Fun with pun (??)

Could anyone please explain to me why using a pitch as a pivot for two
different harmonic chords is considered a "pun?"

Does the term apply to pitch frequencies that somehow manage to intersect
different simultaneous tuning systems??

Generally speaking, the term "pun" implies a kind of irony, at least in
language.

From Webster's: [Orig. unknown] "A play on words, occas. on different
senses of the same word and occas. on the similar sense or sound of
different words..."

Hummm... (??) Please help define.

Joseph Pehrson

Joseph Pehrson wrote,

>Could anyone please explain to me why using a pitch as a pivot for two
>different harmonic chords is considered a "pun?"

>Generally speaking, the term "pun" implies a kind of irony, at least in
>language.

Well, then, perhaps "homophone" would be a better word -- two different
meanings, one sound. For example, in the major scale the note "D" has two
different "meanings" in a JI sense -- it can be either a 6:5 below 4/3
(i.e., 10/9), or a 3:2 above 3/2 (i.e., 9/8).

Paul H. Erlich discourseth:
> Joseph Pehrson wrote,
>
> >Could anyone please explain to me why using a pitch as a pivot for two
> >different harmonic chords is considered a "pun?"
>
> Well, then, perhaps "homophone" would be a better word -- two different
> meanings, one sound.

Greek rhetorical theory distinguished between paronomasia and
antanaclasis..non-homophonic and homophonic puns respectively.

Considered as puns, I've always found paronomasia to have more bite
because of the `forced match' the mind is called upon to do.

However, I suspect that the true measure of a pun is in the `oy' of
the beholder.

E