Re: [tuning] Digest Number 1881

On 2/9/02 11:25 AM, "tuning@yahoogroups.com" <tuning@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

> Message: 8
> Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 10:50:49 EST
> From: Afmmjr@aol.com
> Subject: Re: Naming intervals - size matters
>
> In a message dated 2/8/02 9:59:11 PM Eastern Standard Time, joemonz@yahoo.com
> writes:
>
>
>> but these musicians will never have to deal with a 400-cent
>> interval in blackjack! the only intervals near it that they
>> will ever get are 350, 383&1/3, and 433&2/3 cents!
>>
>>
>>
>
> Joe, will these musicians ONLY play Blackjack? Would you have musicians
> that know only one new tuning? If you want many musicians that can play in
> many systems, then you need to keep the 400 cents as an anchor for the mind.
> Instead of thinking with a bias either for or against conventional tuning,
> try this: music is NEVER exactly played in 12-tET since expressivity is
> added which means that notes have direction.
>
> Thinking in 1200 is not thinking in 12. Playing a just third as -14 cents to
> a standard will give every bit of 5/4. If individuals insist on changing the
> rules for mapping microtonal intervals to the mind there will be more
> provincialism if there are performances at all. I have available thousands
> of musicians that can understand pitch deviations from a standard. New
> notation, as entertaining as Gardner Read's book may be, will not aid in
> performances, as easily as it can hinder.
>
> Best, Johnny Reinhard

Johnny, your comment resonated with my own concern regarding this topic. In
my experience, sensitive group singers move pitches constantly while seeking
"best" tuning. Sometimes this "flexible" tuning agrees (apparently) with JI
and sometimes not. Soloists, on the other hand frequently "bend" pitches
from a standard (as you state) in an expressive manner (described by Pablo
Casals and others).

As I implied in an earlier post, notational devices to suggest artistic
pitch deviations might make a considerable contribution toward more
expressive performances. At minimum, it would alert the performing public
that there are more than 12 pitches available to them. Whether specific
*amounts* of deviation can be (or should be) successfully communicated
remains to be seen.

Gerald Eskelin

In a message dated 2/9/02 6:12:44 PM Eastern Standard Time,
stg3music@earthlink.net writes:

> Whether specific
> *amounts* of deviation can be (or should be) successfully communicated
> remains to be seen.
>
>

Gerald, at least with instruments, "specific" amounts of deviation have been
seen many, many times over. As a vocalist, it sure makes a differenece to me
personally.

Best, Johnny Reinhard