At 10:24 AM 3/20/99 -0500, you wrote: >In a message dated 3/20/99 7:42:44 AM Central Standard Time, jpage@capecod.net >writes: > ><< Is the 'wolf' the reason for a term I heard along time ago, I don't >remember > which musician or composer said it but something was referred to as the > "pianists' vibrato". > > Jon Page >> > >No, the "pianist's vibrato" exists even in ET. It is essentially the >resonance you hear from the Rapidly Beating Intervals (RBI) (not Runs Batted >In), the 3rds, 6ths, 10ths & 17ths. In ET, they are all distributed very >evenly. Every major and minor triad has its own equal share of them, >regardless of which key you are in. In the HT's, they are distributed in >alignment with the cycle of 5ths. > >A "wolf" is a dissonant interval that is created, not by tuning it but as a >result of tuning other intervals the way you want them. Ok, then so it's a sacrificed fly to left field. > In the Meantones, you >tune a series of 11 5ths that are *narrower* than an ET 5th. The 12th one is >what is left over and cannot be reconciled. Since all the others were narrow, >it is wide. In the 1/7 Comma MT, it is only slightly wide (6-8 cents >depending on the inharmonicity) and slightly dissonant and so, it can still >serve as a playable interval. In 1/4 Comma MT, it is some 40 cents wide and >extremely dissonant. Yet, some jazz and blues players can incorporate that >sound since they play other kinds of chords that would have seemed wildly >dissonant in past centuries but titillate our senses today. > > HT's have "wolf" 3rds too, which are again, not tuned that way but are left >over as the result of tuning other 3rds more narrowly than in ET. If you tune >a pure C3-E3 3rd and a pure E3-G#3 on top of it, the remaining Ab-C4 3rd will >be very wide, some 26 cents. It will sound very harsh and sour to most >people. It is really not a 3rd but a diminished 4th: G#3-C4. A "wolf" 3rd is >wider than the 22 cent "Pythagorean 3rd" which is considered to be at the >limit of tolerance for a usuable 3rd (see Rules for Well-Tempered Tuning). > >Bill Bremmer RPT >Madison, Wisconsin > Jon Page Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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