>but since we are expanding or contracting the > intervals from one note or the other...... Tuners widen Musicians expand "Expanding" and "contracting" are terms used in music theory for intervals whose note(s) are "raised" or "lowered" one chromatic semitone (or more), according to one modern text book I have looked at. In tuning we are altering the interval by far less than a semitone, so the terms "wide" and "narrow" avoid ambiguity when conversing with musicians. Thus a tempered fourth is a teensy bit "wide", but an expanded fourth is so wide it is called an augmented fourth, and sounds like a "flat fifth" to a Jazz person. Now if he is hep to the parlez-vous, he would say, "I mean a contracted fifth, not a narrow one." Besides the difference of terms is clear in use. "Is an expanded major second wider or narrower than a contracted minor third?" "Does this apply to systems where minor thirds are tempered narrow?" You can tune an interval wide, but how can you tune it expanded? This should be clear even to Ruby. ; ) ---Ric Narro ---------- > From: Newton Hunt <nhunt@jagat.com> > To: pianotech@ptg.org > Subject: Re: historical tuning 1805 > Date: Sunday, August 22, 1999 5:25 PM > > > Many terms have been used, narrow, flat, diminished, weak, "contracted". > > I know, Richard, but since we are expanding or contracting the > intervals from one note or the other it is far easier to think in > those terms than flat or sharp. Thinking too much is hard on this old > brain. > > Newton > >
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