Re: Digest Number 42, Daniel Wolf

> Eduardo Sabat-Garibaldi wrote:
>
> >The word diatonic comes from Greeks and means "by tones". If we assume
> that "a tone" is both 9/8 or 256/243, working whith the rows of fifths, the FIRST
>
> TIME that it appears this -UNICS- interval for two contiguous notes is seven
> notes.
> The pentatonic scale has two m3, the hexatonic has only one m3, and the
> heptatonic has their elements (notes) separated to the contiguous by 9/8 or
> 256/243.
>

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> Since John Chalmers is away, I'll respond to this one.
>
> No, the Greek _tonos_ is only the (whole) tone. The diatonic genus is the
> one whose tetrachord has, as Chalmers puts it, a whole tone as a
> 'characteristic interval'. This whole tone ranges in size from ca. 10/9 to
> ca. 8/7.

Daniel Wolf,
It seems that neither the Greeks nor you assume the tone could be 256/243 . :- )
Tthis problem began for me more than 20 years. Mr Manuel Fernadez Spiro,
professor, composer, pianist, a gentelman, (in 1910, or so, he knew Claude Debussy
in Paris) taught me harmony.
He told me that the word "Diatonic" means "by tones", and I believe that's right,
but I'm not absolutely sure..
Just this morning I called by phone Ing. Julio Vales (Golden Medal Facultad de
Ingenieria) and I asked him about the etymological meaning of the word Diatonic. He
has an Antique Greek -- Spanish dictionary (nuestro lenguaje es Espanol) (Ed. 1988,
about 35.000 words) and told me that the word diatonic (or related) didn't appear.
But "dia" means, a traves, separada, en dos partes, en pedazos that translated
means through, separated, in two parts, in fragments.
I suppose that several of these meanings may correspond to "by".
As this is my point of departure I ask you Daniel Wolf, would you tell me what do
you think about ?

Eduardo

Diatonic does translate as 'by' or 'through' or 'by means of tones'.
Dividing the tetrachord by successive tones -- of whatever exact size --
will leave a remainder of -- some kind of -- a semitone. That remainder
will never be a tone.

In your example, the ditone diatonic, successive 9/8 tones leave a semitone
remainder of 256/243.

Part of the usage trouble with the term 'tone' has to do with the fact that
it is used as 'interval' in some contexts and 'pitch' in others. Yes, on
each division of the tetrachord is found a tone=pitch, but no, these
tones=pitches are not always a tone=interval away from one another.

Hi,

Are you the Daniel Wolf who has made classical guitar arrangements?

Wm. David Jennings

Daniel Wolf wrote:

> From: Daniel Wolf <DJWOLF_MATERIAL@compuserve.com>
>
> Diatonic does translate as 'by' or 'through' or 'by means of tones'.
> Dividing the tetrachord by successive tones -- of whatever exact size --
> will leave a remainder of -- some kind of -- a semitone. That remainder
> will never be a tone.
>
> In your example, the ditone diatonic, successive 9/8 tones leave a semitone
> remainder of 256/243.
>
> Part of the usage trouble with the term 'tone' has to do with the fact that
> it is used as 'interval' in some contexts and 'pitch' in others. Yes, on
> each division of the tetrachord is found a tone=pitch, but no, these
> tones=pitches are not always a tone=interval away from one another.
>
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Message text written by INTERNET:tuning@onelist.com
>From: William Jennings <journey@texas.net>
Hi,
Are you the Daniel Wolf who has made classical guitar arrangements?
Wm. David Jennings
<

No, and whoever he is ought to use a different version of his name as a
Daniel Wolf (songwriter from the 40s) is already registered at ASCAP. I am
a member of GEMA as Daniel James Wolf and I don't do guitar arrangements.