13

This is in response to a recent (Sat, 2 Aug 1997) posting by Joe
Downing,
, mentioning use of intervals built on 13 in
music by Chris Mannigan. (I wish we could have some sonic samples
available.)

I am new in the list, so I just suppose that there must have been
several
discussions here already on the musical merits of 13. In my personal
experience, all fractions between 13/7 and 13/12 are too difficult to
fine tune. This, by the way, is the criterion I use in assessing
intervals: if we can be guided by the beats in fine tuning the
intervals,
the interval is useful in music. The most promising among those
intervals is 13/9, 637 cents.

Now I have to mention that in 1988 I examined the fragments of Greek
music (those known then), interpreting the notation in a stable way
rather than the variable way that is currently used ("my" method
applies only to pieces written before the 2nd century AD). I checked
every melodic interval in order to identify its fraction (for intervals
larger than a tone). I found only two clear cases of intervals which
cannot easily be matched to ratios. Interestingly, it was exactly
the same interval (same signs), its size being about a fifth minus
a thirdtone, and in both cases set over the word "mortals". (The one
instance in the Hymn to Nemesis and the other in the First Delphic
Hymn.)

I have also seen Mersenne approve of a certain composer's setting
two falling minor thirds (= 5th - small semitone, unless the one
third is subminor) over the word "morir" {sp?}. (John Chalmers
tells me that both thirds are 6/5 here.) I am not sure whether I should
relate this with the two Greek examples.

George Kahrimanis Queens, NY

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Subject: Re: notation
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