![]() This is not to say that most musicians and listeners today Never heard Just intervals nor knew any sort of context where their use would ![]() Singers and violinists (the usual subjects of such experiments) had probably Predilection but on aural conditioning, and in the 1930s through the 1950s, That much of a person’s preference for intervals depends not on biological (7)īeen “gospel” in the psychology of music field for decades. The same is valid for the majority of listeners. Have no predilection for the so-called natural intervals, and that As Barbour summarized:Īll of these experiments prove conclusively that singers and instrumentalists Listeners for “unjust” intervals, including wide major thirds and narrowĭiatonic semitones. ![]() Unfortunately, generations of students and scholars have depended on his flawedĮxposition as the last word on the issue.īurden that Just intonation has had to bear are the studies from the 1930s byĬarl Seashore and others, showing the supposed preference of musicians and ThereĪre ways to create a pure minor triad on the second degree of the scale-using aġ0:9 rather than a 9:8 whole tone, for instance-but such solutions are notĮxplored because they violate Barbour’s arbitrary twelve-note octave rule. Not a pure minor third and the “fifth” is not a pure fifth above the root. Second degree of the “Just” major scale, presented a 9:8 whole tone, a 4:3įourth, and a 5:3 major sixth above the “tonic.” In such a chord, the “third” is To give one example, his version of the triad on the The Renaissance ever suggest that a choice must be made between enharmonics.īarbour’s error caused him to offer recordings of supposedly Just chords that Nor does the theory of Just intonation as described by many writers in To work in a twelve-note octave as found on modern keyboard instruments, Significance for the history of musical theory than as a tuning system that wasĮver of importance in the world of practical Western music.” (6) It is a grievous misunderstanding of Just intonation to think that it is meant (5)Ĭaused Barbour, in his words, to “present just intonation more because of its In the octave, with enharmonically equivalent notes forbidden, that hasĬaused its outright rejection by musicians. Of course, it is the severe limitation of just intonation to twelve notes The characteristic features of Just intonation in its practical application, are demonstrated best and most precisely on keyboard instruments. But there was a fundamental flaw in Barbour’sĬonception of Just intonation, as may be seen in these two statements: It makes the consignment of Just intonation to the dustbin of history seem, as (4) It is difficult to imagine an opinion on tuning more powerfully expressed, and Referred to pure major and minor thirds as boring and insipid, and to anyoneĪdvocating a certain form of Just intonation as insane. Recording, The Theory and Practice of Just Intonation ( 1958 Musurgia A-3), has been one of the few resources available to anyone interested in the subject, Reference more than half a century after its publication, and whose 1958 Murray Barbour, whoseīook, Tuning and Temperament ( 1951 remains a standard Intonation-has not had a very positive reputation. Times, the use of acoustically pure intervals in musical performance-Just Theory and practice in Renaissance music. Misconceptions about the subject of Just intonation, then and now, soīenedetti’s evidence will form one crucial part of this re-examination of its Letters were discussed at length by the late Claude Palisca, (3) and I am greatly indebted to his work. This, ofĬourse, raises questions about whether Just intonation can work in practice. Intonation, as championed most famously by Gioseffo Zarlino, (2) would, in certain cases, cause the pitch of the ensemble to migrate. Subsequently publishing the letters inġ585, (1) Benedetti was attempting to demonstrate that adhering to principles of Just To the composer Cipriano de Rore in 1563. ![]() So begins the first of two letters sent by the mathematician Giovanni Battista Benedetti Nor can one know the theory of music without being versed in its practice. that one can understand the ratios of musical consonances without experiencing them with the senses is wrong. Copyright © 2006 Society for Music Theoryīenedetti's Puzzles | Problematic Passages
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