electric guitar will feedback by themselves if placed in
the high levels of sound you get in front of a guitar amp. So will a bass
guitar. A more resonant body will help that feedback because a large
resonant body will feed more energy back into the strings. Semi-acoustic
guitars are often used for this very reason.

The squealing that occurs with some guitars which is nothing to do with the
strings is microphony of the pickups. This is common with the early fender
pickups and other badly constructed units. It is caused by loose windings
in the coil being vibrated by the speaker, the emf induced is fed back to
the amplifier further agitating the coils. It is a high pitch because the
resonance of a little bit of 40swg copper wire is high. Dip your pickups in
hot wax or get better ones!


Jeremy Tranter



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Daniel Wolf reported that:
>
> Paul Erlich wrote:
>
> >>'' Pieces in minor tended to end with a Picardy (major tonic) chord in
> the
> >>days
> >>when the minor triad was tuned 10:12:15.''
>
> I asked:
>
> >Can you identify ''those days'' with any exactitude?
>
> He responded:
>
> ''No, there is no single set of dates. I would say Renaissance through
> Middle
> Baroque. Well-temperaments brought the 16:19:24 tuning into currency in the
> Late Baroque period. Please don't make this into another black-and-white
> issue, I'm trying to explain tendencies, not impose rules. Having played in
> these tunings during the 20th century, I can't give experimental proof that

Which calls to mind our current topic in my music theory classes at
school, Schenkerian analysis. Acording to a very emotional "Schenkerian
Structural Analasys" campaign, the picardy ending is a statement to the
idea that minor sonorities are expressions of the fundamental- harmonicly
speaking the ostensible root, and acousticly speaking the series
fundamental. To this point, it is further stated by Schenkerians that
the major and minor sonorities are expressions of the same background
structural information.
Now, to which degree does the Schenkerian I-V-I "Ursatz" analyzed out
of "tonal" music afect choice of tuning? Maybe someone more familiar
with this kind of lingo can speak on that. For instance, I want to know,
does the V_I dominant-tonic cadence require a certain tuning for proper
performance?

Rick

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