Newband concert June 14, 1997

I got a mailing a few days ago.......

Newband takes a multi-cultural, new music journey

Avant-garde music from Japan, India, France and New York.
Homages to the music of Native Americans, Ancient Greece and Jazz.

Toru Takemitsu
Ravi Shankar
Maurice Ravel
Dean Drummond
Katherine Hoover
Harry Partch
Thelonius Monk

Saturday, June 14, 8pm
Naurashaun Presbyterian Church
Sickeltown Road
Pearltown, NY

Information: 914-251-6887

D a v i d B e a r d s l e y .. dmb5561719@aol.com
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http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm
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The following letter was published in the British science publication
"New Scientist" 31st May 1997.

http://www.newscientist.com

I thought that tuning list subscribers might be interested, and have some
pertinent comments. Some may even wish to defend the importance of
musical tuning in this widely read and respected scientific journal.
(Hint ;-) Nudge, nudge!. . . . . )

Unnatural Tunes

I hope that Charles Lucy succeeds in his attempt to reconstruct John
Harrison's experiments in tuning (letters, 19 April, p55). However two
different questions are involved.
An alternative basis for deriving musical intervals may be of great
acoustical and mathematical interest in itself. But its musical
significance may be slight.
Music as it has developed over the last five centuries has become
an entirely artificial system with an elaborate logic of its own.
This depends upon a hierarchy among pairs of related keys in which
each key is regarded as all the others as a starting point, it being
only the direction from it that matters. To make this equality
physically possible, all intervals other than the octave are very
slightly "cooked".
For most of us, the difference between the "cooked" and the natural
version is so slight that it becomes lost in the idiosyncracies of
performance.
I rather suspect that, whether one considers Harrison's or any other
alternative basis for tuning, the same may prove to be true.

James Iliff, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire.



lucy

http://www.wonderlandinorbit.com/projects/lullaby

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Dear Gary,

>it comes to how the tuning affects them. Second, there
>certainly are plenty of definite-pitched, and at least
>much-more-definite-pitched, instruments out there.
>Guitars and pianos are extremely common examples of these,
>along with electronic instruments.
Being a guitarist I must strongly object. No, the guitar
(at least classical) is NOT a definite-pitched instrument
for that matter. Especially in sustained chords we do
manipulate the individual pitches of the tones that make up
the chord as to make the sound more pleasant, of course
also to compensate for non-ideal strings that may be
slightly out of tune especially when playing high up the
neck.

However I do agree with you that the sustained chords make
the bigger impression on the audience which limits the
argument. Although we (most musicians) cannot play in any
temerament we choose, at least not up to speed we can
massage the most important parts just that bit.

Please forgive me if this point has already been made. I
read the digest version of this list.

--------------------------------
Ivanildo Kowsoleea
--------------------------------

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>>certainly are plenty of definite-pitched, and at least
>>much-more-definite-pitched, instruments out there.
>>Guitars and pianos are extremely common examples of these,
>Being a guitarist I must strongly object. No, the guitar
>(at least classical) is NOT a definite-pitched instrument

The guitar fits in the category I described here as
"much-more-definite-pitched". The piano is a definite-pitched instrument.


I have played classical guitar as well as bassoon, saxophone, and viola
in the past, so I certainly do understand what you're saying. Classical
guitarists especially are easily annoyed by the general public's
misconception that guitarists can't vary the pitch, especially downward.

Still, on a guitar the struggle is much more to make the pitch DEVIATE
from the ideal to which it's tuned, whereas on a woodwind, brass, or
orchestral string instrument, the struggle is to make the pitch MATCH the
ideal. (Yes, I do realize that I'm oversimplifying there, but only
slightly.)

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