Scales And Pitches On Highland Bagpipes - Do They Transfer To The Conc

[Pianist]

The answer as to why the bagpipe scale is as it is is down to drones.  This - http://publish.uwo.ca/~emacphe3/pipes/acoustics/pipescale.html - has more information than anybody needs on tunings but makes the point that the notes have to be consonant / congruent with the drones to produce a nice sound. (?? a nice sound on the pipes ??). The principles of tuning are similar to that of an a cappella choir or barbershop quartet who also use perfect tuning to get accurate harmonies without unpleasant overtones which might arise from mean tone tunings.

[Wolf Molkentin]

19 minutes ago, Pianist said:

The answer as to why the bagpipe scale is as it is is down to drones.  This - http://publish.uwo.ca/~emacphe3/pipes/acoustics/pipescale.html - has more information than anybody needs on tunings but makes the point that the notes have to be consonant / congruent with the drones to produce a nice sound. (?? a nice sound on the pipes ??). The principles of tuning are similar to that of an a cappella choir or barbershop quartet who also use perfect tuning to get accurate harmonies without unpleasant overtones which might arise from mean tone tunings.

 

Very interesting reading again, thanks for posting.

 

However, in the end you may have wanted to be referring to ET rather than MT tunings I guess...

 

Best wishes - Wolf

[Little John]

4 hours ago, Wolf Molkentin said:

 

However, in the end you may have wanted to be referring to ET rather than MT tunings I guess...

 

 

Equal temperament (ET) is a special case of mean-tone temperaments (MT); twelfth comma mean-tone in fact. When we refer to mean-tone temperaments we usually mean moderate ones like fifth or sixth comma; but they're all compromises. Pianist is right - a cappella singers can avoid compromises and adjust each chord to true intervals.

[Wolf Molkentin]

20 minutes ago, Little John said:

 

Equal temperament (ET) is a special case of mean-tone temperaments (MT); twelfth comma mean-tone in fact. When we refer to mean-tone temperaments we usually mean moderate ones like fifth or sixth comma; but they're all compromises. Pianist is right - a cappella singers can avoid compromises and adjust each chord to true intervals.

 

Hi John - thank you for the further clarification. What you're mentioning in your final sentence I did already know, nevertheless it never occurred to me that in fact ET can be regarded as just a perfectly levelled MT tuning. However - well-tempered/"irregular" tunings (Werckmeister f.i.) still couldn't be referred to as MT, could they?

 

Best wishes - Wolf

 

Edited June 5, 2018 by Wolf Molkentin