cboody

Stqqill looking? I have one.

What’s wonderful is how the style is captured! All the lift and snaps etc. an object lesson for those of us who can get around those notes easily enough but may fail miserably at the style. Thanks for this!

EasyABC (actually abc2midi) has the capability based on Barfly. You can turn the capability on and off in the menus. I may be able to find a link to details if someone really wants it...

Well, I’m not at all sure what you mean here, but you are correct about the 8 available keys. The difference between C base and D base is the F and C arebetter in C base and the F# and C# better in D base. That said, the difference is scarcely discernible, more so in 1/4 comma. I think you may be confused here. If D is the scale which is completely Uncompromised in some meantone tuning then D was the basis for the tuning of the scales. One could, I suppose, use some other note (C or A?j to derive a tuning note that matches some standardized pitch center, but then the question arises as to how you get the pitch of the D. An unnecessary and confusing issue, particularly in the days before electronic tuners. It is probably a mistake to assume anything more than an approximation of a standardized C or A. Pitch levels varied wildly and quite beyond the low pitch and high pitch "standards" often referred to. im not sure how you got the A 449 and A452 numbers. I think your conclusion is perfectly appropriate as long as you play alone or with instruments that can be tuned to match you in some way.

Yup. That is the issue in a nutshell. One should note that ET is not the only "well tempered scale.

Well, you said it differently, but we don’t disagree in any substantive way.

Well...just to clarify, or muddy, things a bit. My term scale below refers to the major scale. 1. The reason for a particular starting note being chosen with mean tone tuning is that the farther you deviate from the scale of the chosen starting note the farther the scale sounds out of tune and the worse important chords will sound. 2. 1/4 comma and 1/5 comma meantone tunings arean attempt to deviate enough to allow the advantages of meantone tuning to apply to a wider range of keys. 3. The range of good sounding keys is narrower with 1/4 comma tuning, so realize that if you leave it tuned that way you’ll want to be sure you’re happy with the available keys. I’m not advocating you change the tuning, though 1/5 comma would be my choice. 4. You can see from the above why knowing the chosen starting point is crucial. 5. If your tuner gives Hz I’d recommend you get those numbers for the entire instrument. It should help determine starting note. And/or if your tuner allows you to set the starting pitch for the 1/4 mean try each starting note and frequency and check the scale for the other notes. The starting note used will be the one where the scale deviates the least. Then you will know which notes need adjustment. 6. The wolf tone you refer to is mediated by the 1/4 or 1/5 meantone tuning, so strictly speaking it doesn’t occur anywhere. I believe that term is usually only associated with Pythagorean tuning, but I might be very wrong about that. hope this helps!

Check these versions http://john-chambers.us/~jc/cgi/abc/find.cgi?P=Sporting+paddy&find=FIND&m=title&W=wide&scale=0.65&limit=1000&thresh=5&fmt=single&V=1&Tsel=tune&Nsel=0

I had a chance to see, play, and listen to Pat play this instrument. It has been gone over by Greg Jowaisas, and play very well indeed. Well in tune of course. Too close to something I own for me, but an excellent instrument in my opinion and worth the price.

Looks good Pat. I’d like a chance to see it! We need to get together anyway....

Spot on! 5 points!

To muddy the waters in this discussion a bit: what version of Scarborough Fair are we talking about? On this side of the pond most people would think of the Simon and Garfunkel version. Does that now mean we should be matching it with an American tune? i understand and respect the idea of trying to keep traditions pure, but I also think there is considerable interpenetration of repertoires across what used to be called the British Isles. That said I also note that English repertoire stands somewhat more separate than Irish and Scottish. As I said a tough pancake. (Five points to the first person to identify my source for that).

Abt possibility of a video?

For more an you want to know about modes check out Jack Campin’s wonderful "modes and tonality in Scottish music," complete with extensive examples. http://www.campin.me.uk/Music/Modes/

I can’t get to the very useful listing of all things unread that was available. Where did it go?

Nice summary. Be interested to know what things required you to use Musescore.

This is the upper part of the keyboard ' starting on the first C on the right side' of a normal 48 treble. Ah! Strange register....

Err. About that fingering chart.... I think of C being on the left side. Straighten out my thinking please...

Well, part of the issue here is that you selected a relatively low pitch to look at. The preferred length for a given note with a given reed size and thickness gets progressively more problematic as the notes get lower, what’s wanted is a significantly longer reed, which will in turn have issues with speed of response. So, all of the reed lengths are compromises of various sorts. The first tenancy is increased first harmonic, and the next is Increased second harmonicas you see here. I’ve insufficient recollection of the details of vibration of concertina reeds to-provide chapter and verse, but if you want to prove your thesis I’d suggest trying A4 and perhaps some other notes. You may be correct for the given note, but incorrect for the instrument in general.

Contact Greg Jowaisas in Covington KY. He might. Tunes concertina reeded instruments beautifully.

I think the error is in the reader on the iPad, jot your transcription. Checking will have to wait. My wife is suddenly hospitalized.

Might have been the &. I'll Take You Home Again...reads. Speaking of which there appears to be an error in measure nine voice two. I didn't check carefully. Got to crash.

Thanks for this effort Pete. Will you make a single abc file available when you finish? If so I'll be happy to make a completed book (PDF) with a table of contents and cover. Incidentally you might like to know your transcription won't work on either of the common iPad abc programs. Not because you are wrong but because they are incomplete in their capabilities!

PM sent.

Not a new thing. I think there are references in passing to this in my 1977 dissertation, though that work dealt with non compositional use of the computer. I know that a couple of college kids did a similar thing creating "Bach" chorales using the probability information in one of the standard harmony books, because I helped with it. Still, an interesting project, and one that I hope continues to develop. Can the program, in the future, produce Scottish or Cape Breton tunes distinguishable from Irish?