Jack Campin wrote - >As others have pointed out, the description of a tune purely by key >signature isn't complete unless you are using equal temperament; you >don't know the exact pitches of the notes unless you know the mode.
As I have pointed out, the mode is in the tune and may vary as it goes along. I had always understood that the exact pitch of a note depended on its relationship to other notes and its context within the tune. It is a matter of performance and artistic judgement not simply the result of running a computer algorithm and, as others have pointed out, deviations from even temperament by traditional players do not necessarily follow obvious rules. That is why human performance will always surpass computers. While playing with just temperament might be an interesting programming exercise I hardly think it is a good reason to limit the development of abc. I don't want to go over the rest of his post in detail except to say that it is centred on the academic establishment view of traditional music and has little to do with the real people who left us this heritage. (I'm glad to discover that he doesn't think that ALL classically trained musicians are contemptible.) >See Lloyd's preface to the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs OK, not being a singer I missed that one. None of the EFDSS tune collections I have mention modes. Laurie Griffiths wrote - >That of course is stretching the phrase "knowing anything about" to breaking >point. They knew the scales and they knew how to harmonise them. They just >didn't know the Greek names. Shakespeare's Theorem applies: "A mode by any >other name will sound as sweet." Precisely the point I am making. They got all the information they needed from the notes of the tune. They could manage perfectly well without being told the Greek name for it. To force their music into the Renaissance modal system runs the risk of misrepresenting them just as much as forcing it into the major/minor system. I can easily imagine some academic saying "That's obviously meant to be Lydian but they've got it wrong." The notes they actually sang or played (if we have them) are the only certain truth. Bryan Creer To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
