Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!elbereth.rutgers.edu!cornicel From: cornicel@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Cornicello) Newsgroups: comp.music Subject: Re: spectral composition Message-ID: Date: 27 Oct 89 22:19:14 GMT References: <6066@merlin.usc.edu> Reply-To: cornicel@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Cornicello) Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 46 In article <6066@merlin.usc.edu> alves@aludra.usc.edu (Bill Alves) writes: >In article cornicel@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Cornicello) writes: >> [deleted my own article] >> >I'm afraid I can't help you too much on the sources, but I thought I'd ven- >ture what I know (as well as an opinion). *Research* in acoustics as a basis >for art seems to be a foundational idea for the Boulez school (whence IRCAM), >and one way they have come up with realizing this is by attempting to repro- >duce complex acoustic spectra orchestrationally or using the spectral content >as the basis for pitch sets. The pieces I've heard which do this do it one >of two ways: 1) by analyzing complex timbres such as bells (as in Jonathan >Harvey's IRCAM piece), gongs, etc., but not those with harmonic spectra, as >that would yield a static pitch set (theoretically); 2) by recreating orches- >trationally electronic effects such as ring modulation. > >Now, I think these are great ideas, especially the first, but, personally, I >think they went about it all wrong. In order to reconcile these spectra to >equal temperament and hence twelve-tone music and serialism, the works I've >heard "round off" the frequencies to the nearest semitone. I brought this >question up briefly to Marc Batier of IRCAM when he was here, but he didn't >see the contradicton that I did. > Well, I've got a Murail score in front of me (brought over by a friend), and not only does it have quarter-tones, but there are further subdivisions than that! You might have seen an early version of this principle. Oh, and let's hear it for "just intonation" I would like to see some alternate tunings listed on this board. How about eliminating the octave? -ac