Re: Phrygian and JI

> Message: 8
> Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 23:20:53 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Judith Conrad <jconrad@sunspot.tiac.net>
> Subject: Re: Fw: 3d. tone and golden ratios
>

> The third tone is the third ecclesiastical mode, Phrygian authentic --
> white notes for one octave up from e, final e, dominant c.

Hello, there, and it's curious that "third tones" have prompted two
responses from me, one about 1/3- and 2/3-tones, and the other about your
interpretation of "the third tone," which seems to me also the more
probable.

Just today, to try out a JI tuning from Zarlino, I was playing a short and
beautiful motet by Lasso from his Pentential Psalms, _Ecce enim in
iniquitate_, which is in Phrygian at any rate, and I'd guess likely in the
Third Mode rather than the Fourth (where A, the confinal of that mode,
might get more emphasis) -- there's lot of emphasis on C and G, as
expected, and some very pleasant motions of the consonances guided by the
progression of major third to fifth, e.g.

G4 A4
D4 F4
B4 C4
G3 F3

The last couple of days have been my first experience with tertian JI, and
Zarlino's tuning gives lots of practice in moving between the manuals and
planning to make the "hand migrations" as smooth as possible. I'm using a
15-note version, with the keys differing on the two manuals being D, Bb,
and F#.

One dilemma of the tuning, which has the same range as standard Eb-G#
meantone, is the impossibility of getting the suspended sonority D-G-A,
e.g.

B4 A4 B4
G4 F#4 G4
D4 D4
D3 G2
4 -3

to have _both_ the fifth and the fourth pure. The problem, of course, is
that this tuning has only one version each of G and A, which have the
small whole-tone of 10:9. Unfortunately, we need a 9:8 whole-tone to
manage getting all three notes correct at the same time.

Does the omission of such a note from the tuning maybe mean the
Renaissance theorists regarded this suspension -- a dissonance, of course,
in a Renaissance as opposed to 13th-century or 20th-century setting where
D-G-A can be independently euphonious -- as a point where a bit of
tension from the Wolf fourth was acceptable? If so, this is a case where
the Wolf is permitted above the bass itself.

There are other dilemmas: is it appropriate, for the sake of simplifying
hand motion, to accept a Pythagorean major sixth at a momentary cadence
point when the same sonority includes an augmented fourth, for example?

Anyway, I've already learned well that D and G are the main "pivot points"
for shifting manuals; maybe playing in JI is a bit like solmization or
something.

All in all, I'm content with meantone, the usual 16th-century solution --
but those beatless concords are beguiling, and the fact Zarlino discusses
such a keyboard indicates that it is also a part of Renaissance
musical culture.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter
mschulter@value.net