Music theory for nerds (2016)

Re:Music theory for nerds (2016) by munificent on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @06:47PM (#30367494)

I have heard the a capella singers will naturally sing intervals and chords using just intonation and that because of that you can craft melodies that will lead them farther and farther from the original tuning:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntonic_comma#Comma_pump

Also, my understanding is that a big part of the magic of barbershop quartet singing is ringing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbershop_music#Ringing_chord...). Those chords that sound so pure that it gives you goosebumps. That requires singing in just intonation.

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Re:Music theory for nerds (2016) by acjohnson55 on Friday February 18, 2022 @06:15PM (#30392486)

Yep yep.

The interesting thing about the Barbershop 7th is that it doesn't function like a dominant 7th chord, which feels unstable and pulls towards the relative tonic chord (e.g. G7 -> C). The Barbershop 7th chord has a slightly flattened 7th to line it up with the overtones of the root note, blending it in and making it stable.

You might say it's a microtonal effect in that you hypothetically could notate and sing a C7 differently depending on its function in the piece. I don't know whether this is done in practice, though.

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