439 and 440

Can anyone crunch like the stylophone?

Can any voice its spry songs replicate?

Whose waves, textured as tightly as their tones,

do crunch the best the chords that they create?

Put any piece of music to the board

and practice with the stylus stalwartly,

and reap the crispy overtone reward

of songs, enjoyed before, now crunchily.

I say, I love the band and love the choir,

and love an orchestra where one is due,

but when my ear, a good scratch, doth require,

the stylophone is the best man can do—

that square-waved, bit-crushed, synthy duo-drone

of the most humble, humming stylophone.

~~~

On equal temperament (for A440):

An “equal” melody there could not be

today, with today’s instrumental truss.

For any kind of such a melody

was lost the day that tones were not fixed “just”.

Not lost, of course, are ears that hear truly,

but less and less I must assume they are.

For instruments and keyboards are “faulty”

if they stray from what’s “equal” just too far.

But choirs still can hear it, if they try—

the tones that tell the music we have lost—

and if you spy a ceiling good and high,

you might just hear it there, and learn the cost.

We’ve paid for living by the law once set,

and lose our overtones with much regret.