Klarinet Archive - Posting 000416.txt from 2000/08

From: Richard Bush <rbushidioglot@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Perils of Equal Temperment
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 04:31:16 -0400

I find tuning or trying to tune, talking about tuning, reading about
tuning totally fascinating. Likewise, the clarinet makers' attempts to
come close to an equally tempered scale, or to favor certain traffic
patterns (certain tonal centers). Then the mouthpiece makers come along
and either improving upon what the instrument makers have done or
totally messing it up. Somewhere in this mix is a person who plays a
particular way on a particular mouthpiece and makes decisions about how
the clarinet should be voiced and regulated. We end up with a mountain
of variables.

All of this tuning business seems to take a lifetime or more. Not having
finished mine and not being able to predict how far along I might get in
the process before time runs out, I can only be entertained and
challenged by it all.

Adding just one more thought to the subject, thinking about how pianos
are tuned for people's ears and the psychology of music, I often
contemplate artists going out of tune (according to my ears or mind) to
"color" the music they're playing. I hear vocalists, violinists and
others choosing to play slightly away from what I would call in tune.
Jazz players use this technique as well. While our music is based upon
an octave being divided in some way into twelve slices of pie, many of
us Westerners seem to exhibit just a tad bit of micro tonality.

It is very late for me. Hope this makes some sort of sense. Hope I don't
regret, tomorrow, running on like this.

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