In a message dated 3/19/99 4:00:36 PM Central Standard Time, remoody@easnet.net writes: << Hmm I have an idea that some pop style female singers would fall in love with Meantone. I bet a few Jazz players would really dig flat fifths in modern pure fifths temp. Now if 12 5ths need to be narrow by 2 cents.... would that give pure fifths in an octave stretched 3.77 cents? Why not make it 4? The fourths should be ok if it were 12th root of 2.x ? Ric Means Well >> I am so happy to see that you have come to this realization. It seems that not very long ago at all I saw you write that you could not imagine Jazz in anything but ET. I have, in fact heard Jazz in quite a number of temperaments. It really works quite well in any one you might care to choose today. Each one gives the *piano* more of a distinction than it does the music. It is kind of like listening to different musicians express the same music. If they are all good musicians, they will each play the music correctly and appropriately but there will still be an individual character in each performance. The different temperaments provide a different "color" to the "voice" the piano has. So, even 1/4 Comma Meantone may be used for Jazz and Blues (Rock & Roll too) and I have heard it done plenty of times. It can really put some "Funk" into the music that no other temperament can because of the Wolf. This is an example of using the Wolf as a musical force when it is usually considered unusable, musically. The 1/7 Comma Meantone is often used as a substitute for a Well-Temperament because the very slight Wolf it has actually becomes a very powerful musical force. It is especially effective in Romantic literature such as Brahms, Chopin, Schumann, Schubert, Debussy, etc. where they wrote their most powerfully emotional passages in the key of Ab. Sincerely, Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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