tuning Middle C; the octave

Message written at 20 May 1998 09:19:40 +0100
In-reply-to: <19980519.023058.15326.1.monz@juno.com> (Joseph L Monzo)
References: <19980519.023058.15326.1.monz@juno.com>

>>>>> "Joseph" == Joseph L Monzo writes:

Joseph> La Monte Young, who frequently writes droning electronic
Joseph> pieces which consist of one chord played continuously
Joseph> for hours, days, or weeks at a time, came up with a very
Joseph> reasonable solution:

Joseph> All electrical current in the USA flows thru the lines at
Joseph> 60 cycles per second, which produces the hum you
Joseph> hear in amplifiers, refrigerators, etc., and whose frequency
Joseph> happens to be (let me get my calculator...) 60 Hz.
Joseph> So Young tunes his 1/1 to 60 Hz and calculates all other
Joseph> ratios from that, thus sublimating the hum into his piece
Joseph> by masking it.

Joseph> (This 60 cycle hum is a 15/8 "major 7th" in my tuning.)

Does that mean that if his music were to be played in Europe that it
would need transposing down by 5/6? Just curious.

==John ffitch

Sethares' work deals with finding scales appropriate for inharmonic
timbres. As recently discussed on the list, brass timbres are harmonic.
Therefore, the usual tunings discussed here, i.e., just intonation,
meantone temperaments, various equal temperaments that approximate just
intonation, etc., are your candidates for the alternative tunings best
suited for brass timbres. I do think brass ensembles tend to adjust the
tuning of their chords towards just intonation even more than string or
vocal ensembles, since the dissonance of out-of-tune intervals is
intensified by the brass instruments' loud partials.