Re: [Harp-L] Enharmonics

[IcemanLE@xxxxxxx]

Well written response.
 
I should have stated Equal Temperament in my comment - after all, that is  
the evolved system used for our Western (as opposed to Eastern) music these  
days. 
 
 
In a message dated 9/2/2008 7:26:28 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:

Iceman  writes:

"a Cb sounds exactly like a B - it is the same "audio  frequency" -  
vibrates
at the same cyles/second. "


Only  in a temperament which has the two notes as enharmonics.  That   
would be 12TET or other limited-set temperaments.  In other  systems  
(including the various non-equal intonations used for  diatonic  
harmonicas) Cb and B are distinct musical notes with  different  
values.  Very close, but not the same.    This is somewhat semantics,  
but it is also accurate and gets to this  point:

Iceman:
"Not talking harmonica, but MUSIC here. Time for  harmonica players  
to  upgrade
towards musicianship in their  knowledge and discussions, me  thinks."


While I'm not sure I  care (people are going to take their music  
theory to the level they  desire and need, and I'm fine with that), I  
agree in general that  knowledge is good.  And a very simple thing  
which everyone can  remember is that enharmonic notes (Cb/B, C#/Db, E#/ 
F, G#/Ab, etc...) only  exist in temperaments or intonations with a  
fixed number of notes  per octave.  Thus, Cb and B are only the same  
for systems where  the two cannot both exist.  For a pianist or  
organist with only  twelve keys per octave, they will be the same.   
For a violinist  with infinite divisions of a string, they are not the  
same.   The harmonica comes somewhere in-between (on a single  
harmonica they  are likely to be the same, but they may not be the  
same note on  different key harmonicas--as Tim correctly pointed  out).




()()    JR "Bulldogge"  Ross
()   ()
`----'



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