RE: TUNING digest 773

Perhaps the most interesting of the TUNING digests I have seen! (~100 of
them).

On Henk Badings and Nazism, we can get all the Wagner CDs we want, and
rightly so. I would hesitate to censor a Nazi's speeches, let alone his
music. Every time I walk into a record store, I go directly to the section
after Bach, only to find Baden followed by Baermann. The few selections of
Badings I have heard have been breathtaking, and I haven't even heard his
microtonal work. It would be a true loss to humanity if Badings' music were
to disappear into the shadows of history, but it seems as if it already has.
Any information on how to obtain LPs or cassettes of his music would be much
appreciated!

The question of tuning a harmonica is a truly interesting one. Although
meantone is the best possible tuning to get all six consonant triads in a
diatonic scale, only three of these triads are possible on the diatonic
harmonica (CEG, DFA, and GDB -- I believe there is a draw G in the lower
register, isn't there?). So the intervals AC and EB do not need to be tuned
precisely. If the presence of two different-sized whole tones is not
disturbing to you, you can try 1/1 9/8 5/4 27/20 3/2 27/16 15/8 1/1. More
radically, if you allow the draw G to be different from the blow G, you
might want to try 1/1 10/9 5/4 4/3 (3/2 or 40/27) 5/3 50/27 2/1, where 3/2
is the blow G and 40/27 is the draw G. The chromatic harmonica, as described
by Pat, is a different beast, I'll have to think about it. It seems less
restrictive in that G does not have to be in tune with D or B. But the
problem of getting the dominant seventh chord to sound just without
destroying the usual intervals seems futile. Equal temperament (of the 12
variety) is a pretty good compromise here.

Which leads me to Harold Fortuin's post. While the 31-note scale has both
beautiful diatonic scales and 4/5/6/7 chords, unfortunately the latter are
not included in the former. The 4/5/6/7 chord appears as a German sixth
(such as A-flat C E-flat F#) in the meantone interpretation of 31tet, and
the minor version of this chord could be expressed as A-flat B D F#. These
could fit into traditional harmony quite well, and their pure tuning would
allow one to "sit" on them or resolve to them with auxilliary progressions
before allowing them to perform their traditional function: A-flat and F#
each resolve by a diatonic semitone to a G. The 11-limit intervals are quite
good but do not show up in traditional harmonic formulae; incorporating them
into traditional harmony would be a challenge, but certainly one of the most
worthy challenges in music today.

Harold, I can tell you far more about the 22-tone scale, based on research I
have done (soon to be published). Here 7-limit chords become the basic
consonances and triads are incomplete. There are other similarities with
jazz as well. I offer to send you a copy of my paper and other material in
exchange for recordings of your music, both past and future. I will e-mail
you to see if you agree to this offer. Other references would include
Yasser's _Theory of Evolving Tonality_ and van Eck's _J. S. Bach's Critique
of Pure Music_. Yasser shouldn't be taken too seriously, but my imagination
was sparked more by this book than any other. van Eck incorporates more
modern psychoacoustics than any of your references, and certainly deals with
"traditional" harmony, though microtones are not really dealt with. In any
case, good luck to you, I think your approach is among the most likely to
meet with success in the future of music.

Thanks to all for the suggestions of xenharmonic vocal compositions. I am
definitely going to check some of these out.


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