Music and community

Hello, everyone.

In early September, with much inspiration and help from participants
in this and other groups in our tuning community, I made a tape of
some improvisations and one composition in a few tunings, mostly
13-tone equal temperament (13-tET). This was a small sample, meant to
show some of things I'm doing rather than how they could be done if my
keyboard technique were more accurate and my familiarity more
assured.

The last month has been a time of tragedy, violence, terror, and also
of reflection, prayer, nonviolence, and a search for peace and trust.

Now it feels about the right time to share a few of these directions,
and to thank those of you who have expressed the theme of peace in
words and music.

As I mentioned around late August or early September, 13-tET really
has me excited: it permits some beautiful progressions with a
13th-14th century Western European flavor, when timbres are chosen to
make the 8/13 octave interval (around 738 cents) a 3:2-like concord.

While many standard _progressions_ can apply, the usual interval
arithmetic doesn't. If were to count in traditional European terms,
then two "fourths" (5/13 octave, ~462 cents) would make an excellent
"major sixth," (10/13 octave, ~923 cents) while the same interval of
5/13 octave might represent either a near-4:3 "fourth" or a "large
major third" often expanding to a "fifth."

I find it simplest to count scale steps, and let 13-tET have its own
beautiful "harmonic geometry" and character.

Another really exciting tuning is George Secor's 17-tone
well-temperament going back to 1978. It has nine closer fifths (Ab-B)
at around 707.22 cents, and the other eight fifths at around 704.38
cents, for some pure 11:7 or 14:11 ratios. There are also some
near-pure 11:6 "neutral sevenths," and more generally an abundance of
neutral intervals, as well as lots of major and minor thirds fairly
near 9:7 and 7:6, very nice as it happens for a "neo-medieval" style.

This is a tuning connected to a lot of history in our microtonal
community. George Secor, together with Erv Wilson and Dick Harasek,
developed the keyboard for the Generalized Keyboard Scalatron, an
instrument which advanced the state of the art, and which, today, is
still making beautiful music.

It's a tuning with immense potential for many kinds of music, with my
"neo-Gothic" approach suggesting just one angle on this. I hope that
it will become much better known in the coming months and years.

My timbral experiments with 13-tET led me to try a bit neo-Gothic and
"Xeno-Renaissance" music in 23-tET, and I found that both styles could
be pleasant. From John Chowning to Bill Sethares and Jacky Ligon,
people have shown that concord/discord is often largely a matter of
timbre, and my experience with these tunings maybe confirms this
point.

There are other tunings that I want to get to, for example
Sesquisexta, with two 12-note Pythagorean chains at a pure 7:6 apart.
This has a keyboard layout like a lattice: play C-G on the lower
keyboard and C-G on the upper keyboard at the same time, and you get a
pure 12:14:18:21 (around 0-267-702-969 cents).

It's amazing what's out there, and thank you for all sharing with me
in this community of music and friendship.

With peace and love,

Margo

Hello, there, Robert Walker, and thank you for your encouragement and
your many contributions here.

I should explain that what I need to do is to get that tape cassette
out to someone who has very generously offered to lend assistance in
making the material available in appropriate formats, of which I'd
certainly consider audio formats accessible via the Web a very
important set.

These improvisations are by no means perfect, or even polished, but
they do show a process in progress, and that's the point, most
especially the point of this group.

Over the last month, I've had some strange reactions, like: "Might
mailing an audio cassette somehow have security complications?" For
some time, there have been restrictions here on the sizes of envelopes
that can be mailed without inspection, or the like -- but it affects
large packages rather than tape cassettes, if I'm correct, and going
down to a post office if necessary to sure shouldn't be a problem
either.

Psychologically, I feel a bit like maybe mailing out that cassette is
"returning to something more like normal," because finishing this set
of improvisations (and one brief composition in 13-tET) was something
I was celebrating just before September 11. This is maybe hard to
explain, and thank you for offering such generous support (I say this
to you, Robert, and everyone reading this).

At some point I need write notes on the pieces and tunings, but maybe
I shouldn't take that as a precondition to mailing the cassette
itself, since I can also mail or e-mail that information later.

Anyway, there's no reason why I shouldn't get that tape out, and with
the help of a very generous person (one among many) make this music
available for listening on the Web.

Thank you so much, Robert, for reminding me of this just at the point
where overcoming a bit of inertia would be very helpful.

Most appreciatively, in peace and love,

Margo

Margo,

{you wrote...}
>I should explain that what I need to do is to get that tape cassette
>out to someone who has very generously offered to lend assistance in
>making the material available in appropriate formats, of which I'd
>certainly consider audio formats accessible via the Web a very
>important set.

Your way of writing that makes it sound as if there is already someone willing to do this for you, but in the event that you *don't*, please let me know and I can and will do all the digital audio and file conversion necessary -- and burn a CD for you as well.

If not, just keep it in mind for the future! :)

Cheers,
Jon