[Harp-L] shortly chromatic

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Bulldog says"

It's Bulldogge--I believe there is another person on harp-l called  
"Bulldog", and he probably doesn't want to be mistaken for me, nor  
vice versa.

Michael Rubin writes in response to my saying that IMO you can't or  
no-one does "play" the diatonic chromatically:

"Where or what is your previous definition of play? "

It's in the archives, but I'll repost that bit here (quoting myself):

"...I need to define what I mean
by "play" in this sense.  Of course, with bending and overbending you
can get all the notes, but that's not what I mean.  I mean that you can
actually play the piece musically, without intonation issues, without
different timbres between altered and natural notes, essentially that
you can play any note and have it sound like any other note, or at close
enough.  Basically, that nothing sticks out as particularly different
from the rest, mostly in terms of intonation and timbre."

That's what I mean by "play" in this term: that there is no  
difference in articulation, timbre, phrasing (and obviously, no  
intonational problems) between different notes simply because one is  
a natural note and another an accidental (bent or overblown).

"Imo, Levy plays it chromatically."

IMO, good as he is he doesn't.  Not all that close, really--maybe  
closer than most, but that's like saying that I'm closer to a dog  
genetically than a squid--it's still pretty far.  I don't really have  
a desire  to go over this again, especially since the archives have a  
lot of good debate on the issue (see the "question" thread from  
February of this year, amongst many others), so I'll leave it there.

"I am sure there are others.  Most people I have met who are deep in  
the chromatic side of diatonic play in the majority of positions but  
hold off on a few, but there must be more people in the world who do  
it."

Not that I've ever heard.  There is a lot of interesting music being  
played, but none that gets even close to what I would call playing  
the diatonic "chromatically", as in any key song on any key diatonic  
with none of the issues I presented above.  That's a pipe-dream,  
IMO.  And the statement you made about "hold[ing] off on a few" would  
be to me essentially all the evidence needed.  The fact that people  
rarely play in 8th position says a lot, IMO.  Of course, if they  
tried it for a recognizable song it might say even more about how  
flawed I think the "diatonic chromatic" theory is, IMO.

I still think the Ode challenge is the best evidence that it simply  
can't be done.  That's not to say you can't find ways to play most  
songs on the instrument(s), but it does say to me that the any song,  
any key idea really doesn't float.

Hmmm...well, I guess I did have a bit of a desire to get into it.   
Still, for me this is a fairly brief post:).




 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()   & Snuffy, too:)
`----'