INTERVAL

[Clyde Hollinger]

Friends,

Ever since this subject showed up on the list I have been wracking my brain
trying to solve the "riddle."  I taught high school theory for many years and I
think I should know the answer.  But I don't.  Argh!  I sit and stare at the
screen for many minutes and I doubt the correct answer has come to me, although I
have a proposal to offer that *might* be a step in the right direction.
Actually, I don't think I ever saw this question answered in any theory book.
Not that I read many.

I used to teach that some intervals were called perfect because they can be tuned
to have no beats.  That definitely includes unisons, fourths, fifths and
octaves.  You cannot tune 2nds, 3rds, 6ths or 7ths to have no beats, without
ending up with a really strange octave!  Does that make any sense?

In piano tuning, of course, slow beats are often there in the "perfect"
intervals.

I would like to expound on the use of intervals during the medieval period, but
theoretically I am on vacation, and I only half know what I am talking about
anyway.

Regards, Clyde


ANRPiano@aol.com wrote:

> Let me try and search my memory banks to my undergrad years in music history.
>  It seems to me in medieval times organum was sung in only those intervals
> which represented the perfection of the heavens. That is the octave and the
> 4th or fifth as a division.  I suspect, thought I can't remember anything
> being said, the clear intonation probably had some influence here.  The
> imperfect intervals 3rd and 6th were to be avoid if possible and the 2nd and
> 7th never used.
>
> It has been nearly 20 years so feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but I
> seem to remember this perfect thing predating modern music and notation by
> centuries.
>
> Andrew Remillard  going to bed now, hopefully the insomnia is done.