Reply to John Starrett

John Starrett said:
> I have been doing some experiments prompted by Greg's recent
> posts about 19tet. I now am certain of this fact -- 19tet sounds like
> out of tune 12. Try this experiment. Record a pop tune in 19tet, and play
> it for the man on the street. If he can tell you anything at all about
> the tuning, it will be that it just sounds out of tune. And the funny
> thing is, he is right! If the man on the street wanted music in other
> temperaments than 12, don't you think he would have asked for it by now?
>
Perhaps 12 sounds like out of tune 19. Seriously though, what pop tunes
are you using? The kind pianists come up with, and which no rock singer
will use?Are you using sheet music or what the singer actually sings? As
for the man in the street, or the average rock musician, or the average
musician, he doesn't know what temperament is, but accepts whatever the
theorists and musical instrument companies serve up to him. If you think
the average rock singer habitually sings in 12-tone equal, I have some
prime Florida swampland I inherited from my grandmother that I could let
you have really cheap.

Actually, there are some rock songs, particularly from the 50's, whose
melodies are perfectly playable in 12-tone equal - I have never denied
this. There are many more which are not. These last tend to be the most
popular. You have but to go buy some sheet music and play the rock
melodies of a band such as Oasis or Everclear or almost any other you
fancy; the sheet music is typically a mere travesty of the original, not
because the transcribers are dolts (well, sometimes they are), but
because they use 12-tone instruments to do the transcribing. Many of the
most characteristic rock melodic figures involve the 1/3 tone, and lose
all meaning when a 1/2 tone is substituted, e.g. Ab A A C D Eb D#. Why
do you think that rock bands change their instrumentalists so blithely,
but when the vocalist leaves or dies, that is THE END...

You are CERTAIN of something this complex within a few days? You found
and interviewed the legendary man in the street within 48 hours?


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From: Gregg Gibson
Subject: Khroai, etc
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