Stick's Shtick

Haverstick writes:

>In regards to David Beardsley's comment about replacing equal
>temperaments with just intonation...only problem then is, we can't play
>all those styles with lots of chord changes, which I dearly love.

C'mon Neil! Why don't you tell us more about "can't"!

Carl


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From: DMB5561719@aol.com
Subject: Re: replacing eq with ji
PostedDate: 27-11-97 23:03:31
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>Also, a smaller number
>of notes/octave is sure helpful when you have a lot of chords.

Helpful in that it makes the task easier?


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From: gbreed@cix.compulink.co.uk (Graham Breed)
Subject: MIDI file convertor
PostedDate: 29-11-97 17:09:10
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>Also, I have the feeling, and perhaps I could be wrong, that bebop oriented
>stuff would be really tricky in just tunings...I have re-written Coltrane's
>"Giant Steps" for 19 tone tuning...if that would be possible in just, than
I >think I have had the wrong impression about just tunings all along...from
what >I understand, eq temps evolved precisely to play music that modulated
a lot >(Bach), and the trade off is less purity of tuning for increased
compositional >flexibility.

While there are important physical and conceptual differences between equal
and just tunings, equal temperaments are not required to achieve bebop or
Bach-like modulations. They are only required to do it if you are limited
in the number of pitches you can handle. The general rule is: Anything you
can imagine can be done in Just, and more! Provided you have enough pitches.

How much is enough? While often times it may be a lot, I believe it's
usually a lot less than many people would expect. It takes only 33 pitches
to modulate to all 8 keys of the just scale...

1 - 9/8 - 5/4 - 11/8 - 3/2 - 13/8 - 7/4 - 15/8 - 2

Such a tuning is nothing short of mind-blowing. It is a fertile ground as
vast as can be expected in a tuning. In 33 equal, you get 33 key centers.
But, the just tuning offers you stuff that you can't get in 33 equal.
There's no free lunch.

You might say that, for a given number of pitches, the number of key centers
available is greater if they are tempered than if they are just. But! I
said "no free lunch"! I am almost ready to argue that while you get fewer
of the traditional "key centers" with Just pitches, there's actually a whole
hornet's nest of different kinds of modulations that become possible with
Just Intonation, as Partch insisted.

In any case, I am already prepared to argue that traditional "key center"
changes are better-defined and more convincing in Just than in equal, since
the key centers in equal are poor (really all part of one master key that is
the chromatic scale).

>but even Catler told me he can only play in 3 keys (I hope I
>didn't misquote).

I don't know if 3 is right or not. I recall there being a 1/1 article on
the Catler tuning. Assuming he's only got 3, listening to the "Crash
Landing" album, you'll quickly hear how much can be done with only 3 Just keys!

>I do like a lot of modulation at times...my piece "Mysteries," on my new
CD, >has 54 different chords, and no real key center.

I was listening to Mysteries the other day, and thought of your post "chord
changes I dearly love". I love those changes too. And, it seems that there
probably isn't a way to make an instrument that could be called an acoustic
guitar that could let you play the track in Just.

(Indeed, the 33 note Just tuning I mention above probably wouldn't be suited
for guitar at all -- and I ain't talking about the frets being too close
together -- Just tunings got problems mapping to guitars. One solution, in
the above Just scale, would be to have 8 strings and 8 frets, but I think
this restricts chords to root position?)

But the point is, as soon as you say "can't", you're ruling out entire
classes of instruments that have yet to be invented. Already realized is a
keyboard that could gracefully render a Just version of Mysteries. To say
nothing of a midi guitar with organ-like footpedals for key center
switching, or indeed, artificial-life-powered intelligent instruments.

Carl


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From: Charles Lucy
Subject: Article from UK Guardian
PostedDate: 30-11-97 13:48:30
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