JI puns with candystripes

The question of whether JI composers can use puns was batterred half-to-death
here not long ago but never resolved. As I fancy myself a budding JI
composer, I thought I'd offer some proof:

1) It so happens that in 12-tET, the 7/4 of any pitch falls in between the
9th and 10th chromatic notes above it. E.g., in the key of C, "fa" in a
justly tuned dominant-7 chord falls between "mi" and "fa" as the piano is
ordinarily tuned. It's actually not quite 1/3 the way down from "fa" to "mi"
- 31.2 cents below "fa." But I find it's not too fa down for mi.

2) A funny thing happened on the way to the studio. I saw a
middle-Rennaissance composer hauling a broken portativ down the sidewalk - he
said he'd lost the key to his modercycle therein!?

and finally,

3) A perfect octave (2/1) is obtained by doubling the frequency, which,
physically, is halving the waveform. Well, you can halve your waveform, but
you don't have to ET it, too!


But seriously, folks...

I've been talking barbershop quartet music with an avid fan of it, and he has
demonstrated to me that true bbshoppers strive for a form of 7-limit JI as a
conscious goal. No joke. I tell you, these guys are aware of what they're
doing. Now, certainly, much of bbshop harmonic movement is pun-based. Yet
they tune their chords as justly as their vocal-control abilities will allow.
If JI can't support puns, how can this phenomenon be explained? Unnoticable
comma-slippage in free pitch-space?

Oh, did you hear the one about the retired composer who had one foot in the
grave and the other on a syntonic comma?...

David J. Finnamore
Just tune it!

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