[EMAIL PROTECTED] (SUZANNE MACDONALD) writes:
> Altering the intervals of "the most perfect instrument" to those of the
> "primitive and very imperfect" one makes no musical sense nor any other
> sense
Well, both these comments come from fiddlers so what do you expect? Of
course a fiddler would regard the bagpipes as a `primitive and very
imperfect' instrument -- just nine notes and so on. However a fiddle
isn't any good in, e.g., battlefield-scale psychological warfare, and
any piper would be forgiven if they considered a fiddle `primitive and
very imperfect' on that account.
> In summary a note whose pitch lies about half way between G and G# is
> not in the equal tempered scale, is not in the just intonation scale,
> and does not designate a tune as Scottish. It is simply out of
> tune.
It may be `out of tune' by your scientific definition but it may still
sound right to the musicians (and audience). I have Ken Perlman's book
on the fiddle music of Prince Edward Island, and his transcriptions show
many instances where particular players play their notes `too sharp' or
`too flat'. It's their style, and they've been doing it for ages in
blissful ignorance of Messrs. Lloyd, Honeyman or Gill. I suppose you
could walk up to a PEI fiddler and tell them that they're playing out of
tune but chances are you would just be laughed out of the kitchen to the
strains of vigorous out-of-tune fiddle music. And the same thing
probably applies to Scottish fiddlers. Flattening the G# may not be a
sure-fire indicator of `Scottish' styling but it is something that, for
various reasons, one shouldn't be surprised to encounter in the playing
of many Scottish instrumentalists, and if it does occur that usually
happens on purpose rather than through sloppiness.
> P.S. I, Alexander, am the writer of these e-mails, not Suzanne Mac
> Donald.
Well, if that is the case then maybe you should get your `From:' header
fixed.
Anselm
--
Anselm Lingnau .......................................... [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Anyway, a little bit of Unix mindset is good for any programmer's soul. And a
bit of education never hurt anyone. -- Tom Christiansen
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