G or A?

[Marc JX8P]

Good point. Although music can stand on itself, it does some of it's finest work accompanying sensations for the other senses, such as visual works like cinema or olfactory sensations from food.

That's weird - this thread is actually growing towards sensible statements instead of what's normal - a sensible thread that goes silly!

[Marc JX8P]

Now-a-days we only have to record at 96khz or even 192 to make any old shite sound amazing, I gonna cook up a sample of white noise recorded in 192Khz/64bits that will whip the likes of the chems and the prodigy, and obviously wipe the floor with the entire café

Well - it would be nice if you could start by wiping the floor OF the entire café, some people didn't clear up after the last few competitions and there are still a few stray notes lying around.

(I think there are more G's than A's by the way).

[kritikon]

That's weird - this thread is actually growing towards sensible statements instead of what's normal - a sensible thread that goes silly!

Oi! You implying my thread started out silly?

You mean you guys seriously use more than one note Wouldn't that sound a bit tuneful or something? It's difficult enough making music without introducing complicated things like bloody tunes FFS.

[tuz]

C ... I like C .

[farlukar]

Ah... nowadays everything is tuned with 2^(1/12) difference between every half tone but In Da Dayz Of Wayback it actually made some difference in what tone your track/tune/beat was...

[Marc JX8P]

That's weird - this thread is actually growing towards sensible statements instead of what's normal - a sensible thread that goes silly!

Oi! You implying my thread started out silly?

You mean you guys seriously use more than one note Wouldn't that sound a bit tuneful or something? It's difficult enough making music without introducing complicated things like bloody tunes FFS.

I would never DREAM of insinuating that this thread was silly... I just meant to... well, I already said that...

Hmmm...

Err....

Is it too late to just pick a note?

[Meffy]

2^(1/12)

The password is... "syntonic comma." :-)

[duncanparsons]

2^(1/12)

The password is... "syntonic coma." :-)

..feeling...sleepy...all..blurred..can't..comprehe..nd..ni..ce...sssouuunnn...d..

DSP

[Wopelka]

Personally I prefer the note G (although I occasionally use E as well).

I find there is a definite audible difference between G and A, but I don't have a website to host MP3s.....could someone post an example so that we can see if there really is any difference between G and A.

Extract from http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/ :

Well Tempering and Key Character

The defining characteristics of Well Temperament is the tonal variety that exists between the keys. The comma is neither condensed into a few combinations nor spread evenly among all; rather, it is dispensed into the various keys in differing amounts.

This allotment of dissonance was the subject of intense debate among the theorists and musicians of the 18th and 19th centuries, yet there was a common form to virtually all Well Temperaments. The common form was that the "all white note" keys of C major and A minor, (with no accidentals in the key signature) contained the most harmoniously tuned Maj3rds, far more in tune than our modern Equal Temperament. The other “simple” keys such as G, F, or E minor were slightly tempered. Keys with yet more accidentals, (requiring the use of more black notes), absorbed greater amounts of the commas, causing the dissonance to increase in those keys. Hence, there was a range of harmony and dissonance available to the composer.

Associations between emotional response and musical harmony are very old; they were discussed in ancient Greece. Certain tunings (modes), were considered warlike, others were felt as peaceful. Some tuning, according to Plato, should not be heard by developing young minds, while exposure to others was considered essential to the full development of one’s potential.

By Beethoven’s day, the concept of “ Key Character ” (in which different keys conveyed specific emotional meanings), was much refined. A widely read and influential list of keys and their affective qualities, written by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart and published posthumously in 1806, contained the fashionable descriptions for all major and minor keys. In this list, he describes the “character” of keys thusly:

“C minor. Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. ---All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul lies in this key.” “E major. Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E major.” “C# minor. Penitential lamentation;.......sighs of disappointed friendship and love lie in its radius.” “C major is completely pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naivety, children’s talk”2
These were descriptions for audiences that expected and wanted to be emotionally moved. Modern sensibilities don’t provide the context for quite that much scenery in music today, and modern atonal tuning has provided little key character for at least a century. However, we can still be affected by the composer’s use of dissonance and harmony, if the contrasts are there.

In a significant number of people, purely tuned (consonant), intervals, cause physiological reactions such as heart-rate, respiration, pupil dilation, etc. to indicate a sedative, restful response; while highly tempered (dissonant) intervals tend to cause stimulative effects. This suggests that differing levels of physical consonance and dissonance can be valuable tools for a composer intent on eliciting emotional responses from a sensitive audience.

Accepting that any specific emotional "meaning" a musical key represents is an ineffable quality, (since "meaning" is subjective and depends on far more than the tuning), it is still obvious that Just intervals have a different musical nature and effect from tempered ones. The harmonic journey that is the piano sonata allows ample opportunity for a composer to juxtapose musical tension with points of rest; to artfully move the listener from edgy anticipation to welcome tranquility. This is tonality at work.

Edward Foote

[kritikon]

Thanks Wopelka........that was better than Temazepam.
I really needed some sleep, and I always find any book on theory does a perfect job....



zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

[hao nao]

thanks for that excerpt and the link, Wopelka -- I knew there were different ways of tuning but had no idea about taking advantage of different shades of dissonance in different keys