sam@ahuta.UUCP (sam) (03/11/85)
Over the last couple of months I've been hearing more and more "microtonal" music. (Microtonal music under anyone's definition is well-tempered to *n* parts to an octave, where for some n>12 and for others simply n!=12.) Some microtonal music has appealing characteristics. I have, for example, heard some nice jazz- and baroque-like pieces that would be worth spending money on. Does anyone know of albums of microtonal music in existance? Specific artists to look out for? Which microtonal scales won't offend my western ears? Which will? Which are vaguely "major"? "Minor"? Are there other interesting questions I should be asking about microtonal music? Thanks. Doug Lewan (...!ihnp4!)ahuta!sam
rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Professor Wagstaff) (03/12/85)
> Over the last couple of months I've been hearing more and more "microtonal" > music. (Microtonal music under anyone's definition is well-tempered to *n* > parts to an octave, where for some n>12 and for others simply n!=12.) > Does anyone know of albums of microtonal music in existance? Specific > artists to look out for? Which microtonal scales won't offend my western > ears? Which will? Which are vaguely "major"? "Minor"? Are there other > interesting questions I should be asking about microtonal music? > Doug Lewan (...!ihnp4!)ahuta!sam A good chunk of Charles Ives' music uses quarter-tones, utilizing the notes between the twelve notes (24 notes per octave). Apparently he and his family were taught this scaling in singing lessons from his father. (Ives was the first yuppie composer, being a successful accountant by day and a composer only in his spare time.) Other attempts at microtonal music involved scales of much more bizarre temperaments. A professor of mine (Joel Mandelbaum at Queens College) wrote his thesis on 19-note temperament and did further work into 31-note temperament. You may ask: why such bizarre numbers? First, twelve is a nearly perfect number considering its size: 2, 3, 4, and 6 go into it evenly, and thus the octave can be equally divided in any number of ways. One notices that the equal divisions of the octave seem to have come into vogue only in most recent memory (late 19th century) in a major way, because they evolved around a base of tonality: it is those equal divisions (tritone, augmented triad, diminished seventh, and whole tone scale as obtained by dividing by 2, 3, 4, and 6) that are the LEAST tonal, the least associated with a given key, and thus most used by experimenters in ambiguous tonal coloration like Debussy. The normal "tonalities" (or "keys") are based on UNequal divisions of the octave based on different points of origin (root of major scale and major triad). Using a PRIME number as the dividing factor might be thought to enable newer and richer types of tonalities, utilizing newer and more interesting divisions of the octave, with the possibility of still remaining close to a sense of "western" tonality in sound. Note that given a prime number, there is NO way to evenly divide the octave (except the unison and the octave itself). The other reason had to with a problem associated with tempered scales: a tempered interval does not accurately represent a natural interval. For instance a perfect fifth, in which the two notes have a frequency ratio of 3:2, is tuned slightly differently to this ratio in a tempered scale, much to the offense of some people's ears. The 19- and 31- note temperaments, while still a compromise, offer a fifth (and other intervals) much closer to the natural interval. Motorola made an instrument called the Scalatron which used a bizarre keyboard with an unusual layout to provide for 31-tone temperament. The color scheme was enough to put you in knots. Does anyone else remember it?
bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes) (03/13/85)
Let us not forget one of the pioneers of American microtonal music
(not to mention unique and wonderful acoustic instruments such as
the Surrogate Kitharra, the Mazda Marimba, the Marimba Eroica and
last but not least the "Spoils of War",) Harry Partch. Amazing stuff
and well ahead of its time.
--
Byron C. Howes
...!{decvax,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!bchbrucec@shark.UUCP (The Traveller in Black @ The Old Phoenix) (03/14/85)
------ There was a composer named Harry Partch who worked for many years with microtonal scales (predominantly 41-tone, I think, but I may be wrong). He built instruments designed for those scales, such as a set of glass bells. I have several articles on him packed in a box in someone else's attic, so I have to fly on memory for this one. Partch died three or four years ago, as I remember. On a slight aside from classical music, I believe that the gamelan music of Java and Burma is microtonal (it sounds that way, anyhow). There's a gamelan group local to this area (Portland, OR), so maybe someone around here can respond on that. Bruce Cohen UUCP: ...!tektronix!shark!brucec CSNET: shark!brucec@tektronix ARPA: shark!brucec.tektronix@rand-relay USMail: M/S 61-277 Tektronix, Inc. P.O. Box 1000 Wilsonville, OR 97070
gtaylor@lasspvax.UUCP (Greg Taylor) (03/16/85)
In article <> brucec@shark.UUCP writes: >------ >On a slight aside from classical music, I believe that the gamelan music of >Java and Burma is microtonal (it sounds that way, anyhow). There's a >gamelan group local to this area (Portland, OR), so maybe someone around here >can respond on that. I have sort of a problem with that formulation if it implies that western scales and tuning formulas are the "right" from which microtonal scales diverge. You're right about the musics of Bali, Java, and Sunda using a different scale with differing intervals from our own. But it goes farther than that. Each different gamelan is *differently* tuned, so that it is very difficult to pluck a single instrument out of one ensemble and play it with another collection of instruments. Not only that-in many cases, the octaves are narrower or wider than what we call our octave. Ditto for their "fifth". A part of the reason for this is that much of the music relies for its effect on the beating that occurs when two slightly differently tuned pitches are struck together: that is what gives much of the music what westerners commonly refer to as the "floating" quality it has. It should be said that this sense of slight difference in pitch is not used merely for "effect" only. The good Indonesian ear has a much greater capacity for the appreciation of very minor changes in pitch. Many gamelans throughout Indonesia are venerated for their specific tunings (one of those situations in which diversity is seen as an advantage) and their characteristic sound. Certain pieces in the repertoire are *only* played on certain instruments because of their unique qualities. Often, a very old and venerated collection of instruments will go out of tune on a certain pitch. Retuning a single pitch would necessitate retuning the whole ensemble. The Javanese cherish the sound of those instruments so much that the scores actually have changed over a course of years to avoid the "embat" (bad, false, unemphasized) tones. I'm citing this as an example to point out how it is possible to think very differently about the idea of pitches and tunings. It's a question of the imbedded assumptions. When the Indonesians first heard western classical music, they are reported to have wondered why it wept and moaned so. They suspected that the music was lacking its fundamental component-the drum, and was thus badly out of balance...speeding up and slowing down without apparent purpose. Didn't expect this to be that long. Sorry.
rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Professor Wagstaff) (03/19/85)
> Let us not forget one of the pioneers of American microtonal music > (not to mention unique and wonderful acoustic instruments such as > the Surrogate Kitharra, the Mazda Marimba, the Marimba Eroica and > last but not least the "Spoils of War",) Harry Partch. Amazing stuff > and well ahead of its time. [BYRON HOWES] Ask me why I forgot to mention Partch. (Answer: sheer neglect and forgetfulness) If I recall Partch makes ALL his own instruments, and each one is truly unique. By the way, the music Dr. Demento uses to indicate the countdown in his "funny five" is from Harry Partch's Barstow which can be found on the Columbia album "The World of Harry Partch". (I use an excerpt from his "Daphne of the Dunes" from the same album on my answering machine---it's the surest thing to frighten away the unwanted calls, though it may scare off a few wanted ones.) -- Life is complex. It has real and imaginary parts. Rich Rosen ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr
ckk@cmu-cs-g.ARPA (Chris Koenigsberg) (03/28/85)
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"
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