Re: commas and cents

2003-12-26 Thread Jon Murphy
Nicely done Stewart, A well expressed analysis of a complex topic. > Tuning-boxes can be a great help, as long as we keep using our ears, > since they are a constant check on the accuracy of our tuning. They > will be less help in the long run, if we don't listen, and rely on > them to do all th

Re: commas and cents

2003-12-26 Thread Jon Murphy
Rainer, > > PS: If anyone asks you "why temperament ?", the shortest answer is "2 to the N th power = 3 to M th power has no >>non-trivial solutions for integer N and M" If nothing else that should leave the questioner in stunned silence while >>you make your escape. :-) > > Even a mathematical id

Re: commas and cents

2003-12-26 Thread Jon Murphy
Bob, and all, > A cent is 1/1200 of an octave (100 cents = 1 equal tempered semione). Most books on musical acoustics > quote a threshold of 4 cents for human pitch discrimination. I don't remember what the basis is or whether anyone > has tested to see if those who claim they can do better really

Commas and cents

2003-12-26 Thread RichardTomBeck
Dear Stewart, Just a short note to say that I found your explanation absolutely superb. I wonder if John Cage took account of all this in 4' 33" and decided that silence was the best way of avoiding the problem. Kindest regards Tom Beck --

Re: commas and cents

2003-12-26 Thread Rainer aus dem Spring
BobClair or EkkoJennings wrote: > > PS: If anyone asks you "why temperament ?", the shortest answer is "2 to the N th > power = 3 to M th power has no non-trivial solutions for integer N and M" If nothing > else that should leave the questioner in stunned silence while you make your escape. >

commas and cents

2003-12-26 Thread Stewart McCoy
> PS: If anyone asks you "why temperament ?", the shortest answer is "2 to the N th power = 3 to M th power has no non-trivial solutions for integer N and M" If nothing else that should leave the questioner in stunned silence while you make your escape. :-) Dear Bob, I know you're joking, but I'

commas and cents

2003-12-26 Thread BobClair or EkkoJennings
>My guitar teacher, Aldo Minella, has an absolute ear , and I remember he was >suffering when he heard something not in tune, and by this I mean less than >5 commas difference ( books say human ear can't tell the difference below >5 commas, but I also met other musicians who could tell it , and I

Dilemma of Horns

2003-12-26 Thread BobClair or EkkoJennings
Who, exactly, was playing on these CD's and how old is the recording ? In the course of the modern revival of older instruments brass playing was one of the slower things to come up to snuff (it is very hard). For amusement value dig up the very old (late 1960's - early 1970's ?) Concentus Music

Re: Lewd, not lute

2003-12-26 Thread Roman Turovsky
> Many thanks for your fascinating replies to my question. I had assumed, of=20 > course, that Mozart and Handel had a good ear, which was, in fact, the point= > of=20 > my question. How can anyone with a good ear listen to something so out of tu= > ne=20 > as those recordings? I guess the labels m

Lewd, not lute

2003-12-26 Thread RichardTomBeck
Dear all, Many thanks for your fascinating replies to my question. I had assumed, of=20 course, that Mozart and Handel had a good ear, which was, in fact, the point= of=20 my question. How can anyone with a good ear listen to something so out of tu= ne=20 as those recordings? What I hadn't consid

Re: Lewd, not lute music

2003-12-26 Thread Donatella Galletti
Well, there are people who can't sing or play on tune, and they do record, but this is not a good reason for buying their cds or think that the composer wrote with such a performance in mind. I have a recording of Mozart horn concertos which is beautiful and enjoable for the sound ( tuned) of the