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Re: AFMM festival-Portugese Anonymous

🔗Afmmjr@aol.com

6/10/1999 6:03:09 AM

For Paul and others curious about the Carpenter article on the work recently
played by the AFMM, here it is.

"Besides the modern signs for sharp, flat, and natural that are used
throughout the manuscript, there are many notes preceded by the sign "x".
The "x's" can hardly be an alternate way indicating the normal sharp, since a
note with "x" sometimes immediately follows the same note with a sharp. It
seems highly probable that microtones are indicated by the "x".

"The following passage from Thomas Morley's "A Plaine and Easie Introduction
to Practicall Musicke" confirms this interpretation of "x".

"'Enharmonicum is that which riseth by diesis, (diesis is the half of
the less half note), and ditonus; but in our music I can give no example of
it because we have no half of a less 'semitonium..."

The AFMM quartet played the piece in JI with the "X's" placed in between the
set tones of JI. In other words, Cx comes after C and before C#.

Johnny Reinhard
AFMM

🔗monz@xxxx.xxx

6/10/1999 10:11:33 PM

[Johnny Reinhard, TD 213.1 re: Coimbra manuscript composition]

> The AFMM quartet played the piece in JI with the "X's" placed in
> between the set tones of JI. In other words, Cx comes after C
> and before C#.

So the 'X' treated mentally by the performers as the logarithmic
mean between the JI diatonic pitches, like this: ?

For example, if 1/1=A,

C# = 5/4 = ~386 cents
CX = SQRT([5/4]/[6/5]) = ~351 cents
C = 6/5 = ~316 cents

What key was the piece in?

Was Morley's 'less semitonium' the 24:25 ratio as I assumed above?

I'd like to construct a chart of the whole tuning for this piece.
It was one of my favorites on the concert.

Joseph L. Monzo monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
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