introduction

Hi all,
I'm new to this group and I just wanted to say a quick hi. I'm a composer, and I've been spending the past 6 or 7 years focusing on making music with just intonation. I play violin, and it's been through that which I've really trained my ears to hear stuff. So, two things:

1) If you're interested, please listen to some of my music on my website. I have a couple of pieces out of my large JI work-in-progress for strings up on my site for online listening or download. I'd love to have comments and criticisms on these pieces, especially. http://tweeg.net

2) I'm getting more and more confident playing JI music on the violin. I live in NY, and would love to play more music by other composers working in JI. Send me scores!

I'm looking forward to getting to know some more composers and music on this group.

Cheers,
Jim Altieri
http://tweeg.net

"Hi all,

I'm new to this group and I just wanted to say a quick hi. I'm a
composer, ...

I'm looking forward to getting to know some more composers and music
on this group.

Cheers,
Jim Altieri"

http://tweeg.net <http://tweeg.net>

Jim, nice to see you. I have quickly listened to some of your music, and
I plan to listen to the rest a bit later on....but I wanted to say your
work is fascinating and beautiful.

Best,

jlsmith

http://zebox.com/jlsmith/music/ <http://zebox.com/jlsmith/music/>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Jim!

Your website looks interesting, I haven't yt listened to your stuff,
but I'm glad to see yet another musician working in alternate tunings
here in the U.S.

If you ever find yourself in Chicago, look me up. On a side note, I'm
forming a festival/concert series here in Chicago called
midwestmicrofest <http://www.midwestmicrofest.org"> Right now we have
a concert in October of 2-piano works in 19-edo in the
writing/planning stage. Perhaps in the future there will be stuff
where violin and other strings can be part of a concert.

...and yes, I'd love to wirte a solo-JI piece sometime (not now but
later) for you!

Anyway, welcome to the group! :)

Best,
Aaron.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, jim altieri <jim@...> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> I'm new to this group and I just wanted to say a quick hi. I'm a
> composer, and I've been spending the past 6 or 7 years focusing on
> making music with just intonation. I play violin, and it's been
through
> that which I've really trained my ears to hear stuff. So, two things:
>
> 1) If you're interested, please listen to some of my music on my
> website. I have a couple of pieces out of my large JI work-in-progress
> for strings up on my site for online listening or download. I'd
love to
> have comments and criticisms on these pieces, especially.
http://tweeg.net
>
> 2) I'm getting more and more confident playing JI music on the violin.
> I live in NY, and would love to play more music by other composers
> working in JI. Send me scores!
>
> I'm looking forward to getting to know some more composers and music
> on this group.
>
> Cheers,
> Jim Altieri
> http://tweeg.net
>

Welcome to the group Jim! I haven't listened to all the music yet, but
I enjoy what I've heard so far. It's always good to hear microtonal
music performed on real instruments. I also added a link to your music
page in the sidebar of my blog.

Daniel Thompson
http://danielthompson.blogspot.com/

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Aaron Krister Johnson"
<aaron@...> wrote:

I just saw that http://www.midwestmicrofest.org contains a link to the
microtonal wiki at http://moinmoin.riters.com/microtonal - and I saw
that the latter is still being updated. So we are having two
concurring microtonal wikis now (the second is
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/). What is the sense of having two?
--
Hans Straub

Hi Jim and welcome to the list!

I enjoyed listening to your music and as a beginner violinist it was fun to read your score and see how it makes a lot of sense on the violin. I actually read the score before I had a chance to listen to the music and I was surprised by just how slowly you performed it :). I hope you will keep posting music and scores on your website.

I think the violin is an ideal instrument for JI music. When I manage to tune the strings to very accurate 2:3 fifths it is almost like the violin is helping me find those JI intervals and make them sing! And the ghost fundamentals are clearly audible to the player. It is easy to tell if you are playing something inharmonic or something in tune. Unfortunately I still produce a lot of the former by mistake but it is getting better.

If I compose something for the violin I will let you know. I live in DE by the way.

It must have been inspiring to work with a JI master like Kyle Gann. He is my personal JI hero!

Best regards,
Magnus Jonsson
http://hcoop.net/~magnus/music/

On Sun, 6 May 2007, jim altieri wrote:

> Hi all,
> I'm new to this group and I just wanted to say a quick hi. I'm a
> composer, and I've been spending the past 6 or 7 years focusing on
> making music with just intonation. I play violin, and it's been through
> that which I've really trained my ears to hear stuff. So, two things:
>
> 1) If you're interested, please listen to some of my music on my
> website. I have a couple of pieces out of my large JI work-in-progress
> for strings up on my site for online listening or download. I'd love to
> have comments and criticisms on these pieces, especially. http://tweeg.net
>
> 2) I'm getting more and more confident playing JI music on the violin.
> I live in NY, and would love to play more music by other composers
> working in JI. Send me scores!
>
> I'm looking forward to getting to know some more composers and music
> on this group.
>
> Cheers,
> Jim Altieri
> http://tweeg.net
>

Magnus Jonsson wrote:

> I think the violin is an ideal instrument for JI music. When I manage to > tune the strings to very accurate 2:3 fifths it is almost like the violin > is helping me find those JI intervals and make them sing! And the ghost > fundamentals are clearly audible to the player. It is easy to tell if > you are playing something inharmonic or something in tune. Unfortunately I > still produce a lot of the former by mistake but it is getting better.

That's an interesting point; it's been a LONG time since I tried to play the violin, but I think I can imagine those difference tones. I've wondered if folk music for violin/fiddle uses JI intervals. It certainly sounds like it on some of the music that I've heard.

On Thu, 10 May 2007, Herman Miller wrote:

> Magnus Jonsson wrote:
>
>> I think the violin is an ideal instrument for JI music. When I manage to
>> tune the strings to very accurate 2:3 fifths it is almost like the violin
>> is helping me find those JI intervals and make them sing! And the ghost
>> fundamentals are clearly audible to the player. It is easy to tell if
>> you are playing something inharmonic or something in tune. Unfortunately I
>> still produce a lot of the former by mistake but it is getting better.
>
> That's an interesting point; it's been a LONG time since I tried to play
> the violin, but I think I can imagine those difference tones. I've
> wondered if folk music for violin/fiddle uses JI intervals. It certainly
> sounds like it on some of the music that I've heard.

Just one data point: I've been practicing a Swedish folk song and it works perfectly with JI intervals. I can imagine some others don't though.

By the way, I listened to a recording of Handel's Alleluia Chorus today and smiled to myself when the soprano did a very audible 7-limit comma shift in a IV-V-I progression from 4/3 to 21/16 and then 5/4. And it sounded right - that's the way it should be. I wonder if she was aware that she did it or if she simply adjusted naturally. Either way she was a great singer. I don't know her name or what orchestra played it sadly.

/Magnus

> On Thu, 10 May 2007, Herman Miller wrote:
>
> > Magnus Jonsson wrote:
> >
> >> I think the violin is an ideal instrument for JI music. When I > manage to
> >> tune the strings to very accurate 2:3 fifths it is almost like the > violin
> >> is helping me find those JI intervals and make them sing! And the ghost
> >> fundamentals are clearly audible to the player. It is easy to tell if
> >> you are playing something inharmonic or something in tune. > Unfortunately I
> >> still produce a lot of the former by mistake but it is getting better.
> >
> > That's an interesting point; it's been a LONG time since I tried to play
> > the violin, but I think I can imagine those difference tones. I've
> > wondered if folk music for violin/fiddle uses JI intervals. It certainly
> > sounds like it on some of the music that I've heard.
>
> Just one data point: I've been practicing a Swedish folk song and it > works
> perfectly with JI intervals. I can imagine some others don't though.
Word to that. My band, Glissando bin Laden and his Musichideen, has a song that uses a Scandanavian fiddling tune as its basis - Hebe Holling. This arrangement is by Caroline Mallonee, the other violinist in the band. The scale that we use is:
2
7/4
5/3 (the odd one out... we were too wimpy to use the 13...)
3/2
11/8
5/4
9/8
1
Give it a listen at http://www.myspace.com/glissandobinladen

The thing that's so great about JI on the violin is that it's just a few inches away from your left ear. That proximity makes all the difference for hearing the difference tones. Another thing is that you can feel a just-tuned harmonicity by the type of vibration that the instrument passes to your jaw. I can definitely vouch for Magnus' comment that the violin helps you find the 3/2 tuning between the open strings. Somehow even that Pythagorean sixth that the outer strings make sounds sweet.

cheers,
jim

Interesting! I will listen to it when I get home. Meanwhile let me clarify a little what I meant: If you take time to tune your fifths very carefully then all the other JI intervals will be easier to play too, as if the instrument guides you to find them. It may just be an effect of everything being consistent but also I keep thinking that even individual notes and double stops sound sweeter when the unbowed strings are well tuned.

On Fri, 11 May 2007, jim altieri wrote:

> Word to that. My band, Glissando bin Laden and his Musichideen, has a
> song that uses a Scandanavian fiddling tune as its basis - Hebe
> Holling. This arrangement is by Caroline Mallonee, the other violinist
> in the band. The scale that we use is:
> 2
> 7/4
> 5/3 (the odd one out... we were too wimpy to use the 13...)
> 3/2
> 11/8
> 5/4
> 9/8
> 1
> Give it a listen at http://www.myspace.com/glissandobinladen
>
> The thing that's so great about JI on the violin is that it's just a few
> inches away from your left ear. That proximity makes all the difference
> for hearing the difference tones. Another thing is that you can feel a
> just-tuned harmonicity by the type of vibration that the instrument
> passes to your jaw. I can definitely vouch for Magnus' comment that the
> violin helps you find the 3/2 tuning between the open strings. Somehow
> even that Pythagorean sixth that the outer strings make sounds sweet.
>
> cheers,
> jim
>

jim altieri wrote:

>2) I'm getting more and more confident playing JI music on the violin. >I live in NY, and would love to play more music by other composers >working in JI. Send me scores!
>

I emailed a PDF score with instructions a few weeks ago and never heard a word from you. What happened?

--
* David Beardsley
* microtonal guitar
* http://biink.com/db
* http://biink.com/poole

David Beardsley wrote:

>jim altieri wrote:
>
> >
>>2) I'm getting more and more confident playing JI music on the violin. >>I live in NY, and would love to play more music by other composers >>working in JI. Send me scores!
>>
>> >>
>
>I emailed a PDF score with instructions a few weeks ago and never heard >a word from you. What happened?
>

Did anybody else send him any scores?

--
* David Beardsley
* microtonal guitar
* http://biink.com/db
* http://biink.com/poole

David Beardsley wrote:

>David Beardsley wrote:
>
> >
>>jim altieri wrote:
>>
>> >>
>> >>
>>>2) I'm getting more and more confident playing JI music on the violin. >>>I live in NY, and would love to play more music by other composers >>>working in JI. Send me scores!
>>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>I emailed a PDF score with instructions a few weeks ago and never heard >>a word from you. What happened?
>>
>> >>
>
>Did anybody else send him any scores?
>
> >
It looks like myspace.com is more interesting to look at than this Yahoo group for Jim.

--
* David Beardsley
* microtonal guitar
* http://biink.com/db
* http://biink.com/poole

>jim altieri wrote:
>
>
>
>>2) I'm getting more and more confident playing JI music on the violin.
>>I live in NY, and would love to play more music by other composers
>>working in JI. Send me scores!

Hi everybody,

I'm surprised that David got so upset with me (I've emailed him off-list), so in case anyone else might be interested, I'll clarify my request...

I'd love to try out any solo violin pieces you might send me. I know one other violinist into JI, so I might even be able to cajole her into playing a duet with me, if it's a cool piece. I'm also willing to play in a chamber piece if you need a violinist (I live in NYC). However, like many of you, I'm very busy with composing, my day job, Mets games, (and yes, even myspace), etc., so if you send me a piece, please don't be offended if I don't respond to you right away. And if you want to make sure I received your email, please email me privately, rather than on the list.

Cheers,
jim altieri
http://tweeg.net