RE: [tuning] re: Replies to Banshphu

>>Absolutely -- the immediate reaction of most Western musicians, after 150
>>years of 12-tET hegemony, to triads with just thirds is usually that they
>>sound "dead" or "lifeless".

>Paul- what is your source on this?

Lots of reading and anecdotal experience (testing other musicians and
myself). I'm specifically thinking keyboard instruments using timbres with
harmonic partials here.

Actually, when the 5/4 major thirds enter into Europe from England (through
John Dunstable -- Dunstaple) and Dutch speakers (c.a. 1420), it was perceived
as dull.

The English third, the dolce or "sweet" third, was also the "dull" third
(because it didn't beat). When it entered the final "chord" for a Picardy
"major" quality, it was not seen as a modulation (the way some teachers of
mine had unfortunately suggested). It is merely the emphasis of the tonic,
which already has its perfect fifth. Sometimes the 386 cent interval is only
a fifth harmonic, and not a third at all.

Appreciating something by itself, unrelated to anything else, is a difficult
thing to accomplish, and yet, this may be the only way to properly determine
any inherent powers for a particular interval, or chord. Maybe it's only
possible in a speculative sense.

Johnny Reinhard