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Wendy Carlos
Computer Music Journal, Vol. 11, No. 4. (Winter, 1987), pp. 10-11.
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Wed Feb 13 11:22:41 2008
onymous with it. The inadequacy of orchestra and the pianoforte as the On page 45, column 1, the ex-
small numbers can be demonstrated primary idioms for musical compo- pression (hcf,,) should read
by comparing ratios with similar fac- sition. A combination of social and 5(hcfp,Q).
tors. For example, the ratios 3 :4 (per- musical forces dictated that music On page 48, column 2, eight lines
fect fourth) and 3 :5 (major sixth) be louder and be performed in larger from the top, the damping factor
differ only because 3 :4 has a factor halls. The result was the augmenting should be 1/20.
of 4 and 3 :5 has a factor of 5. The of the number of music-producing On page 58, column 2, nine lines
greater consonance of the perfect elements: players in the case of the from the top, it should read
fourth over the major sixth would in- orchestra, and strings per pitch in "scaling is."
dicate that 4 is much more harmonic the case of the piano. The resulting On page 59, Table 8, instances of
than 5. The ratios 8 : 9 (major tone) chorus effect so raised the level of the letter Z should be replaced
and 9 : 10 (minor tone) also differ only beating within the consonances that by the numeral 2.
by factors of 4 and 5. These are both the harsh discrepancy of conso- On page 60, Table 9, third column,
different tunings of the major second nanceldissonance sonorities was the 20th row, should read
and differ only slightly in frequency. I mollified. This is what made equal 0.057471, not 9.057471.
suspect their harmonicity also differs temperament work and made it ac-
only slightly. Again, please use your ceptable. In order for the pipe organ
facilities to confirm (or disconfirm) to achieve a similar level of chorus- Errors in Wendy Carlos Article
my suspicions. ing in the consonance, multiple pipes
sounding unisons were required, A few small errors crept into the
John Appenheimer hence the rise of the Romantic organ. printing of my article, "Tuning: At
874 Riverside Dr. The richness of the chorus effect in the Crossroads" in the Spring 1987
Dixon, Illinois 61021 USA the tone of the piano is only further issue (11[1]).The first is in the first
extended by the well-known inhar- paragraph, on p. 29, where my "vigi-
monicity of the partials produced lance" got transmogrified into
Bored by Pure Tones by each string and the resulting "viligance."
stretched tuning employed in the Less capricious is the caption to
Volume 11, No. 1 of Computer Music piano. Fig. 17, on p. 40, where the original
Journal was certainly very appropri- To conclude, I wish to point out wording was " 'Multiphonic' gener-
ate and turned out to be an attractive that acoustically pure tunings are es- alized keyboard. One octave, C to c.
summary of work in microtonality. sentially meaningless in the context 3 1 q 2 note names." became: ". . .
The computer will, no doubt, take of the chorus effect, also that a pub- One octave, C to circa 31<2 note
the lead in virtually all work in mi- lic that has grown accustomed to the names," as my small case "c," for the
crotonality in the coming years. richness of current music will be note an octave above great "C," was
There is an interesting assumption bored by pure tones, no matter how unluckily the same as Computer
running through all of the articles on fine the intervals they form. Music Journal's usual abbreviation
the topic in the issue in question as for "circa," not the "ca." I am used to.
well as most other writing on the sub- Robert C. Ehle The third error may have been ob-
ject: that the brain can be the arbiter School of Music vious from context. In the last para-
about such matters. It is my observa- University of Northern Colorado graph on p. 42, the symbol "<" was
tion that musicians usually learn to Greeley, Colorado 80639 USA used in place of my ">" for the de-
make music with the resources at scription of multiple divisions with
hand, and they respond to those re- greater than 24 notes.
sources by finding aurally appropri- Corrections for Clarence And for those who have com-
ate ways to employ them to make Barlow's Article plained to me about the size of the
music. illustrations, I, too, was surprised
A specific case is that era in the The following corrections to the ar- that my 11" by 17" originals, particu-
eighteenth century marked by the ticle "Two Essays on Theory," pub- larly Fig. 18-20, were reduced to
acceptance of equal temperament, lished in Computer Music Journal about 2" by 3", no doubt out of space
the decline of the organ and harpsi- 1l ( 1 )1987, were submitted by Clar- considerations. But the Journal's re-
chord, and the rise of the modern ence Barlow-Ed. production is amazingly sharp, so