[pianotech] Aurally pure octaves

[John Formsma]

On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 6:24 PM, <PAULREVENKOJONES at aol.com> wrote:

>
>
> In a message dated 3/9/2009 5:51:40 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
> formsma at gmail.com writes:
>
> So, there can be a sense of "beatlessness" -- albeit a very limited sense
> from the perspective of the piano tuner who has to make the choices in
> tuning to achieve this sense of beatlessness.  And if it is possible to
> achieve a perceived "beatlessness" from a musician's point of view, we
> should all want that.
>
> This is wonderfully ineffable, John. It is, as well, altogether charming to
> hear and accept the blend of audible (beating) coincident partials in an
> interval. True "beatlessness" (or a "beatless octave") is physically
> impossible, and as such, is a potentially misleading (and possible empty
> except for the undefinable "sense" of which you speak) phrase.
>
>

I must not have explained myself well. Sorry, Paul.  What I am meaning is
that musicians perceive a sense of beatlessness when things line up as well
as possible.  It is not beatless, as we all know, and I thought that was
clearly implied in my original post.

May I say it again?  It is not possible to have an octave that is truly
beatless (we all agree on that). But it is possible to have an octave that
is perceived beatless when we listen musically instead of at the 4:2 or
whatever coincidental partial level.  Maybe it's just me and David Andersen
-- maybe we've been hitting the keys a little hard lately <G>.  I don't try
to hear beats when I'm playing the piano. I try to hear the beauty of the
musical tone.  Maybe others listen differently when playing.  ???

It's like the Alfredo sauce I'm cooking right now. I just had a bite, and
it's really tasty.  However, a chef might taste it and say, "Nice blend of
Parmesan with the basil ... but the pepper overpowers ....." whatever they
might say.  All I know is that it tastes good. And if I focus, I can taste
the individual ingredients (which I would do in preparation). But when I sit
down for supper, I will enjoy the combination of flavors without focusing on
the individual ingredients that make up the whole. <G>

-- 
JF
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090309/a26b29e9/attachment.html>