Subject: Bach's Chaconne: is it smooth yet?; JI Calc

> I've just posted what I think might be a very smooth retuning of
> Bach's Chaconne in D minor on my web site:

> http://www.idcomm.com/personal/jadl/

I had a chance this weekend to listen to these using a nice bright
harpsichord voice on my keyboard synth, and I think the five-limit
version is really gorgeous -- very rich harmonies with nothing at all
to offend my ear in the melodic movement. A real winner.

Only a couple of questionably tuned notes popped out at me (though
just barely noticeable because they're moving by pretty fast):

- Beat 154:4:469, an A-C tuned at 377.5 cents

- Beat 156:4:357, Eb-G-Bb-C# with the Eb-G at 420.1 cents (the Bb-C#
is a near-just 313.2 cents so perhaps that's what the program chose to
tune)

- Also beat 57:4:198, an A-C#-F where A-C# and F-A are just 387.7
cents leaving a wide C#-F at 424.7 cents. So I guess my ear wants to
hear 12-equal temperament at that point

The horizontal pitch relationships in the 7-limit version are still
too wild for me, although there are a number of points in the 5-limit
version where I'd love to hear septimal chord tunings. I may try
just dropping some 7's judiciously into the already horizontally
well-tuned 5-limit version and see whether that works for me (perhaps
mainly in block chords where the 7's won't play a prominent melodic
role).

Also an aside on the topic of tools for tuning experiments like "high
third": if you have access to a Mac, don't forget the Just Intonation
Calculator (4.5b) internal sound routines have 0.007 Hz precision, which
is about 0.03 cents at A440:

ftp://ella.mills.edu/ccm/tuning/software/mac/jicalc45b1.sea.hqx

--Ken