tjr@ihnet.UUCP (Tom Roberts) (05/07/84)
<dummy line> Someone made the remark to the effect that "everyone" has some level of absolute pitch, because music transposed from one key to another sounds different (the example given was from C#-minor to C-minor). They concluded that the difference was due to the change in the pitches of the notes. I disagree. The difference is due to the tempering of the scale (on a piano, and on most other instruments). The "equal tempered" scale does NOT have equal intervals between all notes - there are slight differences which affect the "mood" of the piece; they are not normally noticed, because they are very small. "Equal tempering" refers to the ability to play in all keys using only 12 notes per octave - the differences among the many keys are averaged out so that all keys sound "equally (slightly) bad, rather than having some keys sound great, and other keys sound terrible. On the piano, there is another difference - C# is MUCH easier to play in than is C. This is due to the fact that human fingers can play the keyboard better when the black and white keys are used in roughly equal proportions. There are very few virtuoso piano pieces written in C-major (A-minor), and the two that come to mind spend a lot of time in (other) related keys. At this level, the necessity to wade through seven sharps is not a problem.... Tom Roberts ihnp4!ihnet!tjr
seifert@ihuxl.UUCP (D.A. Seifert) (05/08/84)
> The difference is due to the tempering of the scale (on a piano, and on most > other instruments). The "equal tempered" scale does NOT have equal intervals > between all notes - there are slight differences which affect the "mood" > of the piece; they are not normally noticed, because they are very small. > "Equal tempering" refers to the ability to play in all keys using only > 12 notes per octave - the differences among the many keys are averaged out > so that all keys sound "equally (slightly) bad, rather than having some keys > sound great, and other keys sound terrible. hmmmm, obviously when doing a "golden ears" quality recording, the piano should be tuned specially for the key of interest! Shouldn't be a problem for a big rich studio to have several pianos sitting around tuned to various keys. "get away from me with that dog-whistle" -- _____ /_____\ That auto-crossing beagle, /_______\ Snoopy |___| BMWCCA, Windy City Chapter ____|___|_____ ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert
suhre@trwrba.UUCP (05/17/84)
"Normal" tempering rather than "equal" tempering will necessarily
give every key signature a slightly different quality because of
the differences in beats between the various notes and their
harmonics. I think that the original composers may have taken
that into consideration in their compositions.
Save me from equal tempering!
Maurice
{decvax,sdcrdcf,hplabs,ucbvax}!trwrb!suhre