My +/- 2 cents-worth

In a post from digest #1089 Daniel Wolf suggested:


> [A] discussion of the benefits and disadvantages of out-of-tuneness might
be
> worthwhile for this list.

Sounds good to me. Here's my 2 cents-worth, if you will.

1) When everything in a piece is justly tuned within 2 cents or so, the
blend is so thorough that individual melodic lines are in danger of losing
their identity. Too much homogeneity. This can be remedied to a certain
extent by carefully using contrasting timbres between parts. However, a more
musically useful solution can be to give the melody instrument, and any other
part where its movement is melodically important, the freedom to use pitch
inflections so that the attack phase is "out of tune" enough to provide the
distinction of its part, then falls back into just tune. Psychologically,
the listener can continue to "hear" the distinct note and its timbre even
after its tone has blended into the harmony.

2) On a related note (oops!), when too many tones are representing too many
partials of a given fundamental at once, the parts can completely lose their
identity. I tried making a chord once that used the first 32 partials of a
fundamental tone (my synth is 32-note polyphonic, so there ya go). It didn't
sound like a chord at all - it sounded like one humongous note. A very
powerful sound in its own right, like an orch hit in a way, but not providing
any possibility of polyphonic function of the individual parts. Reminded of
the Borg on Star Track (g). This technique appears to be an excellent
sound-design tool, by the way. Try it with "wide" sounds (pitch-wise) like
string-section or choir samples. Soundtrack city!

To summarize, the choice between just and non-just tuning could be seen as an
opportunity to strike a balance between the individual freedom of each part,
and a sense of "community" and cooperation between the parts. Not trying to
start any political arguments here!

David J. Finnamore
Just tune it!

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