Matthieu's _The Harmonic Experience_

I spend some time looking at this monumental book yesterday, and it is
quite good. I feel certain that the majority of list members will find
that it strikes many chords with thier own musical understanding, in a
way that has never been succesfully verbalized before. There seems to be
a big hole, namely meantone temperament. But for the most part, the book
is beautiful and honest. The author believes, as I do, that under normal
musical conditions the ear does not recognize harmonic relationships
based on partials beyond the 13th.

On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, Paul H. Erlich wrote:
> }Schoenberg . . . completely recognized the overtone series as the basis
> }for 12ET.
> Are you aware of the extreme inconsistencies in this position that
> Partch pointed out?
> }Partch did Schoenberg one better by explaining the minor
> }through an undertone series.
> The "undertone" explantion of minor dates back long before Schoenberg.
> But Partch scoffed at any reference to "undertones" or the like, calling
> them "hallucinations" or worse.

Where does he say this? I am more familiar with his use of what he called
"Utonality" - which was intervals formed from inversions of "Otonality"
ie. Otonal intervals were derived from the overtone series, while Utonal
intervals were derived from the Undertone series.

(Just re-read Genesis a couple of months ago)>

Joe Downing,
in Syracuse