19 and only 19

"Paul Ehrlich is not without precedent in his fondness for this system [22
equal]. This is as far as the most charitable informed person can go in
the way of an open mind."

Most of us are fairly polite in this forum, so I will continue in that
manner. Some people should seriously admit that their presumptions are
nothing more than that. It is (to put it mildly) perverse to imply that
one system invalidates all others. This may of course come from the
equally damaging view that accepting any other system invalidates one's
own. At least the writer shows impeccable logic on this one point.

One of the many poor results of such behaviour is that we tend to write
off everything said by such people as nonsense. In the present case that
would be unfortunate indeed.

With few exceptions, this is not the way this forum has advanced over the
several years of its existence, for good reason.

Having stirred up the pot in this manner, I will now put the lid back on,
turn down the heat, and leave the room.

==========================
Dr. Paul Rapoport
SADM (Music)
McMaster University


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: William Sethares
Subject: 19 and melodic lemons
PostedDate: 18-12-97 02:17:01
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On 17 Dec 97 at 20:19, William Sethares wrote:

> (1) Melody is only one aspect of musical performance. Harmony is
> also important,

Just a reminder that many songs in the middle east and in Greece,
though not harmonized, are nonetheless often sung to a drone. This
drone has the effect of imposing harmonic considerations upon the
singer, making the range of such melodies having "harmony"
much broader than what many may have considered.

Regards,

Polychroni Moniodis


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: "Jo A. Hainline"
Subject: Re: More on the 19-tone Equal Temperament
PostedDate: 19-12-97 19:01:18
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>Real? Are you seriously suggesting that the melodic difference limen
>is the single most important aspect in choice of tuning? I can think of
>three counterarguments...
>(1) Melody is only one aspect of musical performance...
>(2) Even within melody, intonation is very variable among instrumentalists...
>(3) Even if we grant the melodic difference limen at 1/3 tone, this
>says nothing about 19-tet per octave (or per stretched pseudo-octave
>as you prefer)...

And I'll add to that,
(4) Melodic passages involving intervals smaller than 60 cents are clearly
musically meaningful. I'm quite confident that NOBODY will perceive the
chromatic run of quartertones C C+ C# Dd D as a subtle "shading" of
C C C# C# D. The fact that C C+ C# Dd D is a continuous rise in pitch,
whereas C C C# C# D is a sequence of two repeated pitches followed by a
third, is a more audible effect. Repetition is almost certainly a much
more basic psychoacoustic consideration than this melodic limen you're
proposing.

Or similarly, even if a melody doesn't use step sizes smaller than 60
cents, if it is taken from a scale that is nothing at all like a diatonic
scale, 9TET for example, then it can't possibly be viewed as a subtle
variation on a diatonic melody. It is clearly systematically different at
its very roots.


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison)
Subject: Re: Re G. Gibson in TD1265 and on the sensitivity of intervals to mistuning
PostedDate: 20-12-97 06:27:41
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