comparing neurological responses of naive subjects to otherwise excellent performances differing in degree of consonance

Recent contributions here regarding psychological effects of musical
consonance have been most interesting and illuminating. I believe there are
both innate and learned factors which contribute to an individual's
inner response to differences in degree of consonance in music. An experiment
might be performed in which brain responses believed to be related to
emotional
experience were continuously monitored in naive subjects listening to music
of a kind which they generally liked, in which the degree of consonance of the
music (tuning system, harmonies used) was unobtrusively varied.
They would not be provoked into analyzing what they were hearing beyond
perhaps
thinking "that sounded really nice" etc. and not "those fifths set my teeth on
edge"
(people on this list most likely would be unsuitable for such testing). The
performance quality and timbres employed would need to be natural sounding and
of high quality. If the experiment were well designed and carried out and the
number of subjects was adequate, it probably could be determined whether
and to what degree and in what ways the dimension of consonance affected
neurological responses to music in which this parameter was varied.
Such testing, if it were carefully and intelligently done, might yield at
least
partial answers to questions which have been so heatedly debated for so long.

Dave Hill, La Mesa, CA

Adam Silverman had compiled a tuning dictionary with emphasis on JI for
the SEJIC (Southeast Just Intonation Center). He sent me a printout at
one point but I haven't heard anything since. I'm not sure if this is
available on the Web.

I would like to make a suggestion for the dictionary regarding the term
"limit". The term was coined by Harry Partch, whose use of it was not
entirely consistent. In certain contexts, he meant odd-limit, such as
when speaking about the 9-limit (obviously not a prime) and about
tonality diamonds. In other contexts, such as when speaking about tuning
systems, he meant the prime-limit. Most subsequent authors have adopted
the latter usage entirely, ignoring the utility of the former concept
for discussing consonance, etc. I simply suggest that the definition of
limit make this dichotomy clear so as to avoid further confusion.