Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!well!csz From: csz@well.UUCP (Carter Scholz) Newsgroups: comp.music Subject: Re: New tunings [was Re: Eliminating the octave] Keywords: Intonation systems, octaves, tuning systems Message-ID: <14533@well.UUCP> Date: 12 Nov 89 05:07:39 GMT References: <3068@husc6.harvard.edu> <6335@merlin.usc.edu> <3113@husc6.harvard.edu> Reply-To: csz@well.UUCP (Carter Scholz) Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA Lines: 31 In a previous article, Noam D. Elkies (elkies@zariski.harvard.edu) Department of Mathematics, Harvard University writes: (*) Something I've been wondering about intermittently, and reminded of by your mention of gamelan music: Gamelan music is dominated by instruments with an overtone series very different from the familiar overtone series that dominates most Western music. It also uses very different tunings, tunings which unlike their Western counterpart developed (I assume) without knowledge of overtones. Thus it could make an interesting test case for the perennial debate about the naturalness of a system of tonality based on the overtone series. Has any significant research been done into the relation or lack thereof between gamelan tunings and gamelan overtones? I've played Javanese gamelan for 4 years, have studied with Javanese musicians, and have investigated the tuning systems & discussed them at length. The idea of a tuning derived from the overtones of the instruments is seductive, but will not, I think, hold water. As I understand it, the tuning is set on the gender, which is a resonated instrument with a waveform as close to a sine wave as you could ask. The other, more clangorous instruments are tuned from this reference. (However, there is still a great deal of empiricism involved in stretching the octaves, etc. The main point is that the instrument builder does not seem to be listening to any overtones when determining the tuning; he sings, and uses the sinusoidal gender for reference.) Carter Scholz csz@well.uucp