Re: Confucius, no, the lü, 12et, and pipes full of millet

Hi Paul,

On Wed, 12 Oct 2005, "wallyesterpaulrus" wrote:

> I'm not sure if this 'millet' is meant to be literal or not.

AFAIK, millet has been the staple grain of northern China for
most of its agrarian prehistory and well into the modern era.
It was one of the first domesticated grains, and has been
much more significant throughout the "Old World" than
either wheat or rice.

> What does the actual Barber/Barbour reference say?
> Meanwhile, Isaacoff gives a more direct specification
> for Chu Tsai-yu's proposal . . . off the top of my head,
> was it fifths of ratio 749/500?
... [snipt]
> > Partch refers to Barbour, Equal Temperament (and to Yasser). Footnote
> > 66 on page 381 in Partch's 15th chapter, History of Intonation:
> >
> > The prince intended his ratios of Equal Temperament for a set of l�,
> > in the ancient manner. He also determined the size of the fumdamental
> > l� in an ancient manner, as one that would hold 1200 grains of millet.
> > Barbour points out that this gives the Chinese another priority in
> > musical science, since each succeeding pipe - in theory - would hold
> > 100 fewer grains, thus anticipating Ellis' measure of cents. A
> > European constructed a set of pipes after Chu Tsai-y�'s directions
> > (which included computations for pipe "correction") and found them
> > "exactly in tune." Barber, /op. cit./, 143-145.
> >
> > There you have it. Maybe the pipes have to be conical or something.
> >
> > klaus

Regards,
Yahya

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