Date Available

7-26-2018

Year of Publication

2018

Degree Name

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Fine Arts

Department/School/Program

Music

First Advisor

Benjamin Karp

Abstract

The following document was created in order to promote intonation consensus in ensembles and to better facilitate learning in educational settings. Non-keyboard instruments provide musicians an opportunity to make nearly infinitesimal adjustments to pitch while performing; this creates difficulties for students and challenges even the most seasoned professionals. Non-keyboard musicians struggle their whole lives to play in tune, and even when one knows exactly where they want to place a pitch, technical difficulties can foul any musician's performance. When performing solo, the musician must choose a tuning system that is suitable for the music being performed, and attempt to realize it. When performing in ensembles, the need for consensus and a systematic approach become more apparent. When performing with keyboards, the difficulties are increased as further compromises are required. This research was conducted with the intention to assist non-keyboard instrumentalists in selecting and recreating an appropriate temperament. Additionally, the author hopes that keyboard instrumentalists will be inclined to make a consideration for the non-keyboard instruments when selecting their temperament. The following document contains information useful to those wishing to employ a consistent approach to tuning. Presented here are the acoustic phenomena that have perplexed scholars around the world for the last 2600 years. The history and science of these acoustic questions will be demonstrated and discussed.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2018.400

Share

COinS