TUNING digest 1176

In a message dated 97-09-12 03:36:36 EDT, you write:

> have noticed in my dealings this last year with folks who play music from
> other cultures, with non western tunings, that they seem to know very
> little about the subject of tuning, period...it seems to be more
> intuitive than anything else.

Yeah, I'd say that's typical. As much in the Western world as anywhere else.
And what a shame! It was darn well true of me, too, until a few months ago.
And I have a B. of Mus. degree! I recently described to my former Dean of
the School of Fine Arts how dramatically my recent study of JI and other
tunings had deepened my understanding and appreciation of music in general,
not to mention greatly refining my ear for pitch. I asked him why we were
not taught this stuff in school, why I had to wait 10 years after graduation
to stumble upon a real understanding of music. He had no answer.

My point is, understanding the hows and whys of something provides a stronger
basis for intuitive usage of it. The two (knowlege and intuition) are not
isolated from each other. Knowlege is power. If musicians from all cultures
studied tuning, including the math and science of it, and practiced putting
that knowlege to work, how much better we all would understand our own musics
and those of other cultures! Not that that's entirely possible, since many
don't have sufficient education in math and science to grasp the mechanisms
involved. But the more the merrier, I say.



SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: alves@orion.ac.hmc.edu
Subject: Re: srutis and such
PostedDate: 13-09-97 02:07:39
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