Obviously, we are all imprinted with the tuning system of the tuning=20
system used in our culture. When we hear a piece from another system,=20
we inclined to hear "our" system over it. It is common for Westerners=20
to hear chords under a melody that was not written at all with that in=20=
mind. In many ways, we do not hear the music in its fullest, we hear=20
what our ears have been trained to hear.
Yet, there are some aspects of tuning that show our Western tempered=20
tuning is not use in its fullest. For example, a good number of=20
orchestra musicians will admit that the worst instrument to play with=20
is the piano because it is tempered. When a half tone is attracted=20
towards a tonic of some sort, most musicians and opera singer will make=20=
it smaller than the tempered half tone, although listeners do not=20
necessarily realize.
When Western instrument plays with non Western ones, this forces these=20=
other instruments unfortunately to adjust their tuning to the Western=20
one, which does not always give good result. I have a CD of bellydance=20=
music in which all instruments are tuned according to the tempered=20
scale: it does not work.
Japanese music though appears to be more easily adaptable to the=20
Western tempered scale, specially the modern pieces. But when playing=20
typical honkyoku, I know that some musicians are serious about being=20
tuned according to the Western scale, which I think is unnecessary.
This were just some thoughts.
Bruno
Le 03-11-27, =E0 11:41, Karl Signell a =E9crit :
> At 11:39 PM 11/26/03 +0800, you wrote:
>
>> Equal temperament is a western invention.
>
> All pitch systems, including western just intonation, western violin=20=
> intonation, Javanese court gamelan,
> and Turkish classical makam, are arbitrary human inventions. Our=20
> brains are imprinted with the pitch system of the culture we are born=20=
> into when we are young, somewhat in the same way as is language. =20
> That's why it's hard work to break out of that imprinting. =20
> Concentration and immersion seem to work.
>
> Karl
>
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