More Keys and Colors
It's fascinating that Terry mentioned synaesthesia; I consider it at the extreme end of a continuum, with perfect pitch somewhat near the middle, and having neither at the other end. I have a somewhat unreliable sense of pitch (call it "imperfect pitch") and I'm sure that helps me define the character of the various keys.
I suspect the single most significant factor in maintaining the individuality of the various keys in this equal temperment world we live in is the physics of the various instruments we listen to. I mentioned already the way the limitations of mens' and women's voices effects the various keys choirs sing in. It's well known that strings are biased toward sharp keys, and brasses toward flat keys.
Are there people with no sense of perfect pitch, but a sense of key color? If so, let them listen to synthesized music (which is free from acoustic constraints) and we'll find out how much key color is dependent on the physical design of the instrument. It may be the physical design of the listening apparatus -- ear canal length, resonant frequency of the bones in the head -- is also involved. In that case, let me stimulate the auditory center of your brain directly with these electrodes I have right here. Now, hold still please....
Umie the Umlaut says, "ask your doctor about the Fredösphere!"
2 Comments:
Were you wearing your tin foil hat again? What is it with key colors in the blogosphere?
Fred,
If I am not mistaken, a perfectly tempered tuning won't have any 'personality' in the different keys because the twelve tones are perfectly divided within the octave. The common notion that different keys have their own personalities comes from a type of temperment called Weckermeister tuning ( one of my synths allows this option.) In this system, the cardinal intervals are tuned slightly flat or sharp depending on the location in the circle of fifths from the starting point, usually c or f. Therefore, the fifths in flat keys are slightly flat and the fifths in sharp keys slightly sharp (reverse for the fourths.) This renders the thirds of E major and A flat major slightly sharp, or bright, for instance.
When tuning pianos, and to a lesser extent organs, there is a technique used called octave stretching, which is especially needed on small upright and spinet pianos where the compromised string lengths cause false harmonics, a phenomenon called enharmicity. This is because you hear, on a piano at least, the first overtone quite strongly, so the octaves are booted slightly sharp as you go up, and slightly flat as you go down- wer'e talking one half 'beat' per second, not much more. This results in a roughly similar tuning to the Weckermeister. A full sized grand piano needs far less stretching, so some players are surprised at the 'dull' sound of a 9 foot Steinway. On organs, the diapaison stops also have a very prominent first partial, but the amount of stretching is less. Also, our ears are not structured to hear absolute pitch relations, but are themselves a compromise to allow us to hear a wider frequency range. This is why high pitched intervals that are in tune according to the machine sound 'wrong', we need a little distortion to render the illusion of being in tune. (Ever wonder why a piano and an organ never seem in tune with each other?)
One of my day jobs is tuning pianos, which is how I learned obscure stuff like this. Keep going on your piece, don't waste precious energy chasing blog shadows until you're done...
Forrest
Post a Comment
<< Home