Daniel Wolf's comments forwarded from metatuning@yahoogroups.com

--- In metatuning@y..., "Daniel James Wolf" <djwolf1@m...> wrote:

While the real or "virtual" pitch continuum and its harmonic
combinatorial possibilities are available to any musician, we do have
to deal with the prospect that the harmonic series, or a segment
thereof, appears to be built into the programming or organic
structure that evolution gave us for both music and language. Do we
ignore this? Does the presence of of simple harmonic subsets on an
otherwise complex surface constitute an orientation point or a kind
of psychoacoustic graffiti (like Schoenberg's forbidden octaves)?

[...]

I think we should proceed with more caution with the assumption that
gamelan instruments are tuned in a "non-octave" tuning. While some
instruments are tuned so that octaves will beat (and tuned in
stretched as well as narrowed octaves) there are plenty of examples
of _pleng_, where the interval has been tuned beatless, a 2:1
interval. It's a matter of the instrument tuner's and the patron's
taste, the qualities of the individual pieces of metal, and also, a
question of maintenance and laziness (bars, for example, are
generally cast too high in pitch, so must be ground down, often a
lazy tuner will just tune down enough to bring it into the
neighborhood of an octave...). In any case, the assumption in the
music itself, which could be thought of as simultaneous variation
upon a single, unplayed, melody in several octaves, is that pitches
separated by octaves, yes the pitch classes, belong to a single
perceptual class.

Daniel Wolf
Budapest
--- End forwarded message ---

--- In tuning@y..., "Paul Erlich" <paul@s...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_24431.html#24431

> --- In metatuning@y..., "Daniel James Wolf" <djwolf1@m...> wrote:
>
> While the real or "virtual" pitch continuum and its harmonic
> combinatorial possibilities are available to any musician, we do
have
> to deal with the prospect that the harmonic series, or a segment
> thereof, appears to be built into the programming or organic
> structure that evolution gave us for both music and language. Do
we
> ignore this? Does the presence of of simple harmonic subsets on an
> otherwise complex surface constitute an orientation point or a kind
> of psychoacoustic graffiti (like Schoenberg's forbidden octaves)?
>
> [...]
>

Wow... this is really such an interesting post, that I'm glad that
Paul Erlich forwarded it over here. That's the problem with so many
lists... some things are going to get lost in the "shuttle..."

Well, "psychoacoustic graffiti" is the way "classical modernists" of
the 50's and 60's would view it. I remember a concert of George
Perle's music at Merkin Hall, where one of the string players played
a major triad on the piano to "tune up" and the audience of mostly
composers laughed.

Well... the PERFORMER was still using it, so, essentially it was so
ingrained that it was no "laughing matter..."

________ ________ ______
Joseph Pehrson