Organum for Mary Beth Ackerley

--- > Hi Margo,

> I love it. It really flows nicely, and I feel very honored my name
> is attached to it.

Hello, there, Mary, and thanks for your inspiration both in choosing a
timbre and in letting my own musical style flow in a new (to me)
scale.

One feature of "MBA Phi Voice" is that it includes a partial optimized
more or less for the "Phi-like" interval of 9/13 octave or about 831
cents. This is a tribute both to you and to John Chowning, who
created a piece in 1981 named _Stria_ based on a ninth-root-of-Phi
tuning almost identical to 13-tET.

> I look forward to adding my voice. Currently my studio is in the
> process of being dismantled, and we are warily eying a Category 4
> hurricane, so it will be a while before I get to it :-))

Please let me send my prayers that you get through the storm without
harm, as well as my great anticipation of hearing your vocal version
when the time is right.

> Peace and thank you greatly,
> Mary

Peace to you also, with many thanks and blessings,

Margo

Hello, there, Robert.

> I can also well imagine Mary singing with it too.

Thank you for this and other encouragement on _Organum for Mary Beth
Ackerley_, and I look forward to hearing your 13-tET improvisations or
pieces as well as her vocal version of this improvisation.

One thing I regret is needing to hear these things via CD or cassette
rather than directly off the Web -- but thanks to you and others who
share your music so generously, and also of course to Jacky for
helping to make my music available with much musical and technical
artistry.

Most appreciatively,

Margo

Hello, there, Robert, and it seems that some "creatively ambiguous
communication" on my part may have given you an opportunity to come up
with 13-tET progressions which could be at least as interesting as the
not-so-definitive interpretation intended in my original notation.

There's a bit of humor in this, as well as a suggestion of how inexact
notation can sometimes present opportunities for new solutions.

Here's the notation I posted, and your interpretation which fits my
usual conventions:

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

> mode -2 1 4 7 11 -> 0 1 4 8 11

> or relative to the dim7th chord's root:

> 0 3 6 9 13 -> 2 3 6 10 13

Here your reading indeed fits my usual convention that a given note in
any voice is sustained until a new note or a rest (r) is indicated, or
until the conclusion of the example.

Thus, translating these scale steps into rounded cents, we have your
diminished seventh chord of 0-277-646-831-1200 cents resolving with
the lowest and the next-to-highest voices moving while the others
remain stationary, arriving at a sonority of 0-92-369-738-1015 cents.

Here, however, my intent was rather less adventurous, resolving the
diminished seventh to a simple fifth, 0-8 steps, or 0-738 cents. My
"problem" was that I was simply visualizing which keys were pressed
for each sonority, without considering the usual convention about
sustained notes.

Here, in this kind of five-voice writing, there are lots of unisons in
the sonority of resolution, so that it seemed easier just to show the
resolving two notes without deciding on a precise partwriting for all
those unisons. Here is one such solution:

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

This would be mode

-2 1 4 7 11 -> 0 0 0 8 8

or relative to the diminished seventh chord's root:

> 0 3 6 9 13 -> 2 2 2 10 10

However, what I now realize is that even in the kind of style I was
considering where 0-8-13 (0-738-1200) or 0-5-1200 (0-462-1200) is the
basic stable concord, a natural and richer solution would be to let
the outer parts move in octaves, arriving at a complete 0-738-1200:

D E S11 S13
Bb B S7 S8
G B S4 S8
F E S1 S0
D E or more generally S-2 S0

Here we have mode

-2 1 4 7 11 -> 0 0 8 8 13

or relative to the diminished seventh chord's root:

> 0 3 6 9 13 -> 2 2 10 10 13

The same applies to the other example, where again your quite logical
reading of my notation led to a resolution of 0-92-277-831-923 cents
(counting from the lowest voice of this sonority at "S-1," taken as
sustained from the previous sonority):

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

> mode -4 -1 2 5 9 -> 0 -1 2 8 9
> or relative to the dim7th chord's root:

> 0 3 6 9 13 -> 4 3 6 12 13

Here is my originally intended progression,

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

mode -4 -1 2 5 9 -> 0 0 0 8 8

or relative to the diminished seventh chord's root:

> 0 3 6 9 13 -> 4 4 4 12 12

> Yes, they are striking resolutions.

Here you have translated what was in effect my "slip of the keyboard"
into new music, taking what I actually wrote (with your fine sonority
as a starting point), and making it your own.

> I've done a couple of midi clips of these for everyone to listen to,
> again on sitar, but they work fine on the Yamaha soft synth sitar
> too, so I expect pretty generally. Tried them on a fair number of timbres
> and most work.

> I've uploaded them to the files area for anyone to listen to.

Since I'm not sure how reliable the links to those files are in the
text version of your post that I'm quoting, why don't I do a link to
your message giving the URL's:

/makemicromusic/topicId_1231.html#1231

Maybe it might be fun for people to compare these progressions with
the ones I meant to notate in similar timbres.

> Also I can imagine how a resolution to the 0 3 6 9 could be
> possible too, as it seems to be a fairly consonant chord
> somehow.

Yes, I found it quite pleasant.

> Thanks for the encouragement. I'd like to make a CD for you and anyone
> else and will do something about it.

I'm really looking forward to this CD, and thank you in the meantime
for making your music available to so many people so generously.

In peace and love,

Margo

Hi Margo,

> There's a bit of humor in this, as well as a suggestion of how inexact
> notation can sometimes present opportunities for new solutions.

Yes, it made me laugh!

Surprisingly they do work as cadences, with a direction to them -
if you run them other way it doesn't work. Decidedly adventurous
sure.

I'll do the cadences properly.

I've also started planning for the cd yet. Don't yet have a cd
writer but if I do a few clips for it, will then be ready
to get one at that point.

Did a first try at the Sesquisexta using a font with a rather
realistic choir Ahs. Too realistic almost because one
hears changes from one voice to another as it progresses
as though one person is chagning into another.

Aother one was a very nice string quartet, except that
it had a wide vibrato with modulation set to 0, and
also had a quiet but noticeable background sound that
swooped about in pitch with the song. Rather strange
effect; wouldn't notice it perhaps in less quiet pieces.

I'm on the look out for a nice string quartet font as
the one on my soundcard isn't so good really, and quite
a lot of my pieces use strings. Just now, downloading
a large font of 27 Mb called Symphony hall, just based
on the name, from this site with a large list of fonts.
http://www.thesoundsite.net/sf_c_dirlist.tml
Does anyone know anything about any of them? They are
all free to download!

Some of the SB LIve! fonts are very nice I like the
Sitar voice a lot. Doesn't have to be super realistic
to be appealing, taken on its own terms.

Been making a few of the old pieces into mp3s today,
and uploading them to the Australian mp3.com site.
Rather interesting selection of music there, and they
are especially on the look out for classical sounding music as
they get asked why they don't have more of it.

Anyway, more later,

Robert