Parch Tuning

A couple of weeks ago, Adam Silverman posted:

> 2. As Partch progressed through life, he became more inclined to
>write dissonant, "mistuned" music which is based on his "Monophonic Scale,"
>but is not necessarily in what would be purists would consider to be Just
>Intonation.

It's a matter of opinion whether Partch wrote "mistuned" music. While
he must have had some difficulty keeping the string instruments exactly
in tune, he probably came as close as humanly possible. I don't agree
that the intervals Partch used later in his life were "dissonant" either.
The intervals continue to be "strange" for many people, but Partch himself
considered them consonances, as indeed they are on at least some
instruments, for example those with harmonic partials, such as flutes,
and my Woodstock Gamelan, a tubulong percussion instrument. I also tuned
my Chinese guzheng in a pentatonic scale of 1/1, 8/7, 9/7, 10/7 and 12/7
and it sounds very consonant when it is freshly tuned, but it is difficult
to get the strings to hold the tuning for long.

Best,

Lydia Ayers

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