Keys, Emotions, Tempering, etc...

Also-Sent-To-Newsgroup: rec.music.makers.piano
X-Article-Creation-Date: Mon Sep 15 08:39:01 1997 GMT

Hi Gil "et al",

In article <3410c7ea.187664762@snews.zippo.com>,
bigbug@hooked.net wrote:
> If the observation is correct -- that different keys have different
> emotions -- then it ought to be testable, and someone ought to be able
> to tell the difference, with a little training. . . It might vary from
> one piano to the other. A given key might sound one way on your
> piano, a different way on another.

There's a lot of out-of-tune pianos out there, but as long as the keys
have drifted equally (usually in the "flat" direction), it doesn't seem
to affect the emotion of the piece. (Of course if the keys have drifted
unequally, it's time to get the piano tuned, or to throw it off the roof
of Baker House, in Cambridge, Mass., USA.)

My own pet theory is that as you listen to music, your ears accept the
imperfections in tuning that are presented to them, and knows what was
"meant". So the same idea/emotion/whatever comes across, whether you're
using equal temperament/meantone temperament/just intonation/whatever.

> By the way, I have developed a trick that can fool people into
> thinking I have perfect pitch. There is a fan in our office, which is
> always on, and it maintains a constant pitch all day and night. . .
> middle C in fact. So you can play any note on the piano, and I can
> tell you what it is. Neato, huh?
>
> If you listen hard enough, almost every room has a hum or two in it. .
> . or at least a convenient object you can tap to find a pitch.

Although I claim to have perfect pitch, the piano I grew up with was
about a half-step flat, which permanently messed with my accuracy. So I
too sometimes lean on the crutch of the hums of electrical devices.

Most devices emit a "60 cycle" hum (at least that's what it is in the USA
- some other countries use stuff like 50 cycles). That'll give you a
note somewhere between B natural and B flat, presuming A natural is 440
cycles per second (which, again, may not be true in other countries, nor
for other centuries for that matter). So you can usually use that as a
reference tone.

WARNING!!!: You may get a note different than "B half flat" from devices
with rotating parts, such as fans and other motors, since gears and
variable-speed controls can alter the frequency. Things like light bulbs
are more reliable, but you gotta find a loud one, like a flourescent
bulb.

Great thread!

--Mark

P.S.: Hermann L. F. Helmholtz rules, in any country or century! He
would have loved this thread (if they had the internet in the 19th
century).
+------------------------------------------------------+
| Mark Nowitzky |
| email: nowitzky@pacificnet.net |
| www: http://www.pacificnet.net/~nowitzky |
| "If you haven't visited Mark Nowitzky's home |
| page recently, you haven't missed much..." |
+------------------------------------------------------+



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From: gregs@mail.usyd.edu.au
Subject: Writing Csound from Scala1.3
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Hi Greg and everyone else!

At 11:22 PM 9/17/97 -0700, Greg wrote (Digest 1182, Topic 2):
>Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 10:09:18 +1000 (EST)
>From: Greg Schiemer
>
>Scala1.3 has a wonderful addition which I requested from Manuel Op de Coul
>over the past few months. Thanks to him, my students are now using this
>Scala command file to try out a musical passage in Csound with any of the
>tunings in the Scales archive.
>...
>Mark, I think these examples are now ready to leave on your ... site.
>They're my gift to everyone for everything I have got from the tuning
>group. And a special thanks to Manuel for a great effort.

Courtesy of Greg (and myself for staying up half the night to set it up),
the aforementioned examples are now available at:

http://www.pacificnet.net/~nowitzky/justint/greg.htm

As always, comments are welcome. Thanks Greg! Thanks Manuel!

--Mark
+------------------------------------------------------+
| Mark Nowitzky |
| email: nowitzky@pacificnet.net |
| www: http://www.pacificnet.net/~nowitzky |
| "If you haven't visited Mark Nowitzky's home |
| page recently, you haven't missed much..." |
+------------------------------------------------------+



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From: A440A@aol.com
Subject: Pianos, weather,temper
PostedDate: 18-09-97 16:46:21
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On Thu, 18 Sep 1997, Mark Nowitzky wrote:

> Courtesy of Greg (and myself for staying up half the night to set it up),
> the aforementioned examples are now available at:
>
> http://www.pacificnet.net/~nowitzky/justint/greg.htm
>
> As always, comments are welcome. Thanks Greg! Thanks Manuel!

Thanks Mark. Perhaps I should also leave the DOS .BAT files and Windows
PIF files which simplify its use. Can I email these to you direct (without
you losing sleep more) ? I'll have some more demonstration files both
Csound and Scala which can be added later.

Greg S



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Oops. Here is the attachment to my previous post - in a readable form.

Greg S
_____________________________________________________

! CS-DEMO.CMD
!
! by Greg Schiemer '97
!
! Creates Csound .SCO and .ORC files using data tuned from Scala.
! Before running this program, select Scale (.SCL file) from Scales
! archive and load it into SCALA directory. Lexical functions of
! the ECHO command write tuning data straight into .ORC file.
!
set pause off
load *.scl 0
set pause on
! show/frequency
!
! writes 1st Csound file in the user's directory
!
file c:From Mckyyy@aol.com Wed Sep 24 04:03:08 1997
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Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 00:02:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mckyyy@aol.com
Message-ID: <970923232217_2031383645@emout17.mail.aol.com>
To: tuning@ella.mills.edu
Subject: Popular Microtuning

I would like to put myself on record as supporting the
"microtuning in pop" theory.

And when you think about it, why limit it to pop? The principle
instruments of a symphony orchestra are violin, viola, and string
base--no frets! Almost every other instrument in an orchestra is
capable of some real-time microtuning by skilled musicians.

12ET is a theory that is honored largely in the breach.

Mostly the 12 is really some subset, and the ET is squeezed
toward JI as much as possible.

Just listen.

Marion



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