3 ms·
> I was born with something not quite like perfect pitch, but when something is even slightly off tune it caused physical discomfort for me. Define off tune? 1
by PaulDavisThe1st 8mo ago
> I was born with something not quite like perfect pitch, but when something is even slightly off tune it caused physical discomfort for me.
Define off tune? 12 TET? Just intonation? Bohlen-Pierce (56 TET) ?
The "in tune" notes are as much a function of culture as physics.
- otabdeveloper4 8mo ago> The "in tune" notes are as much a function of culture as physics. Huh? Pitch ratios are not a social construct, it's just arithmetic.
- reverius42 8mo agoAnd the choice of which ratios "sound good" is cultural, to some extent.
- otabdeveloper4 8mo agoNo it isn't. You can hear integer pitch ratios in the same way you can see, e.g., the difference between a square and a rectangle or between a circle and an oval.
- PaulDavisThe1st 8mo agoBut more than 90% of all the written-composed music from western Europe and North America (at minimum) over the last several centuries does not use integer pitch ratios.
- otabdeveloper4 8mo agoYes, that's indeed what the TFA is about.
- khafra 8mo agoThere's definitely some physical underpinnings--most music systems have the concept of an octave which maps nicely onto frequency-doubling, for example. But there's also culture: For a purely Western example, even-tempering is in tune, but you'll hear different "beat patterns" for a given interval than with an instrument tuned for music in just one key.