Hi Keith, just a couple of points:
KH
No, that is not my understanding. The 12 pitch
was predominating by about
Bach's time, but there had been many other 5, 6, 7 and 8 pitch (white key
only) systems around in Europe. But, true, Bach inherited, rather than
invented, the 12-pitch scale. The point is, though, that the keyboard
instruments and/or the instruments had to be re-tuned every time music was
played in different keys. Bach's great contribution was to show that it was
possible to establish a 12-pitch scale (in which every pitch was a close,
but 'unnatural', compromise) which was acceptable enough for it to play in
all the different keys without re-tuning -- and thus be able to accompany
all the different fixed-scale instruments.
Bach's time, but there had been many other 5, 6, 7 and 8 pitch (white key
only) systems around in Europe. But, true, Bach inherited, rather than
invented, the 12-pitch scale. The point is, though, that the keyboard
instruments and/or the instruments had to be re-tuned every time music was
played in different keys. Bach's great contribution was to show that it was
possible to establish a 12-pitch scale (in which every pitch was a close,
but 'unnatural', compromise) which was acceptable enough for it to play in
all the different keys without re-tuning -- and thus be able to accompany
all the different fixed-scale instruments.
There has always been a twelve note scale just as
there are others and there have always been instruments like the Balkan
woodwinds that play those particular scales. The Fitzwilliam
Virginal book is for a twelve tone Keyboard and it was two hundred years before
Bach. I didn't miss your point about tuning and transposition
but you did miss mine. The non-Tempered Tuning is "in Tune" with on
out of tune fifth. That means that orchestral and instrumental
timbre is stronger since the root of diminishing sound is the crossing of sound
waves that eliminate each other. Sort of an acoustical star
wars. They use the same principle to create "White Noise" in
factories that eliminates loud sounds. When we hear
brass played today on original instruments it is hard for them to hold a
tempered tuning which is in the ears of modern players so they tend to play out
of tune. However if they play with a true tuning they get greater
strength and resonance and instrumental and vocal textures show a sound of
unique strength and surprising beauty. True they can't
transpose but you lose something with everything you do.
(REH)
<<<<
You should have run that article I wrote off and studied it since it has to
do with your business. What kind of furniture salesman wouldn't know
about joints?
>>>>
<<<<
You should have run that article I wrote off and studied it since it has to
do with your business. What kind of furniture salesman wouldn't know
about joints?
>>>>
You may be interested in the sources informing
what I wrote:
"Essays on Music Theory: Pitch Tuning, and the Physics of Musical Tone",
Gilbert Hock van Dijke, Rotterdam 1997
"Essays on Music Theory: Pitch Tuning, and the Physics of Musical Tone",
Gilbert Hock van Dijke, Rotterdam 1997
"Pythagorean Tuning and Medieval Polyphony" by
Margo Schulter, June 1998
(maschulter @value.net)
(maschulter @value.net)
I'll look them up but I have discovered in my forty
three years of practical work that much of history doesn't make practical sense
and I tend to attribute it to "winging it" when they don't have the
data. You really don't know how they tuned unless you can play the
instruments and recreate it yourself. The problem of resonance in
singers with full orchestras tends to make many of the stories simply
academic. Also the vocalise books are often ignored by these folks
in favor of looking at technology. People die
Instruments just get left alone. But I won't judge these books
until I read them. One last point. A few years ago
I was making a video for teaching music history to children. The
only problem was that the music history was so ethnocentric that it was beyond
inaccurate and bordered on racism. We must never forget that the
beginning projections often arise not out of practice but out of intrinsic
metaphorical models that are not practical for explaining the
problem. Empiricism in this instance is a blessed
cure.
Good to talk, must now go to sleep.
REH
