On Mon, 2004-12-20 at 01:40, Lee Revell wrote: > On Sun, 2004-12-19 at 23:29 +0200, John Anderson wrote: > > It's a long story, so I won't go into detail. Google for Just Intonation > > if you want to know more. It sheds a different light on various > > questions like, where *is* that confounded blue note? Why do major > > chords sound crap on overdrive? What's the deal with barbershop and > > string quartets? Why is D minor the saddest key? If I tune the B string > > by ear to the G string, why is it out of tune with the E string? > > I think this is called "well tempered tuning". Well-tempered tunings were compromises between "pure" just intonation, and the ability to play in more than one key, and modulate between keys without retuning the instrument. In well-tempered tunings, the intervals are slightly different for each key. Which explains why classical composers used to argue about what "colour" a given key was. And why you never find baroque music in F# (the 5th was about 20 cents out - the wolf fifth). bye John
