Re: Transposed Chord name "F flat"

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi,

On Tue, 2 Nov 2004, Benjamin Esham wrote:

> On Nov 2, 2004, at 6:20 PM, Anthony W. Youngman wrote:
>
> > Bear in mind, E and F-flat aren't actually the same note. Not only are
> > they
> > different points on the key scale, but in a properly tuned scale they
> > aren't
> > even the same frequency! Very close, but not the same.
>
> Interesting... this flies in the face of everything I've ever been
> taught :-D

Not really. I am sure you heard something about the "well tempered
clavier". It was one of J.S.Bach's greatest achievements: it allowed to
play through various keys (another thing Bach was great at) without
the accords sounding wrong.

> Please elaborate on the difference; also, what tuning system are you
> using?

You can find out about this on
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-Tempered_Clavier
and
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meantone_temperament

I have to oppose the term "properly tuned", though. There is no such thing
as a "proper tuning" (see especially "Meantone temperament"). Some people
are convinced that the Pythagorean temperament is the "correct" one,
because of its nice mathematical properties. This is, of course, a weak
argument (i.e. Newton's theory is much nicer in mathematical terms than
Einstein's theory, let alone Quantum Mechanics).

In the Western world, we usually hear equally tempered instruments. That
is not totally true, though: trumpets, for example, suffer an especially
strange situation: some notes are played just by altering the embouchure,
so the interval is constrained by physical laws and the frequency can only
be an integer number multiplied by the base frequency. For other notes,
the length of the vibrating air is changed, and this is used to adapt it
to a "more equal" temperament.

Alphorns don't have this distinction, therefore it sounds wrong to Western
ears when someone tries to play something else than just
Tonica-Dominant-Subdominant. BTW, yodeling, which has the same
musical roots as the alphorns, has the same temperament.

Hth,
Dscho