« Bernard Guerrero, from the comments | Main | How similar are your country's products? »
He didn't even mention bottleneck guitar
How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care), by Ross W. Duffin, is a cranky but fascinating look at how music went astray:
For nearly a century, equal temperament—the practice of dividing an octave into twelve equally proportioned half-steps—has held a virtual monopoly on the way in which instruments are tuned and played. In his new book, Duffin explains how we came to rely exclusively on equal temperament by charting the fascinating evolution of tuning through the ages. Along the way, he challenges the widely held belief that equal temperament is a perfect, "naturally selected" musical system, and proposes a radical reevaluation of how we play and hear music.
You can get Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier played this way, but to my ears it is not a revelation. Of course unequal temperament (not my preferred terminology) has struck back through popular music, whether it be bent blues notes, pedal steel guitar, and the drone tunings of My Bloody Valentine or Sonic Youth. Oddly the author doesn't mention this. Listeners want variety, and simply "pegging the scale" does not control the real sound which results, just as in um...macroeconomics.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on August 18, 2007 at 06:22 AM in Music | Permalink
Comments
A MBV mention on MR!
Shields would achieve the effect buy holding the "whammy bar" of the guitar as he strummed. This would keep the guitar shimmering in and out of "tune" with each strum. Combine with a little reverse reverb, overdrive and feedback and you get some amazing beautiful dissonance.
Posted by: GoodneesOfFit at Aug 18, 2007 9:03:30 AM
Along the way, he challenges the widely held belief that equal temperament is a perfect, "naturally selected" musical system,
Is this really a widely held belief? I though it was generally understood that equal temperament is a bit of a compromise.
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov at Aug 18, 2007 10:02:24 AM
Tyler, if you want to hear something of highly unequal temperament, you should check out guitar virtuoso Steve Vai's "Sex and Religion" album. There is one solo on which he uses a special guitar whose neck divides the octave into sixteen "third-tones" rather than the usual twelve semi-tones.
Guitarist Jeff Beck, who is well-known for his playing dynamics, is also a master at using quarter-tones as ghost notes. So much so that a pompous neoclassical Swedish guitarist once said in a blind listening session that Jeff Beck played "out of tune"--the joke was on the Swede.
Posted by: Arsène Lupin at Aug 18, 2007 10:28:12 AM
I would also mention both Bad Brains' Dr. Know and Living Colour's Vernon Reid use of the tremolo to keep individual notes in their leads in a constant state of motion.
Posted by: Eric H at Aug 18, 2007 10:37:41 AM
Anyone interested in alternative tunings should check out the Just Intonation Network: http://www.justintonation.net/
I'm not a member and I don't subscribe to their journal, "1/1", but I bought a couple compilation cassettes from them of artists using all kinds of nonstandard temperaments. Some of it's really good.
Also, Wendy Carlos (formerly Walter Carlos, the guy who did the music for A Clockwork Orange) has an album called Beauty in the Beast, exploring alternate tunings. It's fantastic.
Posted by: Jeff Brown at Aug 18, 2007 12:00:39 PM
Bottleneck guitar, bends, whammy effects, etc. are cool, but it's strange to use them to argue that we haven't abandoned the idea of alternate temperaments. We really have. Those techniques are deviations / decorations sitting within an even-tempered 12-tone framework that never changes, with the exception of maybe 1 in 5,000 musicians.
Posted by: Jeff Brown at Aug 18, 2007 12:08:58 PM
Is this really a widely held belief? I though it was generally understood that equal temperament is a bit of a compromise.
It is. Tyler as a dilettante.
Posted by: Chris Stiles at Aug 18, 2007 12:20:47 PM
I suspect that the only music played in equal temperament is that played in ensembles where an inherently equal-temperament instrument has a significant role. Many musicians believe that bands, orchestras and choruses normally play in just or relative temperament (except when there is an equal-temperament instrument such as the piano in the mix). (a reference)
Posted by: jm at Aug 18, 2007 12:52:22 PM
"...check out the Just Intonation Network: http://www.justintonation.net/". If you think libertarians are prone to fractious purity arguments, you should see what the just intonation people do. Libertarians are newbs in comparison.
A good way to stretch your ears beyond western tunings is to listen to Islamic music, particularly the Persian. It's a new emotional landscape.
Posted by: Todd Fletcher at Aug 18, 2007 1:01:39 PM
There is, indeed, a whole world between the octaves. There are lots of microtonal composers out there today, working in 13, 17, 19, 22, 31, 53, and 72 equal divisions of the octave, or in just intonation. I host a podcast for people to listen at http://podcast1024.libsyn.com as well as SoundClick. Download and listen for a little extra kick in your tonality.
Posted by: Prent Rodgers at Aug 18, 2007 1:12:55 PM
MBV! What divine taste.
Posted by: Bob Dobalina at Aug 18, 2007 2:13:31 PM
a cranky but fascinating look at how music went astray:
Music went astray?
Posted by: Jason Briggeman at Aug 18, 2007 2:19:56 PM
Jason, when Paris Hilton puts out an album, music can only have gone astray, I'm afraid.
Posted by: Arsène Lupin at Aug 18, 2007 2:32:32 PM
AL, the Steve Vai 16-tone scale work is still an even-tempered scale, just with different mathematics. Each additional scale tone increases by a factor of 2^(1/16) instead of 2^(1/12).
And Jeff Beck does play out of tune. Every blues/rock guitarist does. The Swede essentially just said he doesn't like blues/rock guitar. If you're a neoclassical guitarist, you've probably earned your stripes to like or not like whatever you want without being made fun of for it.
Posted by: Pup, MD at Aug 18, 2007 2:37:48 PM
'the widely held belief that equal temperament is a perfect, "naturally selected" musical system'
This is nonsense - equal temperament is a compromise system which allows soloists and ensembles to play in more than a couple of (tonic) keys without retuning. Das Wohl-Temperierte Klavier was a deliberate demonstration of how well this works, that is, why it is not necessary to tune exactly for each key. Each key is slightly out, but to most modern ears (and evidently to J.S. Bach) it is not disagreeable.
All keyboard instruments are (normally) equally-tempered as well as standard guitars (you can't play 'out of [equal-temperament] tune' on a guitar unless you mistune the strings or do some kind of wierd fingering). Playing wrong notes or in dissonance does not necessarily involve tuning. A brass & woodwind band does not have the option of changing the tuning (playing in just tuning for each piece), although the tuning of each instrument is not necessarily precise.
jm may be right about string orchestras and choruses (ancient choral music may not even be tonal) - I would think that this question could be resolved with computer analysis.
Posted by: skeptonomist at Aug 18, 2007 6:36:06 PM
For those interested in a breif (and fascinating) look at tunings throughout history, check out this page:
http://home.earthlink.net/~kgann/histune.html
It's helpful to have some musical knowledge to understand the history. If you kow what thirds and fifths are, you'll be fine.
The page's author gives the lie to an oft repeated myth about Bach and The well-Tempered Clavier:
"If you are or were ever a college music student, you probably read, or were told, that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his collection of preludes and fugues The Well-Tempered Clavier in all 24 major and minor keys in order to demonstrate equal tempered tuning.
If so, you were misinformed.
Bach did not use equal temperament. In fact, in his day there was no way to tune strings to equal temperament, because there were no devices to measure frequency. They had no scientific method to achieve real equal-ness; they could only approximate.
Bach was, however, interested in a tuning that would allow him the possibility of working in all 12 keys, that did not make certain triads off-limits. He was a master of counterpoint, and chafed and fumed when the music in his head demanded a triad on A-flat and the harpsichord in front of him couldn't play it in tune. (In fact, he used to torment his organ tuner by playing sour Ab-major triads when the old man came in to work.) So he was glad to see tuners develop a tuning that, today, is known as well temperament. Back then, they did call it equal temperament - not because the 12 pitches were equally spaced, but because you could play equally well in all keys. Each key, however, was a little different, and Bach wrote The Well-Tempered Clavier in all 24 major and minor keys in order to capitalize on those differences, not because the differences didn't exist. "
Posted by: Josh Wexler at Aug 18, 2007 7:17:58 PM
I found this website to compare guitar strings, called Stringlinks.
They don’t sell anything; they just provide a way to compare prices side by side.
The site was created so guitar players could have an easy to use reference of guitar string venders, all in one place.
Just click on a Vender to compare string prices. A new window will open (to their “Strings” page) from each vender; so you don't lose you place.
Check it out at www.Stringlinks.blogspot.com
It’s pretty cool.
Posted by: Guitar Guy at Aug 18, 2007 11:39:38 PM
Heres a book for you Tyler--
Owen Jorgensen's 'Tuning', a vast compendium of historical tuning.
Funny that such a fundamental aspect of music is so overlooked in a way. I guess it's so fundamental that its like breathing; only noticeable when it goes wrong.
It's fascinating though to think about how tuning evolves over hundreds of years and its relationship to technology and the music composed. I've explored lots of different scales, including Just Intonation and Equal Tempered, and I like both really. The fact is, it's hard to imagine my favorite Bob Dylan in Just Intonation, and Harry Partch of course would be ridiculous without his 43-note scale justly-intoned scale and homemade instrument family.
http://www.amazon.com/Tuning-Containing-Eighteenth-Century-Temperament-Nineteenth-Century/dp/0870132903/ref=sr_1_1/102-6168381-5877737?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187588293&sr=1-1
Posted by: bill at Aug 20, 2007 1:47:41 AM
I love comments that begin with "I found this website"...
Posted by: serge at Aug 20, 2007 1:04:21 PM
Recently, the musicians/artists Dewanatron have built an analog electronic organ that plays chords in just temperment, although the root of any given chord comes from an equal-tempered scale, so that it can play with the root of the chord in tune with equal tempered instruments. They performed last weekend at PS1 in New York City.
Although equal temperment seems to me like a compromise worth having for the flexibility it brings, it is cool to hear just-tempered chords, which truely "lock in" in the way that an equal tempered chord by definition cannot. Today, the only place you might here this would be in really good vocal ensembles, or maybe some small instrumental ensembles that don't have equal tempered instruments.
Posted by: Manuarte at Aug 20, 2007 3:07:46 PM
Hi Best wishes。Allow me to offer my heartiest wishes.xicao loves-流水线娱乐博客常年提供高、中、低压锅炉钢管、流体钢管、结构钢管、化肥专用钢管、石油裂化钢管、地质钢管、液压支柱钢管及合金钢管-无缝管-无缝钢管等论文发表资讯/刊物信息，协助客户制定论文发表方案
Posted by: 无缝管 at Nov 13, 2007 8:13:55 PM
China Tours and Yangtze Cruises A professional China travel agency offering private & group package tours, tailor-made vacations for families, couples and individual travelers, Yangtze cruises, hotel & ticket booking services.
China Travel and Tours One-stop China travel service delivering China package tours, discount Yangtze River cruises and best rate hotels.
Tibet Train Travel A reliable tour operator specializing in Tibet tour packages, adventures, hotel and train ticket booking.
China Maps A free web-based source for China travel and tour map users
Voyage Chine, Tour de Chine, Circuit Chine - Un agence spécialiste voyage en Chine
Great Wall of China A website for the Great Wall of China.
Posted by: China tour at Nov 27, 2007 2:35:36 AM
Posted by: 翻译公司 at Feb 13, 2008 10:29:17 AM
Posted by: 鑽石 at Apr 2, 2008 9:52:12 PM
Unless I miss my guess, the Swede is Yngwie Malmsteen, and "neoclassical" is short for "neoclassical metal", which has nothing to do with neoclassical composition and everything to do with ripping off Paganini with gajillions of 32nd notes.
Posted by: Garth Wallace at Jun 24, 2008 10:15:42 PM
