Re: Intervals enharmony question

[Wols Lists]

On 30/04/18 20:32, Hans Åberg wrote:
> 
>> 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.
> 
> 
WHAT STRING SECTION!?!?!?

Yes, I happened to mention violins as instruments which can tune a note
"on the fly", as can my instrument the trombone, but the majority of
instruments can NOT.

Plus, I'm unaware of Jazz ensembles having a string section - they might
have a double bass though, and the ensembles I play with (concert or
brass bands, I used to play in a big band) never include strings.

So, the question remains. Why - FOR THE MAJORITY OF INSTRUMENTS WHICH
ARE MONOTONIC AND DO NOT "TUNE ON THE FLY" - does it matter whether a
note is an A or a Bbb? There's sweet fa the player can do about it, anyway.

I remember having a similar "heated argument" with a guy on another
mailing list who insisted that instruments - let's say a trumpet -
should be tuned to equal temperament and any player who couldn't do it
should be sacked. It's not *possible* to tune a brass instrument to
equal temperament - it has at max 5 tuning slides to tune 12 pitches and
typically about 40 notes!

I take the point of various people that, for SOME instruments, you
really do want an obvious chord structure, but for most instruments,
especially those that cannot play chords, do the players really give a
monkeys? They just pitch-bend the tune to their neighbours.

Cheers,
Wol