Re: Apocalypse of the two (Blackjack) elephants

Hello, there, everyone, and while maintaining neutrality on the
Blackjack notation question, I'd like to clarify one point regarding
my views as the role of notes such as C and D in traditional European
notation, and also in my own practice.

As a reference point for clefs, and also for keyboard octaves, the
notes "above a semitone" in a diatonic scale, C and F, seem to serve
as favored choices. This can be seen in the C and F clefs of medieval
staff notation (with G coming into vogue later, in the Renaissance),
and also in the use of keyboard octaves described in terms of C-C, or
sometimes F-F.

However, as the "center" of a tuning, I would say that D might be more
characteristic.

Thus in a 12-note tuning of Eb-G# (Pythagorean or meantone, for
example), D is in the middle, since it has 5 fifths below and 6 fifths
above -- or as close to the middle as possible (along with A) in a
tuning with an odd number of fifths.

In a 17-note tuning of Gb-A#, we find that D has 8 fifths either below
or above it, so that it is squarely in the middle.

In a 24-note tuning, which I might write as Eb-G#/Eb^-G#^ in a
Pythagorean setting with two manuals a Pythagorean or 64:63 comma
apart (using ^ as a comma sign), or Eb-G#/Eb*-G#* in a meantone or
neo-Gothic eventone temperament (using * as a diesis sign), the system
is typically from my viewpoint two 12-note tunings, with D or D^/D* in
the middle of its respective chain.

These are the kinds of schemes I'm mostly accustomed to, with D at or
near the "center" of a chain.

Thus while I tend to make keyboard diagrams with C-C, or F-F, I also
tend to follow the convention of having D around the center of a
chain.

Of course, style plays a role in this: the medieval and Renaissance
styles which serve as a background for my music feature a variety of
diatonic modes, with modes often "mixed" in a given piece, and with a
range of accidental inflections.

With Blackjack, I'd say that musical experience might be the best
basis for "standards," and that historical conventions of the kind
I've discussed might or might be that relevant to such a choice of
standards.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter
mschulter@value.net