Modulation vs. pure/ hook, line, & sinker/ baloney

[Grady:]
> Temperments are only appealing if one has access to
> them freely and can discard them at will. It is their
> use over a period of time that one tires of them
> ( at least me). If you had to make acoustic instruments
> you use of them would probably shrink. 53 for 5 limit
> music or 72 for more I would consider to use if I had
> to use one. I started with 31 and after a few
> years I just couldn't stand having a good 9/8

Didn't you mean "*not* having a good 9/8" there?

Kraig, you don't have to argue the merits of JI
with me - that's my overall orientation too.

I agree that constructing acoustic instruments for
many-degreed richly-modulating ETs is a daunting
task - that's why I've never done it!. I'm all for
using digital technology to acheive proper tuning.

But by proper, I don't necessarily mean small-integer
JI. If that's the kind of music you *want* to make,
hey, go for it. I like writing small-integer JI stuff
too. And I liked the five points you made about why
JI composers use JI.

But my point (and Stearns too, I think - hard to
tell thru all the "baloney") was that some of
us *dont't want* to limit ourselves to composing
within that (or any other) particular intonational
limitation.

As Partch said (I'm paraphrasing): "to be chained by
self-imposed limitations is a legitimate exercise
of one's personal freedom, but to be chained by
limitations imposed from outside is a horse of another
color". Partch was using that as an argument against
the hegemony of 12-Eq, but it certainly applies in
the other direction too.

I will always prefer to write and think in JI,
because it gives me a richness of numerical
possibility that's totally lacking from *any*
reasonably-sized ET. But I still write in ETs
if I'm inspired and that's the instrument I happen
to have around.

Equal temperament provides a way of thinking about
pitch-division that's entirely different from JI.
Then there are other, more unusual tunings too,
like meantone, well-temperament, Carlos scales,
13th root of pi, etc. etc. etc.

Each one has its own unique contribution to make
to music.

- Monzo

|\=/|.-"""-. Joseph L. Monzo...................monz@juno.com
/6 6\ \ http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
=\_Y_/= (_ ;\ c/o Sonic Arts, PO Box 620027, San Diego, CA, USA
_U//_/-/__/// | "...I broke thru the lattice barrier..." |
/monz\ ((jgs; | - Erv Wilson |

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