Subject: Re: Pitch learning From: Martin Braun <nombraun@xxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 19:23:42 +0100 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>Dear Pierre and others, > During my studies some time ago I read in a respected source that there > are gamelans in which even the octave is missing. There must have been a misunderstanding in this. A gamelan ensemble without the octave as the backbone of all tuning is a red herring. What occurs are deviations from the mathematically exact octave, up to about +/- 30 Cent. In some gamelan cultures, such as in Bali, octave deviations are tuned on purpose to reach a shimmering sound caused by the "beats" resulting from this tuning practice. We should also note that all gamelan scales that have ever been found are fairly well understood in terms of physics and hearing physiology. Not much mystery here. Martin --------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Braun Neuroscience of Music S-671 95 Klässbol Sweden web site: http://w1.570.telia.com/~u57011259/index.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pierre Divenyi" <pdivenyi@xxxxxxxx> To: <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 6:49 AM Subject: Re: Pitch learning >I think that the most challenging instrument to any pitch theories is the >gamelan ensemble: partials produced by each metal bloc are inharmonic and >the (supposed) fundamental frequencies of the bloc series define an >inharmonic scale that varies from gamelan to gamelan, except that they >never include simple harmonic ratios. During my studies some time ago I >read in a respected source that there are gamelans in which even the octave >is missing. > > Pierre >