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From: alves@aludra.usc.edu (William Alves)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: gamelan tunings
Keywords: Intonation systems, octaves, tuning systems
Message-ID: <6584@merlin.usc.edu>
Date: 20 Nov 89 01:15:03 GMT
References: <3113@husc6.harvard.edu> <14533@well.UUCP> <3156@husc6.harvard.edu> <6496@cbnewsm.ATT.COM> <14601@well.UUCP>
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Reply-To: alves@aludra.usc.edu (Bill Alves)
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
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In article <14601@well.UUCP> csz@well.UUCP (Carter Scholz) writes:
>
>Yes, Kunst is a standard reference, but mostly of historical importance,
>and unreliable on tunings.  He fudged his data by insisting that all
>octaves work out to 1200 cents, a European standard that exists on no
>gamelan.  (Most octaves are tuned wide, 1200-1240 cents, but occasionally
>you find one narrow.)  Illustration of the danger of carrying a system
>into a new situation, especially when you're unconscious of carrying it.
>
I think I know what you mean, but I might phrase it differently. An "octave"
in the acoustic sense is by definition 1200 cents (2:1 ratio). An "octave"
in Javanese *practice* (as in the West) is defined by the interval between
pitches with the same solfege or letter names. What Kunst and most other
writers up until Hood unwittingly introduced was the assumption that the
acoustic octave must equal the nominal octave, which, as you say, was not
the case. Kunst later admitted the possibility that there could be some
consistency behind the "out of tune" octaves, but he didn't publish tables
which measured anything but the middle octave on the saron. Therefore his
inaccuracy was not in "fudging" data, but in omitting relevant data. In any
case the problem did not lay in the cents system (as, I think others have im-
plied). Cents are an objective measuring tool more convenient than hertz for 
comparing the relative sizes of intervals.

Bill Alves
USC School of Music / Center for Scholarly Technology