Microtemperaments and acoustics

From my own time learning acoustics at university, a lot of pitch
discrimination is dependent upon:

1. duration of the tones
2. simultaneous or successive relationship
3. frequency of the fundamental, or put another way, the position in the
auditory range that the tones occur in, high or low.
4. timbre of the tones.
5. reverberation of the acoustic space
and the list goes on...

So, there isn't a 'best temperament'. It is interesting that some composers
(George Benjamin, James Wood) have asked me personally as to why they don't
put micro-intervals in the bass. The reason is that pitch perception
granularity is large in the bass of our hearing range, so micro intervals
are less preceivable.

Not all music is written between 1-4Khz...

> From: tuning@yahoogroups.com
> Reply-To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
> Date: 13 Jun 2002 23:22:59 -0000
> To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [tuning] Digest Number 2100
>
>
>> So I would like to suggest that we have much bigger fires to fight
>> than squabbling over errors under two cents.
>
> Errors under two cents are continually at issue on tuning-math, because an
> important consideration is what cutoff we should give in the search for
> temperaments. If people want microtemperaments, they are out there.

Hello Mark!
This has been more common than not. One has only to observe that Partch used only 4 of his
pitches in his bottom range. When i used the 22 tone Pascal Eikosany i selected 9 to tune up. It
seems though if one had the choice one would like to have more notes but still i think the
tendency would be to use larger leaps and such in ones lower lines.
Whereas in the upper range one might expect the same tendency. but since the difference tones in
this case so often fall in our best hearing range, our pitch discrimination is cued in ways unlike
in the bass.

Mark Gould wrote:

> It is interesting that some composers
> (George Benjamin, James Wood) have asked me personally as to why they don't
> put micro-intervals in the bass. The reason is that pitch perception
> granularity is large in the bass of our hearing range, so micro intervals
> are less preceivable.
>
> Not all music is written between 1-4Khz...
>
>

-- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
http://www.anaphoria.com

The Wandering Medicine Show
Wed. 8-9 KXLU 88.9 fm

In a message dated 6/14/02 1:32:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
mark.gould@argonet.co.uk writes:

> So, there isn't a 'best temperament'. It is interesting that some composers
> (George Benjamin, James Wood) have asked me personally as to why they don't
> put micro-intervals in the bass. The reason is that pitch perception
> granularity is large in the bass of our hearing range, so micro intervals
> are less preceivable.
>
> Not all music is written between 1-4Khz...
>
>

These are good points. I'd like to make just a comment or so. 1-4 Khz is
reputed to kill as it affects the central nervous system. There are rumors
of deaths out in Nevada due to these low pitches that were not heard
consciously. Anybody know about this?

Also, George Benjamin told me when I first visited with him in London that a
single quartertone on the first page of a composition would bake the piece
chic in England...but not too many more! Later, we met up at IRCOM where
George generously invited me to hear his latest piece which was in honor of
an anniversary of IRCOM. Here there were sampled Bolivian panpipes that had
been put in eighthtones. I was happy to hear this, remembering his 2 synths
a quartertone apart in his apartment.

James Wood only uses quartertones. I would suggest that the AFMM is a 21
year laboratory of every kind of microtonal activity and there wilder things
out there, Horatio, than has yet been imagined.

best, Johnny Reinhard

1-4 KHz is quite high, not low. 1 KHz = 1,000 Hz. Two octaves above a
256 Hz middle C is 1,024 Hz, just barely above 1 KHz, and out of
range for most amateur sopranos. I took the statement that not all
music is written between 1-4 Khz as referring to the composition for
the bass part as well below this. It is a strange statement,
nonetheless, since practically all music is written for fundamentals
well below 1 KHz.

--- In tuning@y..., Afmmjr@a... wrote:
> In a message dated 6/14/02 1:32:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> mark.gould@a... writes:
>
>
> > So, there isn't a 'best temperament'. It is interesting that some
composers
> > (George Benjamin, James Wood) have asked me personally as to why
they don't
> > put micro-intervals in the bass. The reason is that pitch
perception
> > granularity is large in the bass of our hearing range, so micro
intervals
> > are less preceivable.
> >
> > Not all music is written between 1-4Khz...
> >
> >
>
> These are good points. I'd like to make just a comment or so. 1-4
Khz is
> reputed to kill as it affects the central nervous system. There
are rumors
> of deaths out in Nevada due to these low pitches that were not
heard
> consciously. Anybody know about this?
>
> Also, George Benjamin told me when I first visited with him in
London that a
> single quartertone on the first page of a composition would bake
the piece
> chic in England...but not too many more! Later, we met up at IRCOM
where
> George generously invited me to hear his latest piece which was in
honor of
> an anniversary of IRCOM. Here there were sampled Bolivian panpipes
that had
> been put in eighthtones. I was happy to hear this, remembering his
2 synths
> a quartertone apart in his apartment.
>
> James Wood only uses quartertones. I would suggest that the AFMM
is a 21
> year laboratory of every kind of microtonal activity and there
wilder things
> out there, Horatio, than has yet been imagined.
>
> best, Johnny Reinhard

--- In tuning@y..., "robert_wendell" <rwendell@c...> wrote:
> 1-4 KHz is quite high, not low. 1 KHz = 1,000 Hz. Two octaves above
a
> 256 Hz middle C is 1,024 Hz, just barely above 1 KHz, and out of
> range for most amateur sopranos. I took the statement that not all
> music is written between 1-4 Khz as referring to the composition
for
> the bass part as well below this. It is a strange statement,
> nonetheless, since practically all music is written for
fundamentals
> well below 1 KHz.

i think the statement relates to the fact that humans show the best
pitch acuity in the 1-4 Khz range, in laboratory experiments with
sine waves, as jay williams implied.