Re: Intervals enharmony question

[Hans Åberg]

> On 30 Apr 2018, at 21:11, Wols Lists <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> On 30/04/18 14:50, Hans Åberg wrote:
>> 
>>> On 29 Apr 2018, at 22:17, Jacques Menu Muzhic <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> 
>>> OK, now everything is clear, it’s precisely on jazz chords I’m working.
>> 
>> FYI, I recall the Mehegan books on jazz improvisation applying enharmonic 
>> equivalents freely. The Blatter books on instrumentation suggests applying 
>> them to simplify for harpists, which will save time and money. But 
>> orchestral instruments depart from Pythagorean tuning, not E12, so they are 
>> not equivalent, differing by a comma of about 20 cents.
>> 
> Which actually matters how?
> 
> Apart from the violins and the trombone, most instruments just play the
> pitch to which they are tuned, so Bbb and A are the same fingering, and
> the same note.
> 
> Yes I know most decent wind musicians can "bend" the tuning, but surely
> they'll bend it by ear into tune, not to some arbitrary note name.

One has to adapt the pitch on every note played, and the reference is typically 
the string section, which in turn is tuned in Pythagorean, but can adapt into 
5-limit Just Intonation if the music played follows the Traditional Harmony 
rules. That becomes more difficult in distant keys.