Wow, the WWW site John Mallinckrodt found (Medieval Music & Arts
Foundation) for explaining musical scales is indeed a good one. At
this point I have skimmed it, and I will need to go back and read it
more carefully.
As I skimmed the Medieval Music & Arts Foundation web site I noticed
that they use the standard wording of trying to avoid "wolf tones" as
we invent various musical scales. These wolf tones occur when two
notes are played simultaneously and yield a combined sound quite
different than what is usually heard when two notes are played
simultaneously. This happens because the overtones of one note and the
overtones of the other note, in that particular tempering scheme,
produce "obnoxious beating."
The reason I am mentioning this is because today during my coffee break
I was talking to one of our music theory faculty members about musical
scales, and about this discussion on phys-l, and he remarked that we
should remember that it is primarily a "western civilization" judgement
that these wolf tones are "obnoxious." He said that many African and
Eastern traditional musicians would view equal tempering as dead or
uninteresting. Some cultures intentionally tune instruments to create
"wolf tones" because they like that sound. He didn't use a specific
name for this, but I suppose they might rather call these "buzz tones"
or "warm tones" as opposed to wolf tones.
Another example that comes to mind, and is geographically closer to the
USA, is Caribbean steel drum music. Of course they are mostly playing
western tunes, but they're using instruments with "weird" harmonics and
often imperfect tuning. It's a distinctive sound, and I find it
interesting... for a while.
At the risk of sounding prejudiced, or upper-crust, etc. I will remark
that I also see this type of thing in our culture in "country music."
Steel guitars and singers with slurred pitches (as well as interesting
pronunciations) all combine to create that country "twang." I also
find this music interesting... for a while. But my wife, who was
trained in classical music as was I, has taken a liking to Garth Brooks
and Shania Twain, and I have to listen to that more that I would
prefer. Good grief!
But it gets worse. My daughter, who *is* building a guitar amplifier
for her science fair project (a whole different thread on this list)
insists that she needs distortion. Of course we're doing that by
severely clipping the signal in the amplifier. Wolf tone? Not quite
the original meaning of wolf tone, but from my perspective it's the
big-bad-wolf. I managed to grow up through the Jimmi Hendrix era
without ever taking a liking to that. And now that stuff... uh,
music... is what my daughter thinks is cool and she wants to play it?
Good grief, good grief!
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D. Phone/voice-mail: 419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics FAX: 419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department E-Mail edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817