Re: [Shaku] Re: pitch - reply to Karl

From: Karl Young (kyoung@itsa.ucsf.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 10 2005 - 11:11:46 PST


Hi Phil,

Thanks for the tips on what to pay to attention to; I'm a huge Parch fan
(even tried to slog through "Genesis of A Music" many moons ago) so that
adds incentive toward reinvestigating. Agreed re. fiddling with micro
tones; my ear has gotten much better as a result of studying shakuhachi
(relative to what it was previously; no claims as to its absolute
abilities !)

> Karl Young wrote:
>
>>
>> some of the differences were easy to hear but others were
>> surprisingly hard for me to distinguish (it was a long time ago and I
>> now forget which was which but you've piqued my interest and I may go
>> back and investigate)
>
>
>
> You're right, Karl -- comparing the usual 5-limit just intervals with
> tempered is not so dramatic except for the natural third. But if you
> ever try your experiment again compare tempered with a typical 7 limit
> scale -- it can be amazingly different. That's what makes Harry
> Partch's music sound so alien at first and so comfortable and natural
> after a few minutes. Or listen to LaMonte Young's piano tuning, with
> lots of 7 ratios - very easy to hear the difference there, even though
> the number of cents deviation from tempered is not all that great. For
> me, the 7/4 seventh as a consonant interval was a big revelation to
> me, and I use it as a drone in a lot of my music.
>
> I think one of the values of shakuhachi is that it can help develop
> more precise pitch discrimination, since any pitch is possible and you
> have to adjust constantly, especially when going from one flute to
> another. Pitch discrimination, I believe, is something that can be
> learned. If you work with microtonal music, you start hearing
> microtonal intervals more vividly.
>
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-- 
Karl Young
University of California, SF          Phone:  (415) 221-4810 x3114  lab
VA Medical Center, MRS Unit (114M)            (415) 750-9463        home
4150 Clement Street                   FAX:    (415) 668-2864
San Francisco, CA 94121               Email:  kyoung at itsa ucsf edu

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