Another MP3

So, a while ago I was mentioning that I was doing some incidental music
and a song for a current production of Midsummer Night's Dream at City
Lights Theatre here in San Jose. It's still running through June, so you
can still catch it if you're quick...

http://www.cltc.org

The music is all in a tuning that chooses 12 notes of 17 tET; and is
basically diatonic & conservative. Here is a pointer to an MP3 of the
brief "overture" that introduces the tunes used throughout the rest of the
play...

http://rm-and-jo.laughingsquid.org/MSND-Ovtr.mp3

(2.3 MB)

I'm posting this here to entice your attendance, and also FYI to those
zany tuning folks who are really too far away to see the play... The MP3
is available for a limited time only, and isn't linked from anywhere else.

Rick

On 6/1/01 3:02 AM, "Rick McGowan" <rick@...> wrote:

> The music is all in a tuning that chooses 12 notes of 17 tET; and is
> basically diatonic & conservative. Here is a pointer to an MP3 of the
> brief "overture" that introduces the tunes used throughout the rest of the
> play...

Wow. I got two impressions of this.
First it sounded like the music to a marital arts movie.
Then it sounded a little like music to an old cowboy movie...

Sort of an Eastern Western...?!

Very very interesting image.

--- In crazy_music@y..., Rick McGowan <rick@u...> wrote:
Hi John

I really enjoyed both pieces. Thank you for posting, and I look
forward to hearing more of your work.

What made you decide on the tuning you used for Midsummer Nights
Dream. To me the tuning sounds very normal with just enough of the
exotic to keep it interesting. Did the performers pick up on the
fact it was non 12TET?

Mary

Mary asked...

> What made you decide on the tuning you used for Midsummer Nights
> Dream. To me the tuning sounds very normal with just enough of the
> exotic to keep it interesting.

Exactly: slightly exotic. I didn't have enough leeway to use any tuning
VERY exotic, so I tried the early sketches in a couple different 1/4 comma
meantones, and 12tET, and my 12-of-17 setup. I liked the strident
"shimmering" 3rds and 5ths of 17tET for this. It sounded quite a bit
darker in meantone, with those stable 3rds and flat fifths.

Orphon Soul wrote...

> First it sounded like the music to a marital arts movie.
> Then it sounded a little like music to an old cowboy movie...

Heh heh... Yes. The play has sort of 3 kinds of people: fairies of
course, and some nobility, and some working class folks ("mechanicals").
This leads naturally to 3 big sections of the overture, and 3 themes for
different scenes of the play. The overture themes are ordered Fairies,
then Mechanicals, then the Court, leading into the first scene. I wanted a
sort of "squeegie" cow-poke quality to the Mechanicals music.

Rick