Lucy's cave

Was: Re: [tuning] "hear or tune beyond commas." + note on Microtonal
notation.

On Sun, 15 Sep 2002 15:19:49 +0100, "Charles Lucy" <lucy@harmonics.com>
said:

> "hear or tune beyond commas." suggests that those who refuse to
> consider any intervals other that whole number ratios, are artificially
> restricting the possibilities.

Yes, anyone who refuses to consider certain possibilities is
restricting their possibilities; I agree.

Your analogy of the Cave suggests that Just Intonation is an imperfect
distorted one-dimensional shadow cast by the Ideal, and that if our
attention gets drawn towards JI, our attention gets drawn away from the
Truth.

You further suggest that Harrison and yourself are considering this
True Harmony, and you seem to suggest that its vibrations are not
locked rigidly into whole-number ratios, but have a different
"topology".

One thing I would be interested in knowing is what relationship you see
between binaural beats and this elusive True Harmony.

It seems possible that binaural beats represent an harmonic dimension
that is left closed off in JI. Is this what you're getting at? It's
hard to tell.

Other than this possibility, I have trouble seeing how tuning to the
harmonic overtone series represents a falsehood. Perhaps I am in need
of enlightenment; perhaps I am trapped in well-travelled tracks of
thought. At any rate, I'm interested, please elucidate.

-Jeremy

>
> This may be a suitable occasion to attempt to explain by an analogy.
>
> This concept comes from Book VII of Plato's Republic, and is my analogy
> (not John Harrison's)
>
> Imagine that you are holding a coiled spring between a light source and
> a wall.
> A shadow is cast on the wall by the spring.
> There are positions to which you can move the spring so that it will
> cast a shadow on the wall, which resembles a sine wave.
>
> You could measure the shadow, and map the topology of the shadow.
>
> or you could map the topology of the spring.
>
> I am suggesting that the advocates of whole number ratios, are mapping
> the "shadow"; whereas John 'Longitude' Harrison was mapping the
> "spring".
>
>
> Some people enjoy chasing shadows.
>
> Have fun!

--
http://fastmail.fm - Email service worth paying for. Try it for free