Yes, pipes sound best when the intervals between the drones and the chanter are as close to acoustically pure as possible. I am mainly a string player and believe that the viol and violin families also sound best when the intervals are pure. Sadly, so much "classical" music education is centred on the piano (the ubiquitous accompaniment) that even many very skilled violinists etc. veer towards equal temperament, which to my ears makes the thirds in particular sound horrible. And there is the notorious chord - open G, first finger E-b, open e - which is impossible to make sound in tune unless you flatten the first finger for the E and sharpen it for the b. The larger-than-pure fifth is not sounded as such (or only fleetingly) so the discrepancy is negligible compared with the excessively wide major sixth and perfect fourth that you would get with a pure and constant E-b.
Spose I'm a bit off topic here. chirs >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 7:18 PM >To: [email protected] >Subject: [NSP] An ear for drone music > > > I've observed that pipers (NSP, BP, GHP, whatever) who come from a > classical background have a "blind spot" in their hearing >when it comes > to drone music. I don't know if my observation is correct, and > recognize its potential for appearing inflammatory or >prejudicial. I > certainly don't mean offense. I do think that growing up playing a > drone instrument does allow the piper to hear certain >subtleties that > someone who grew up with a tempered scale and classical or even Rock > and Roll chordal progressions might not be able to hear. >People with > years of music theory and academic expertise in music have tried to > convince me that such and such doesn't work, or that my >pipes are "out > of tune". I spent a lot of time and energy trying to correct the > problem, because we all know musicians with lots of schooling and > degrees know more than I do, a mere piper. But my gut and >my ear tell > me, they just don't hear the harmonics or the matching of >the "out of > tune" notes with the drones. It could be that I simply >like the play > between the wah-wah and the perfectly synched that is part >and parcel > of drone music, and they don't. > What are your considered thoughts on the matter, please, my esteemed > colleagues? > John -- > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
