which tuning is best

Aline Surman writes:

> Once again, Finnamore's comments are very interesting, but to me,
> the point is NOT which tuning resonates best with humanity (I am
> paraphrasing his comments). Sure, that is an issue, but once we have a
> tuning we like, can we COMPOSE something in it that is meaningful and
> profound?

Have you ever tried to get shot and couldn't? If not, you can't imagine how
frustrating it is.

I agree with your point whole-heartedly. It is, in very fact, at the root of
my pursuit of alternate tunings.

I'm working on the assumtion that a tuning which correlates to the way we and
our world are made would, *by virtue of that fact*, provide a more solid
foundation for more meaningful and profound compositions. That would seem to
be a foregone conclusion, at least through the window of my world-view. If
any of you disagrees with that assumption and can cite anything other than
purely circumstantial evidence against it, please shoot me down. Please! :-)
Like Paul E. said last digest, "question everything." It should provide
fertile ground for all sorts of interesting discussions pertinent to tunings.

Unfortunately, I haven't yet many compositions to play you as proof of my
theory, since I'm just beginning to explore it. Well, O. K., I only have
one. It's not very widely available yet. It is track #6 "The Bullroarer" on
a CD called "Rings of Power, Volume One," which is instrumental music
inspired largely by Tolkein's books, and is intended for use by Game Masters
in role-playing to set the mood for various parts of the story-line. "The
Bullroarer" is ostensibly Hobbit music - i.e., music that might have been
made by Hobbits themselves. It sounds, not surprisingly, really a lot like
Rennaissance music might have sounded had it been composed by Scottish or
Irish folk musicians who had suddenly got a formal musical education -
except, of course, that it stays in tune throughout all chord changes. Not
very remarkable on the surface, but fun, useful (if you do Middle-Earth
role-playing) and very good education for me! The CD is available at an
increasing number of game supply stores in the US and Germany. Each of the
other tracks on the CD use, to some extent, either Pythagorean or one of the
more recent historical tunings - nothing bold there. But I'm working on it,
darn it!

If there were some way I could post the music itself to the list, I'd do it.
I tried to post it as a Real Audio file to the Globalshowcase site, but my
!@#$ AOL browser wouldn't cooperate with their system. Someday, by golly...


David J. Finnamore
Just tune it! doggone it.

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