Lemba Galatsia (MMM day)

Since a bunch of others have been announcing their MMM day contributions on the list, I figured I might as well give some more details about my contribution.

Lemba Galatsia is the latest result of my explorations into lemba temperament (named after a fictional island). Lemba was one of many 7-limit temperaments included in a long list that Gene Ward Smith detailed on the tuning-math list. At the time I referred to it simply as "Number 82". I'd been looking around for useful temperaments that may have been overlooked, and this one immediately attracted my attention. It has a useful 10-note basic scale, and two identical periods in the octave (it repeats at the tritone). Since 50/49 is tempered out, the tritone can represent either 7/5 or 10/7.

A while back I noticed that lemba temperament actually has a pretty good whole-tone scale. It has three different sizes of thirds, but two of them are close to the same size (around the size of 14/11); the other third is flatter than 5/4. So it occurred to me to try retuning Galatsia, which I wrote back in 1979, since it uses the whole tone scale in a couple of places. I tried to keep more or less the original melody, but I've changed the harmony in some places to show off some of the harmonic possibilities of the 7-limit harmony approximations in lemba temperament. So here's the folk tune from Galatsia as it might be played on the island of Lemba:

http://home.comcast.net/~teamouse/lemba-galatsia.mp3

For comparison, here's a MIDI arrangement of the 1982 orchestral version of Galatsia:

http://www.io.com/~hmiller/midi/Galatsia1.mid

I've always liked Herman's pieces and bits , and i think at his best
he's an even better example of the same types of trad tonality
through a microprism effects that someone like e.Blackwood is famous
for. So anyway, thanks, and nice, as usual .

daniel

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Herman Miller <hmiller@...>
wrote:
>
> Since a bunch of others have been announcing their MMM day
contributions
> on the list, I figured I might as well give some more details about
my
> contribution.
>
> Lemba Galatsia is the latest result of my explorations into lemba
> temperament (named after a fictional island). Lemba was one of many
> 7-limit temperaments included in a long list that Gene Ward Smith
> detailed on the tuning-math list. At the time I referred to it
simply as
> "Number 82". I'd been looking around for useful temperaments that
may
> have been overlooked, and this one immediately attracted my
attention.
> It has a useful 10-note basic scale, and two identical periods in
the
> octave (it repeats at the tritone). Since 50/49 is tempered out,
the
> tritone can represent either 7/5 or 10/7.
>
> A while back I noticed that lemba temperament actually has a pretty
good
> whole-tone scale. It has three different sizes of thirds, but two
of
> them are close to the same size (around the size of 14/11); the
other
> third is flatter than 5/4. So it occurred to me to try retuning
> Galatsia, which I wrote back in 1979, since it uses the whole tone
scale
> in a couple of places. I tried to keep more or less the original
melody,
> but I've changed the harmony in some places to show off some of the
> harmonic possibilities of the 7-limit harmony approximations in
lemba
> temperament. So here's the folk tune from Galatsia as it might be
played
> on the island of Lemba:
>
> http://home.comcast.net/~teamouse/lemba-galatsia.mp3
>
> For comparison, here's a MIDI arrangement of the 1982 orchestral
version
> of Galatsia:
>
> http://www.io.com/~hmiller/midi/Galatsia1.mid
>