Klarinet Archive - Posting 000261.txt from 1999/11

From: "Dodgshun family" <dodgshun@-----.nz>
Subj: Re: [kl] KEYS
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1999 14:32:56 -0500

> > I basically concluded that a difference in sound (or "colour") between
> > keys is due to the tempered scale.
>
> All that I have ever learned about this indicates that the exact reverse
> is the case - it is precisely because we use the tempered scale that there
> is less difference between the tonal characteristics of various keys than
> there was in other types of temperament.

I don't think I expressed myself clearly enough......what I meant is that
because we don't have both Ab and G#, a scale can never be perfectly in
tune. This will vary slightly from key to key, depending on the number of
sharps or flats, and it is this which gives each key its own character. At
least, that's my view.

> > This is because the intervals are not exactly equal from key to key.
> > For instance (assuming the piano/organ is in tune), the perfect 5th
> > between middle C and G beats at 105 beats per minute, but the perfect
> > 5th between D and A beats at 120 beats per minute.
>
> I'm having some trouble understanding this. The perfect 5th is one of the
> two intervals in the tempered scale (the other being the perfect octave)
> which can be tuned on the piano without any beats between the two notes.

This did strike me as being strange as well, but it fitted well into what I
was writing about. Personally I do associate keys with colours, and I guess
maybe it was that I wanted a logical answer for it. I can't find the book
right now; maybe I misread it.

> Having taken a course in acoustics many years ago, my memory could
> certainly be faulty. But, your thesis as stated above is precisely
> contrary to what I have taught and have read concerning the topic.

I think that some of my reasoning could well have been faulty! I was taking
a more psychological view, rather than a mathematical angle, and I have a
feeling that the lecturer (not being either a musician or an acoustician)
probably just accepted my facts as correct, whether they were or not.

While we're on the subject of beats, my brother, a cellist, discovered a
strange phenomenon the other day. He was playing under fluorescent lights,
and noticed that when he played his open G, he could see a brown line
beating reasonably slowly next to the string (which was vibrating too fast
to be seen). It took an electrical engineer (my father) to come up with the
answer to what this was; fluorescents cycle at 100Hz, and the G is at 102Hz,
so what Andrew was seeing was the sound beating against the light. It was
pretty weird, but also very interesting. Has anybody ever come across this
kind of thing before?

Anna

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