EBVT question

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 9/4/99 7:12:06 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
gee19685@glaxowellcome.com (Evoniuk, Gary E) writes:

<< So my question is, if cancellation effects are
 applicable in this situation, do they apply equally in situations where the
 different notes are struck simultaneously vs. an arpeggiated chord?  Or
 reworded, how cancellation effects not be highly dependent on the
 relationship between (1) the time interval between the playing of two notes
 (determines phasing) and (2) the beat rate which is being cancelled
 (especially at slower beat rates)?  
 
 Gary Evoniuk >>

Hello and thank you for the question.  I'm sorry I did not see it sooner, the 
List is so full.

Whether you hear the cancellation effect depends upon the musical context.  
The C4-E4 3rd beats at 6 beats per second and you clearly hear that when it 
is isolated but when a full, rich, C Major chord is played and allowed to 
decay or even if it is repeated and held with the pedal, you experience the 
canceling out effect.  The chord sounds much more like a 1/5 Syntonic 
Meantone chord, very quiet with just a faint and slow pulse. 

The faster beats seem to be "swallowed" by the slower ones.  There are many 
temperaments which have this same characteristic to some degree or another.  
It is a key feature of the Historically documented 1/7 Comma Meantone 
Temperament. 

 My home town colleague Tim Farley RPT has recently discovered that a 1/8 
Comma Meantone works, it's just that no one historically ever tried the idea 
and published it.  Both temperaments have 11 Major triads in 2nd inversion in 
which the M3rd on top beats exactly the same as the 6th.  The beat speeds of 
the 3rds are like those of a typical Victorian temperament.  This gives the 
piano a very lively and harmonious sound.  The key of Ab sounds positively 
electrifying.

Bill Bremmer RPT