RE: basic works

Here's a very short list with many important omissions:

John R. Pierce, _The Science of Musical Sound_ (unfortunately it doesn't
discuss meantone temperament)
Wilkinson, _Tuning In_ (error-filled but fun)
Harry Partch, _Genesis of a Music_ (a very opinionated work, but
essential)
J. Sundberg, ed. _Harmony and Tonality_ (many fine articles by Pierce,
Krumhansl, etc.)
Easley Blackwood, "Modes and Chord Progressions in Equal Tunings."
_Perspectives of New Music_ Vol. 29 No. 2 pp. 166-200
Douglas Keislar, "Six American Composers on Nonstandard Tunings."
_Perspectives of New Music_ Vol. 29 No. 1 p. 177
E. Terhardt, "Pitch, consonance, and harmony." J. Acoust. Soc. Amer.
Vol. 55 p. 1061.


>-----Original Message-----
>From: James Bunch [SMTP:jmbunch@unix.nets.com]
>Sent: Thursday, December 25, 1997 3:03 PM
>To: Paul H. Erlich
>Subject: basic works
>
>Hi,
>
>After getting recommendations for months to do so, I finally checked into
>the TUNING list, and find myself overwhelmed. Could you recommend a few
>basic references that would get me up to speed on "modern" tuning systems,
>psychoacoustics of consonance/disonance, etc.?
>
>Thanks
>
>Jim Bunch
>


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: "Paul H. Erlich"
Subject: Re: PLANCK CONSTANT
PostedDate: 30-12-97 00:45:23
SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH
ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
$MessageStorage: 0
$UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH
RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH
RouteTimes: 30-12-97 00:42:59-30-12-97 00:43:00,30-12-97 00:42:24-30-12-97 00:42:25
DeliveredDate: 30-12-97 00:42:25
Categories:
$Revisions:

Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2
9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C125657C.0082463B; Tue, 30 Dec 1997 00:44:53 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA27503; Tue, 30 Dec 1997 00:45:23 +0100
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 00:45:23 +0100
Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA27507
Received: (qmail 17084 invoked from network); 29 Dec 1997 15:45:20 -0800
Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1)
by localhost with SMTP; 29 Dec 1997 15:45:20 -0800
Message-Id:
Errors-To: madole@mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu

>>Gary, Bob didn't mean "last" and "preserve" in a historical sense, he meant
>>it in a counting sense

Ah. Gotcha. That makes more sense that way.





>>If anything,
>>the West started with Pythagorean tuning, and progressed from there through
>>schismatic

Well, OK. I guess that gets down to the question of how far you want to
go back in your history before you call it a historical basis.
Analogously, I'm not *REALLY* 1/4 Swedish, 1/4 Finnish, 1/8 German (etc.)
because if you go back far enough, all humans are entirely of African
descent.

But anyway, I stopped at syntonic tunings because that's the first point
(in 14th-century England I think it was) where triads were first used as a
consonance, which is what we mostly accept to be true today.


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison)
Subject: Re: PLANCK CONSTANT
PostedDate: 30-12-97 04:01:40
SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH
ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
$MessageStorage: 0
$UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH
RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH
RouteTimes: 30-12-97 03:59:24-30-12-97 03:59:25,30-12-97 03:58:49-30-12-97 03:58:49
DeliveredDate: 30-12-97 03:58:49
Categories:
$Revisions:

Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2
9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C125657D.001068BC; Tue, 30 Dec 1997 04:01:10 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA27173; Tue, 30 Dec 1997 04:01:40 +0100
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 04:01:40 +0100
Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA27531
Received: (qmail 26479 invoked from network); 29 Dec 1997 19:01:37 -0800
Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1)
by localhost with SMTP; 29 Dec 1997 19:01:37 -0800
Message-Id:
Errors-To: madole@mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu

> But anyway, I stopped at syntonic tunings because that's the first point
>(in 14th-century England I think it was) where triads were first used as a
>consonance, which is what we mostly accept to be true today.

Well OK, maybe I slam-dunked my foot into my mouth there!

Again, I was only going back to early Renaissance times. If you go back
further than that, I must confess that I honestly have no idea if triads
were used in ancient greek music. I guess it's reasonable to suppose that
they were since Ptolemy suggested a tuning with 5:4 and 5:3 in it, but that
question is in none of my areas of expertise, I'm afraid.


SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: Kraig Grady
Subject: Re: TUNING digest 1283
PostedDate: 30-12-97 06:47:00
SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH
ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
$MessageStorage: 0
$UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH
RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH
RouteTimes: 30-12-97 06:44:36-30-12-97 06:44:37,30-12-97 06:44:00-30-12-97 06:44:01
DeliveredDate: 30-12-97 06:44:01
Categories:
$Revisions:

Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2
9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C125657D.001F8BB4; Tue, 30 Dec 1997 06:46:30 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA27613; Tue, 30 Dec 1997 06:47:00 +0100
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 06:47:00 +0100
Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA27572
Received: (qmail 8748 invoked from network); 29 Dec 1997 21:46:57 -0800
Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1)
by localhost with SMTP; 29 Dec 1997 21:46:57 -0800
Message-Id: <34A88A49.37F2@anaphoria.com>
Errors-To: madole@mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu