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From: steve@brl-bmd@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re:  physics of harmony
Message-ID: <4791@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 1-Sep-83 20:19:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.4791
Posted: Thu Sep  1 20:19:57 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Sep-83 23:16:11 EDT
Lines: 19

From:      Stephen Wolff <steve@brl-bmd>


As DCP has pointed out, you've mixed physics and psychoacoustics.  There are
some of us, for example, who assert the major triad is not pleasant but
merely trite, and that one of the most interesting chords is the fundamental-
fifth-octave because of the ambiguity and mystery of the "missing" major/minor
third.

Your discussion of logarithms implies you're thinking of "equal temperament"
which did not enter widespread use until the 19th century.  For a concise
discussion of other tunings (`Pythagorean', `just', `mean-tone') look up those
terms and also `Intervals, calculation of' in the Harvard Concise Dictionary of
Music (Belknap/HUP,1978).

And there are some early music buffs who claim that 16th century string and
keyboard music (that of John Dowland, for example) doesn't sound `right'
unless the instruments are tuned in one of the mean-tone temperaments that
were in common use at that time.  But frankly my ears aren't that well-trained!