DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

JUST INTONATION JUST INTONATION 555
a major. Thus, the position of the note D must
i ^-^
Key of C.
=5t E^
— a:
Key of F.
s2
he slightly higher in the first case than in the
second. Such a difference as this is only just
appreciable by a trained ear, but on instruments
or Yoices that are capable of performing in Just
Intonation the beauty of an untempered chord
is unmistakable. The instruments of the violin
family, on which the notes are not fixed, can be
played in Just Intonation, and choirs that are
in the habit of practising without the aid of keyboard
instruments can be made to realise the
difference and to make the intervals really accurate.
Occasionally solo singers are to be found
who can adapt their voices to give the correct
intervals, but as a matter of course, the frequent
modulations in modern music, causing delicate
adjustment of pitch to be made at every moment,
make it more and more difficult to realise Just
Intonation in practice. The one violin player
who most constantly observes scientific truth in
his intervals is Joachim.
Neither the keyboard of the piano, nor
the ordinary notation, has any means of making
clearsuchdifferencesas have been here described ;
but the ' modulator '
of the Tonic Sol-Fa system
(see Tosic Soi.-r.i) in its larger form, shows
very clearly the difference of size in the. succes-
sive intervals, the syllable Ray being represented
as far nearer to Me than to Doh. The truths of
Just Intonation do not appear to be emphasised
as they might be by Sol-Fa teachers, but in the
training of the ear much may be and no doubt
is, done unconsciously. m.