Re: Odd output

[David Kastrup]

Michael Ellis <address@hidden> writes:

> Yes! Spelling does count because poorly spelled music is much harder
> to read. I'm somewhat less convinced regarding sonic differences on
> untempered instruments because the matter is more complicated than
> that, e.g G# as the leading tone to A is different from G# as the
> third of E. In practice, it comes down to the performer's ear to make
> those distinctions.

I have asked someone about a "quint register" in a virtual accordion,
and while I have not heard it myself, his opinion is that this register
is a _tempered_ fifth above the normal sound (namely, "in scale").

I tend to believe him, even though it would imply that someone had no
clue about what he is supposed to be doing (or did not have the
material/samples to do this properly).  I've long ago come to the
painful realization that it is a mistake to rule out that possibility.

I am not sure that a performer with a manually-pitchable instrument will
overly obey enharmonic information against his own ear.  Writing
functionally, however, will help with recognizing chord patterns.  There
are curious things like keyboards (cembali, I think) with split black
keys that can be tuned to make use of that distinction, but I would
suppose that the players of such rare beasts are versed enough to apply
the right choice even against notation.

-- 
David Kastrup