"Mood and mode"

The big difference between Greek modes and Well Temperaments is that the
Greek modes were in just intonation. Plato, if he is on the track that
lead to Ptolemy, conceptualized the modes in whole number ratios. One
would doubt that it was the other way around.

Since the Greek modes are named for different peoples before they are
developed into double octave, fully modulating, theoretical models...I
suspect that a short ascending or descending set of musical tones with
imprint a sensibility that is recognizeable by a listener after some
repitition and attention. Perhaps a particular musical interval created
an impression for a particular mode that share a semantic field with the
intonation of the dialect of Greek language spoken, or with some other
natural phenomenon.

Regarding the different moods of Well-temperament: even in 12-tone equal
temperament, contemporary pianists and other musicians sense moods. This
could be because of the programs of early music played, an over emphasis
of playing white keys over black keys on the instrument (changing the
timbre of the over played white keys in comparison), psychological
pigenonholing tendencies, having perfect pitch and basing a determination
on mood upon the pitch level in begins from, synesthesia, or merely
accepting an old argument for new materials.

Actual Well-temperament since Werckmeister III does have recognizeable
differences in keys when compared analytically. The further one goes in
the cycle of fiths, the more striking the differnences. Bach's student
JP Kirnberger wrote of areas, or "quadrants" that are sacrosanct to
modulation. Paraphasing, Kirnberger wrote in 1776 that to modulate from
one quadrant to another was to change such a dimension in the music as to
transform it.

Other Well-temperaments are less diverse in their
composition, lessening recognizeability by scale. Besides there was no
absolute pitch concerns about where to start regarding Herz. In certain
well-tempered keys one can well find 12-tone equal temeperament. In
others one can find more just and more tempered. All well-tempered
scales share a different distortion relationship between 5-limit just
intonation and a cycle of 12 perfect fifths.

Ivor Darreg's declaration about indivisible factors of the octave having
a "specific mood" goes beyond well-temperament, beyond scale.

Since the human biological ear cannot logarithmically bisect an octave
unaided (e.g. try it with a 7/4), we cannot "hear" even 5-tone equal
temperament, let alone 17-tone equal temperament - at first! As a
bassoonist, I am now quite comfortable in 5-ET, 7-ET, 19-ET, 31-ET, and
have played professionally in 34-ET, and others.

First I tell listeners who are analyzing: don't judge the tuning by the
style of the composer's composition. A different person will redirect
the materials in a completely fresh way, independendent of the materials
themselves. Secondly, a scale is a scaffold of tones extracted from the
music and they must be able to hear all or most of the tonal material to
get a "gist" of a tuning, and repeadedly or in isolation. Thirdly, since
we learn largely by rote (though intelectually marking them by numbers
helps), our human logic _does_ recognize the self-same similarity of like
intervals formed from the equally dividing an octave for reasons of music
making. There is a phsyical recognition of 13-tone equal temperament
that I gained from a Theme and Variations for Homemade Instruments by
Skip La Plante. Easly Blackwood's 15-TET would not only be transfigured
by a change in tuning pedigree, but Ivor Darreg's music was built to morph.

Johnny Reinhard
Director
American Festival of Microtonal Music
318 East 70th Street, Suite 5FW
New York, New York 10021 USA
(212)517-3550/fax (212) 517-5495
reinhard@styx.ios.com


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I guess there's a fine line between illustrating a point by a simplified
example, and choosing an example where the enormity of the oversimplification
distracts people from your point!

My point about moods is that the minutia are not as audible as their
cummulative effect. When people first study a tuning, they often crank out cent
errors in approximations to certain interesting harmonies. Then they'll pump
out a few example chords on their SoundBlaster boards or MIDI synths, sustained
for five to ten seconds. In that sort of laboratory environment, it's pretty
easy to pinpoint the exact sensation of 19's 7-cent flat major third or perfect
fifth, or its almost exact minor third and major sixth.

Those laboratory discoveries, however, become pretty hard to attribute much
meaning to when the chords go flying by in eighth notes at 120bpm, as they often
do in realistic music. It's pretty hard to tell a 7-cent-flat major third from
a 13-cent-sharp major third when that interval sounds for a grand total of a
half or quarter second, in among a forest of other notes, many nonharmonic.

But although it's pretty hard to zero in on the qualities of any one chord,
their cummulative effects are very clearly audible over the duration of a even a
short composition. What exactly the relationship between the mathematical
qualities of a tuning and its cummulative mood, is hard to say.

Can such a cummulative effect be consistent across a huge variety of
compositions? Yes, provided that you're listening for the right thing. Listen
for something more like the overall hue of the painter's varnish rather than the
colors of the paints at any point on the canvas. Listen for the position of the
TV's "tint" or "color" knobs rather than whether the image has reds or greens or
whites in it. Look for what turns titanium white into cream white, not the fact
that the color is white. It affects all of the other colors in the scene
similarly.


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