----- Original Message ----- From: <JStan40@AOL.COM> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Monday, October 23, 2000 6:58 PM Subject: HT Experience > Actually, ET has been so prevalent during this century, that it makes sense > to describe other temperaments in terms of "cents-off" from ET.....it's > easily understood what that means. There is a technical reason for giving "cents from ET". It happens that when every semitone is 100 cents from each other it is easier and more cogent to show variations from equality. The reason for using cents to begin with is that cents is a powerful mathmatical tool for figuring actual frequencies, beat rates, tensions, computer generated tones, digital measuring devices etc etc. Cents are a clever form of logarithms that allow intervals to be presented in additive quantities rather than in ratios which must be multiplied or divided, and gets into complicated messes of "powers of". Cents also show the divisions of the octave in the same units as the width of the intervals, as the division of the semitones and on down to the smallest microtone. Some may ask, "why not show the deviations from Just?" OK, what is Just? For the diatonic scale the Just ratios and consequently their conversions into cents are pretty straight forward. But when you have to figure what the accidentals are, you end up with more than 13 notes. Gb and F# for example are two different notes in Just Intonation. However cents differences from Just are often given, as in the pure 3rd being 13 cents flat from ET, or the ET 5th being 2 cents flat from the Just jor pure 5th. If the whole world wakes up tomorrow and demands to no longer hear music in ET, ET in the form of cents would still be the tool to give these these "new" (OK "other") tonalities they want to hear. Since all music now is played on instruments designed to or around ET, naturally this new tonality would have to be figured in "cents off" ET. This ET even though no longer a temperament would still be around as a tool since ET as the twelth root of 2, --2^(1/12)-- is the basis for cents. Cents is the base two log of a ratio (interval) times 1200. This I hope to explain in an article "Wrapping up Cents" which I hope leads to an article exploring the inharmonicity formulas but I need the help of a math person to do it. Anone? We now have a music professor, I wonder if there is a math professor lurking---ric > but most of us don't really give a flying _____ about ET, we just > play in tune. With a piano we adjust. If piano is only ONE of the >ensemble members, well, then.......the piano might sound a bit out of tune from >time to time by comparison. > ET is basically a compromise born of the desire of keyboard players and > composers to play in more than just a very few keys........but the character > of the intonation IN those few keys (and others) was given up in the process. > Do we miss it? Probably not, since many of us have never heard anything > else, at least that we were aware of. I still don't think it is accurate >to say that no one hears the difference. I do, and I appreciate that >difference. > > In any case, I think that certain devotees of HTs overstate the > case--hyperbole is not unusual among missionaries of ANY type--in saying that > HTs will become the norm. I believe that HTs will become more an accepted > part of the expressive arsenal for keyboard instruments. The whole situation > doesn't HAVE to go any further than that, after all. Just look at that set > of graphs that Ron Koval posted last week.........how far from ET are ANY of > the WTs, at least? Yes, there will be noticeable changes, I believe, but > will they be such that a violinist, flutist, oboist, etc., couldn't find ways > to be in tune? Come on, those guys are EXPERTS at figuring out how to be in > tune.....been doing it every day of their professional lives!!! (Susan? > Agreed?) > > One of the things that has made a difference in this whole discussion is the > existance of easily used ETDs.......whether one chooses to use them or not is > not really the issue here.....it is true that they have made the accurate > rendering of alternate temperaments more likely, after a few generations of > ET-only aural tuners. Good or bad? Neither, probably. How about > "different"? And not so VERY different, at that........but enough to be > heard, at least in my limited experience. > > Economic incentive? For whom? Tuners? (Answer, ETD.) Players? Some will > want to experiment....and I'd go with those betting that there will be more > of them, not fewer. Manufacturers? No, not unless there is clearly a move > in that direction by lots of musicians. Why spend money if you don't have > to? (Del rightly reminds us of that reality on a regular basis.) But that's > not an artistic decision, is it? Listeners? No, at least not the general > listening population. They are only interested in the music "sounding good," > whatever that may mean to them. For some it means never playing anything > beyond Brahms! So that's taste, which is pretty difficult to chart for any > economic trends! But there will be a few who will be intrigued by the > possibility of different sounds in keyboard music. Will this be large enough > for the recording industry to go into it? Probably not. Ed Foote may be > quite alone in providing for this area. But......... > > Mind you, I think you might very well be correct, in that the HT thing may > not go any further than it seems to be headed at the moment. But I don't > think that you can identify simple reasons for that, if it happens that way. > And I DO think that it is likely that more and more tuners will experiment > with temperaments, and more will be willing to tune in that manner. I think > that techs who DO offer choices are much appreciated by their own clienteles, > and isn't that immediately important to them? Many take great pains to > discuss this issue thoroughly with their customers before doing ANY alternate > tuning style, and in doing so are opening up whole other musical vistas for > people who might otherwise never know that alternatives existed. > > So.................if you want the intellectual waters muddied, you've come > to the right place. I'm your man, alway willing and able to obfuscate, > pretty much on the spot! Of course, I DO have this interest in the > subject...... > > Whaddaya think? Bounced that ball right back out into the middle of the > court! > > Stan Ryberg > Barrington IL
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