Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site cmu-cs-g.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!rochester!cmu-cs-pt!cmu-cs-g!ckk From: ckk@cmu-cs-g.ARPA (Chris Koenigsberg) Newsgroups: net.music.classical,net.music.synth Subject: Re: Microtonal music questions(research, long) Message-ID: <256@cmu-cs-g.ARPA> Date: Wed, 27-Mar-85 23:40:42 EST Article-I.D.: cmu-cs-g.256 Posted: Wed Mar 27 23:40:42 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 30-Mar-85 01:53:01 EST References: <520@ahuta.UUCP> <662@pyuxd.UUCP>, <2661@mcnc.UUCP> Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI Lines: 86 Xref: watmath net.music.classical:1005 net.music.synth:160 A composer-professor named Easley Blackwood, of the University of Chicago, came to CMU last year and discussed his recording and research in the area of microtonal scales. He has released an album called "12 Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media" and you can only get it from him. I suggest contacting the music department there. As part of his funded research, he composed 12 etudes, one in each equal-tempered tuning from 13 notes/octave on up to 24 notes/octave, and the record contains all 12. Sort of a modern day variation on the "Well-tempered clavier" series. His main interest seems to be the study of cadences, harmonies, and modulations, and how they vary when the tuning varies. That is, when we hear a major third and then a minor third, what happens in our heads? One has an extra semitone, and in Western music, all semitones are of equal "size"(meaning frequency ratio between upper and lower note). A whole step is two semitones, which is exactly twice as "big" as a half step, or one semitone. In his lecture, he played taped examples of a piece, repeated using different diatonic tunings (ABCDEFG stayed the same as abstract "notes" but were given different pitch values on the synthesizer) where the whole step was no longer exactly twice as big as the half step. He was able to vary the ratio almost continuously, given fairly precise control on the Polyfusion synthesizer, and tape record the same musical score using different whole step/half step ratio values. At a certain point, the feeling of "this chord is major but that chord is minor" went away. His last example was one in which the half step was actually larger, in the frequency difference between upper and lower notes, than the whole step! That is, a "C" was actually lower in pitch than a "B". The pieces on his record sound like familiar classical-type music, but kind of sour and twisted in subtle ways. His compositions in each tuning stick to the particular in-tune (in the diatonic harmony sense) intervals peculiar to that tuning. He stays away from the really sour intervals and if you don't pay attention you might not realize that anything funny is going on, you might just think that the performers are playing out of tune! I myself enjoy quite outlandish horrible sounds as well as more familiar ones, so I have explored microtonal notes trying to work around, or at least to pervert, my Western classical diatonic conditioning by which I recognize equal-tempered "harmonies". Finally, the classical music of India (Hindustani and Karnatic) uses microtones but in a subtle way. Their basic scales are pretty close to subsets of the Western 12 tones, but they (especially in the Southern Karnatic style) fill in the gaps with continuous bends, stretches, and glissandos, applying an extraordinary precision and melodic tension which is quite exciting and invigorating to the soul of the listener. A Karnatic player of the veena, Balchandar, once described and showed what he considered to be the difference between Western, Hindustani, and Karnatic styles. He played the same raga melody Western style(sounded like Bach!), Hindustani style (Ravi Shankar-like) and finally Karnatic, in which the entire thing was played with one finger, on one string, in one position, just INTENSELY BENDING! He could bend the veena string over more than an entire octave from one position, sliding smooothly through the frequency space in a manner totally foreign to our western piano-spoiled ears. I am quite interested in discussing (and listening, and performing) microtonal music, so get in touch with me. This account will expire on April 15, after which I will have a new usenet address at cmu, so hurry up! Or send me snail mail.... Chris Koenigsberg until April 15: tektronix!hplabs!hao!seismo!rochester!cmu-cs-pt!cmu-cs-g!ckk ckk@cmu-cs-g.arpa after April 15: try ckk@cmu-itc-c , I don't know the usenet path. Snail mail, calls to: 1025 MurrayHill Ave. Pittsburgh, Pa. 15217 (412)362-6422 "The creative person looks upon everything in the world as a predator" -Pierre Boulez