Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2010 19:35:13 GMT
Many moons ago (well OK, last May) bod raised the question of "blue-note" traditions other than the blues, and I answered by citing 'natural harmony' by which I actually meant what is more correctly referred to as just intonation. The old thread is here:
michaelmesser.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=talkingblues&thread=2185&page=1
Anyhoo, this thread hadn't stuck in my mind or anything like that until I was suddenly reminded of it by the book "How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care)" by American academic Ross W. Duffin www.amazon.co.uk/How-Equal-Temperament-Ruined-Harmony/dp/0393334201/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277709233&sr=8-1
The book essentially charts the history of western classical music's move away from just intonation to the various tempered systems which persisted until the 'triumph' of equal temperament in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. The author's argument is that equal temperament was not better but simply easier to teach than it's rivals, and that classical musicians should at least consider using the historical temperaments that pieces were actually written in. I would say, however, that it can be of interest to all musicians, as all modern music is either played in or influenced by equal temperament, and understanding where it comes from can only help us.
If this stuff is new to you, allow me to summarize. ALL MUSIC IN HUMAN HISTORY (until the last few hundred years, and even then only in Europe at first and even there only in certain kinds of music, i.e. not folk) is based on notes which relate to each other in simple mathematical ways. So an octave (c-c) is 2:1, a 'Perfect' fifth (c-g) is 3:2, a major third (c-e) is 5:4 and so forth. (The notes in brackets are actually only approximations, for reasons which will hopefully become clear). These simple ratios form the basis of what is now termed just intonation. It is a wonderful system for playing melodies, or melodies over a drone, but it has a fundamental problem with complex harmony. This is because notes do not 'match up'. If you start at C and keep adding a mathematically pure fifth, you do not end up at a higher C but some way short. This is why most music humans have made and listened to for most of our history was not harmonically complex: it couldn't be, it would sound terrible! In vocal music it is possible to avoid the problem by constantly 're-tuning', which is why polyphony was first realised in vocal music. Some instruments can also do this to a certain extent, though this kind of depends on what instruments are being combined. Keyboard instruments cannot. So in order to play harmonically complex music, composers, instrument manufacturers and musicians began exploring 'temperaments', essentially playing some of the notes a little out of tune just to the right extent that they would sound in-tune even when moving between chords, keys and so forth. Equal temperament eventually became the most successful, and it is this tuning system that we have all learned. The most important characteristic of equal temperament is that ALL KEYS ARE EQUALLY OUT OF TUNE, and that ALL THIRDS ARE VERY OUT OF TUNE.
phew that was a long run, and you're probably wondering what the hell I'm on about! Well, the point is this. We are slide players, we can play any note we want, in or out of tune. And if you understand the biases inherent in equal temperament, you can correct against it without doing a great deal. ALL MAJOR THIRDS ARE SHARP, AND ALL MINOR THIRDS ARE FLAT. So just try playing the former very slightly lower, and the latter very slightly higher. And the reason all this reminded me of the original thread is that the "blue-notes" that guitarists use most of the time lie between the minor and major third of equal temperament. These odd notes we throw in are not 'out of tune'. On the contrary they are much closer to being in tune than if we rigidly stuck to our frets!
Anyway, I've rambled on for more than long enough now....
Wake up you at the back, it's over
take it easy
LR
michaelmesser.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=talkingblues&thread=2185&page=1
Anyhoo, this thread hadn't stuck in my mind or anything like that until I was suddenly reminded of it by the book "How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care)" by American academic Ross W. Duffin www.amazon.co.uk/How-Equal-Temperament-Ruined-Harmony/dp/0393334201/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277709233&sr=8-1
The book essentially charts the history of western classical music's move away from just intonation to the various tempered systems which persisted until the 'triumph' of equal temperament in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. The author's argument is that equal temperament was not better but simply easier to teach than it's rivals, and that classical musicians should at least consider using the historical temperaments that pieces were actually written in. I would say, however, that it can be of interest to all musicians, as all modern music is either played in or influenced by equal temperament, and understanding where it comes from can only help us.
If this stuff is new to you, allow me to summarize. ALL MUSIC IN HUMAN HISTORY (until the last few hundred years, and even then only in Europe at first and even there only in certain kinds of music, i.e. not folk) is based on notes which relate to each other in simple mathematical ways. So an octave (c-c) is 2:1, a 'Perfect' fifth (c-g) is 3:2, a major third (c-e) is 5:4 and so forth. (The notes in brackets are actually only approximations, for reasons which will hopefully become clear). These simple ratios form the basis of what is now termed just intonation. It is a wonderful system for playing melodies, or melodies over a drone, but it has a fundamental problem with complex harmony. This is because notes do not 'match up'. If you start at C and keep adding a mathematically pure fifth, you do not end up at a higher C but some way short. This is why most music humans have made and listened to for most of our history was not harmonically complex: it couldn't be, it would sound terrible! In vocal music it is possible to avoid the problem by constantly 're-tuning', which is why polyphony was first realised in vocal music. Some instruments can also do this to a certain extent, though this kind of depends on what instruments are being combined. Keyboard instruments cannot. So in order to play harmonically complex music, composers, instrument manufacturers and musicians began exploring 'temperaments', essentially playing some of the notes a little out of tune just to the right extent that they would sound in-tune even when moving between chords, keys and so forth. Equal temperament eventually became the most successful, and it is this tuning system that we have all learned. The most important characteristic of equal temperament is that ALL KEYS ARE EQUALLY OUT OF TUNE, and that ALL THIRDS ARE VERY OUT OF TUNE.
phew that was a long run, and you're probably wondering what the hell I'm on about! Well, the point is this. We are slide players, we can play any note we want, in or out of tune. And if you understand the biases inherent in equal temperament, you can correct against it without doing a great deal. ALL MAJOR THIRDS ARE SHARP, AND ALL MINOR THIRDS ARE FLAT. So just try playing the former very slightly lower, and the latter very slightly higher. And the reason all this reminded me of the original thread is that the "blue-notes" that guitarists use most of the time lie between the minor and major third of equal temperament. These odd notes we throw in are not 'out of tune'. On the contrary they are much closer to being in tune than if we rigidly stuck to our frets!
Anyway, I've rambled on for more than long enough now....
Wake up you at the back, it's over
take it easy
LR