To all the temperament commentors, this video is edited. Temperament is discussed in the next bit of this lecture. The lecture is more interesting if you care about other things too ;-)
"The Unanswered Question 1973 1 Musical Phonology Bernstein Norton"
Notice he skirted around the 7th harmonic...you can't play anything really close to it on a normally-tuned piano keyboard. Using 19 divisions of the octave, or better, 31, allows you to utilize this harmonic. 31 also opens up the 11th harmonic. Good luck building a keyboard with that tuning though.
To anyone who is interested in the historical applications of the overtone series: I strongly suggest the book New Music Resources by Henry Cowell. While the book is fairly old (published in the 1930s but was written largely in the 1910s), its information on the harmonic series still holds true to this day.
@2Kortoso Right. But the difference between just intonation and the equal temperament is very small and that makes the overtones on the piano still audible.
@boggie276 True, but equal tempered thirds are quite far off at 400 cents; naturally they're about 386 cents. Fifths are OK, but because thirds are closer together it would be much better to temper the fifths as in meantone temperaments. Equal Temperament was an piano tuning abberation that has somehow... stuck.
@spectralmusic Yeah, thirds are pretty out-of-tune in the 12-tone equal temperament. Have you ever seen 31-tone equal temperament? A little more unwieldly, but produces a much better match for thirds, also matches the 7th and 11th overtones well; fifths are still relatively in-tune too. 31et.com and good articles on Wikipedia too. There are a few other equally-tempered tunings that also improve thirds, 19, 22, and 34 to name a few.
LB was a genius...this may be the most important fact about music, and explains everything, from ancient music to modern day dissonance and "atonality"...
I'm ever thrilled that bernstein was totaly clueless about anything that pre dates the instruments themselves.
it's the best news I've heared in 42 years.
because it means I can grab the brass ring that he didn't see.
azkeyz 3 weeks ago
Anyone who is interesting in undertones, watch my video on how to generate them...
ToneSpectra 4 months ago
To all the temperament commentors, this video is edited. Temperament is discussed in the next bit of this lecture. The lecture is more interesting if you care about other things too ;-)
"The Unanswered Question 1973 1 Musical Phonology Bernstein Norton"
foobargorch 4 months ago
Notice he skirted around the 7th harmonic...you can't play anything really close to it on a normally-tuned piano keyboard. Using 19 divisions of the octave, or better, 31, allows you to utilize this harmonic. 31 also opens up the 11th harmonic. Good luck building a keyboard with that tuning though.
cazortz 4 months ago
To anyone who is interested in the historical applications of the overtone series: I strongly suggest the book New Music Resources by Henry Cowell. While the book is fairly old (published in the 1930s but was written largely in the 1910s), its information on the harmonic series still holds true to this day.
MusicaRicercata 1 year ago
He reminds me of an intellectual villain from an episode of Columbo, except that now and then, he turns slightly camp in his mannerisms.
spectralmusic 1 year ago
Comment removed
spectralmusic 1 year ago
this is so cool : )
lim7lim 1 year ago
Lenny is describing just intonation but the piano is tuned to equal temperament, nicht war?
2Kortoso 2 years ago
@2Kortoso Right. But the difference between just intonation and the equal temperament is very small and that makes the overtones on the piano still audible.
boggie276 1 year ago
@boggie276 True, but equal tempered thirds are quite far off at 400 cents; naturally they're about 386 cents. Fifths are OK, but because thirds are closer together it would be much better to temper the fifths as in meantone temperaments. Equal Temperament was an piano tuning abberation that has somehow... stuck.
spectralmusic 1 year ago
@spectralmusic Yeah, thirds are pretty out-of-tune in the 12-tone equal temperament. Have you ever seen 31-tone equal temperament? A little more unwieldly, but produces a much better match for thirds, also matches the 7th and 11th overtones well; fifths are still relatively in-tune too. 31et.com and good articles on Wikipedia too. There are a few other equally-tempered tunings that also improve thirds, 19, 22, and 34 to name a few.
cazortz 4 months ago
@2Kortoso Equal temperament approximates just intonation and adheres to the same laws of tonal magnetism.
KABRIS1 9 months ago
thanks for the upload very helpful!!
holdenx100 2 years ago
Cool
F 8va 5th 4th M3rd m3rd m3rd M2nd
1:1- 2:1-3:2-4:3- this is fun- hold down the low C key lifting the damper- then sharply strike the octave, the 5th etc........
Amethysting 2 years ago
LB was a genius...this may be the most important fact about music, and explains everything, from ancient music to modern day dissonance and "atonality"...
jothekeeb 3 years ago
@jothekeeb He didn't discover harmonics.
spectralmusic 1 year ago