Re: 13-tet minor (Robert Walker)

Hello, there, Robert, and thank you for your recent posts on 13-tET
sonorities, not to mention your piece which I look forward to hearing.

> Hi Margo,

> I've just done an improvisation in 13-tet
> on the sitar voice of my soundcard.

> http://members.tripod.com/~robertinventor/tunes/improvisations.htm#13-tet

> Uses the mode

> 0 2 3 6 7 9 12 13

> which includes the dim7th, in fact also with
> the fifth note by adding yet another minor 3rd
> to get
> 0 3 6 9 12 13

Last night I tried your version of this sonority with 3-step and
4-step intervals, for which I'll add values in rounded cents:

0 3 6 9 13
0 277 646 831 1200

Interestingly, at least in the timbres I tried, it sounded rather
smooth, and not very dissonant. On my keyboard, it would be spelled,
for example

D3-F3-G3-Bb3-D4

Here, in my "quasi-diatonic" modes, the 3-step can be treated as
either a "minor third" or as a special kind of "whole-tone-like"
interval, as this spelling might suggest.

In a neo-Gothic kind of style, I came up with a couple of resolutions,
although in various styles this sonority could also stand as a "stable
concord":

D S11
Bb B S7 S8
G S4
F S1
D E or more generally S-2 S0

where "S" shows the lowest note of a stable sonority, and all the
other notes are given relative to that step. Another resolution is:

D S9
B C# S5 S8
G S2
F S-1
D F#1 or more generally S-4 S0

> Wish you could hear it - sounds great
> as scale on my SB live! Sitar.

> I'll prob. include it in the c.d. if
> I make one of my musical examples /
> improvisations.

May I lend you some encouragement here, please.

One issue for me with my cassette was, "This is so tentative, do I
really want this on a CD."

Now I'm more and more convinced that getting the music out there is
important, with disclaimers if necessarily as to this being an
"improvisation in progress" or whatever.

> I've done an mp3 of it for now, for those
> who can listen to it.

May I hope that people who can hear it, which means _lots_ of people
here, get great enjoyment for your sitar timbre, something really
interesting for 13-tET, and an example of how experimentation can
often be the best teacher.

In peace and love,

Margo