Subject: Re: unison as an interval/modulation

Hi Ozan and all,

Alas, terms change their meaning over time. For example, the musical term
"modulation" meant a very different thing to Bach's famous student Johann
Philipp Kirnberger, who described it as the movement from one chord to another,
different chord. This is as recent as 1776.

As for unison as an interval, say a bassoon is playing a middle C, along with
a cello playing the same C.

It should be clear that they are not playing the same note. The one C does
not equal the other C. Pitch is more than just the fundamental frequency, and
each musical tone has a different emphasis of pitch frequencies. In this
sense their MUST be an interval between the two C's. It would be described as an
interval at the unison.

all best, Johnny

Johnny,

I'm glad you shared with us master Kirnberger's view on modulation, which agrees to a great extent with my definitions so far, save for his perceptual limitations in a homophonic/polyphonic Western world of music-making.

Actually, you CAN consider modulation to be the movement from one chord to another, were it that microtonal polyphony had been realized in other genres as much as in Western schools of music...

Still, no matter! Modulation requires no polyphony. Be it jumping from one chord to another or composing in a single melodic line, modulation comprises any of three possibilities:

1. You shift the tonic while preserving the inital mode,
2. You change the inital mode while preserving the tonic,
3. You both shift the tonic and change the initial mode.

Where chords require three or more tones of a mode in all cases, and chord changes do not even necessitate the temporal lenght of a measure.

Just play the `Sorcerer's Apprentice` by Paul Dukas and see what I mean:

http://www.8notes.com/scores/7300.asp?ftype=midi

Who would be daft enough to claim that there is no modulation when you play solo?

As for the nonsense of an interval of a unison, what has timbral differences or distorted hormonics got to do with unison?

In a tuning list discerning as little intervals as the satanic comma, all this blabber about the unison as an interval truly leaves me flabbergasted.

Cordially,
Ozan

----- Original Message -----
From: Afmmjr@aol.com
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 01 Mart 2006 Çarşamba 4:18
Subject: [tuning] Subject: Re: unison as an interval/modulation

Hi Ozan and all,

Alas, terms change their meaning over time. For example, the musical term "modulation" meant a very different thing to Bach's famous student Johann Philipp Kirnberger, who described it as the movement from one chord to another, different chord. This is as recent as 1776.

As for unison as an interval, say a bassoon is playing a middle C, along with a cello playing the same C.

It should be clear that they are not playing the same note. The one C does not equal the other C. Pitch is more than just the fundamental frequency, and each musical tone has a different emphasis of pitch frequencies. In this sense their MUST be an interval between the two C's. It would be described as an interval at the unison.

all best, Johnny