Holocene...

Igliashon, you wrote:

"I just uploaded 5 new songs to my microtonal music page at the above
address..."

Congrats, these are most excellent! My favorites of these are "She Is My
Lilac-Hued Obsession" and "Illegible Red Ink". Just goes to show how
difficult tunings can be turned to beautiful music in the hands of an
artiste with good taste. The rest of us need to take notes -- pun
intended.

(Most of my "microtonalist" compadres are their own worst enemy, I'm
afraid. Ear-cringing, spine-shuddering "xenharmonies" and gnarly timbres
do not a good case for alternate tunings make.)

If new tunings are to be accepted and used generally, they must first
make inroads into popular consciousness -- your music employs these
tunings in a way that is both easily absorbed and enjoyable. Very well
done indeed.

Regards,

jls

Thank you most kindly, Mr. Smith! I'm glad to hear you appreciated my
efforts. My point was indeed to make these tunes accessible, though
as some have pointed out to me, they are quite "dated" sounding (as in
they'd probably be more at home in the musical climate of 1987 than
2007) due to the FM-synth sounds and the general low-end digital
production quality.

However, the pop-song format employed in most of them is, I think,
more appropriate for some of the less low-limit-consonant EDOs like 16
and 11...when I hear composers come at those EDOs from a classical
background, I can't help but think that the resulting compositions are
the audio equivalent of Vin Diesel trying to squeeze into a slinky
prom dress. Really, the secret to making a lot of these tunings sound
good is just to not get ambitious with them: find a simple tonality,
stick to it, and avoid complex vertical structures. Lots of
alternative tonalities do contain familiar progressions, and keeping
just enough familiarity helps things sound more pleasant. And don't
be afraid to add some groovin' beats. An interesting beat, I have
found, can make even the dullest composition sound good.

Thanks for listening!
-Igs
>
>
> Igliashon, you wrote:
>
> "I just uploaded 5 new songs to my microtonal music page at the above
> address..."
>
>
>
> Congrats, these are most excellent! My favorites of these are "She Is My
> Lilac-Hued Obsession" and "Illegible Red Ink". Just goes to show how
> difficult tunings can be turned to beautiful music in the hands of an
> artiste with good taste. The rest of us need to take notes -- pun
> intended.
>
> (Most of my "microtonalist" compadres are their own worst enemy, I'm
> afraid. Ear-cringing, spine-shuddering "xenharmonies" and gnarly timbres
> do not a good case for alternate tunings make.)
>
> If new tunings are to be accepted and used generally, they must first
> make inroads into popular consciousness -- your music employs these
> tunings in a way that is both easily absorbed and enjoyable. Very well
> done indeed.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> jls
>

Igliashon, this is fantastic work! Makes me giddy. Your approach as
described below is both very wise and effective, and I agree with you
completely about rhythm. As for sounding dated, I think anyone who
likes progressive rock will love these pieces. You may have already
answered this question before, but I wonder, what synth(s) are you
using for these?

Cheers,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Igliashon Jones" <igliashon@...> wrote:
>
> Thank you most kindly, Mr. Smith! I'm glad to hear you appreciated my
> efforts. My point was indeed to make these tunes accessible, though
> as some have pointed out to me, they are quite "dated" sounding (as in
> they'd probably be more at home in the musical climate of 1987 than
> 2007) due to the FM-synth sounds and the general low-end digital
> production quality.
>
> However, the pop-song format employed in most of them is, I think,
> more appropriate for some of the less low-limit-consonant EDOs like 16
> and 11...when I hear composers come at those EDOs from a classical
> background, I can't help but think that the resulting compositions are
> the audio equivalent of Vin Diesel trying to squeeze into a slinky
> prom dress. Really, the secret to making a lot of these tunings sound
> good is just to not get ambitious with them: find a simple tonality,
> stick to it, and avoid complex vertical structures. Lots of
> alternative tonalities do contain familiar progressions, and keeping
> just enough familiarity helps things sound more pleasant. And don't
> be afraid to add some groovin' beats. An interesting beat, I have
> found, can make even the dullest composition sound good.
>
> Thanks for listening!
> -Igs
> >
> >
> > Igliashon, you wrote:
> >
> > "I just uploaded 5 new songs to my microtonal music page at the above
> > address..."
> >
> >
> >
> > Congrats, these are most excellent! My favorites of these are "She Is My
> > Lilac-Hued Obsession" and "Illegible Red Ink". Just goes to show how
> > difficult tunings can be turned to beautiful music in the hands of an
> > artiste with good taste. The rest of us need to take notes -- pun
> > intended.
> >
> > (Most of my "microtonalist" compadres are their own worst enemy, I'm
> > afraid. Ear-cringing, spine-shuddering "xenharmonies" and gnarly timbres
> > do not a good case for alternate tunings make.)
> >
> > If new tunings are to be accepted and used generally, they must first
> > make inroads into popular consciousness -- your music employs these
> > tunings in a way that is both easily absorbed and enjoyable. Very well
> > done indeed.
> >
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > jls
> >
>

Hi Aaron, glad you liked 'em! I've actually taken a great deal of
inspiration from your works as well, as they are some of the few more
classically-oriented compositions I've heard that actually exploit the
strengths of the more "unusual" EDOs.

> You may have already
> answered this question before, but I wonder, what synth(s) are you
> using for these?

Native Instruments FM-7 for everything but the drums/percussion. I'll
admit that I didn't bother to use scala and retune to the full EDOs,
but rather used the built-in microtuner to do 12-note subsets (I can
practically hear some list members exclaiming "Microtonal music that
doesn't use *every* note in the tuning, and is only accurate to 1
cent? Heresy!"). This is because 1) I don't find pitch deviations
less than 1 cent to be audibly distinct, and 2) my purpose is to
exploit alternative tonalities of no more than 11 notes per scale, not
to exploit the infinite multitudes of modulational possibilities or
functional chromatic harmony, so I don't *need* any more than 12 notes
per song. Heck, when I write in 12-EDO, I scarcely ever use all 12 of
those notes, so why would I need more than 12 notes of a
greater-than-12-EDO scale?

But I digress.

Thanks for listening!

-Igliashon
>
>
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Igliashon Jones"
<igliashon@> wrote:
> >
> > Thank you most kindly, Mr. Smith! I'm glad to hear you appreciated my
> > efforts. My point was indeed to make these tunes accessible, though
> > as some have pointed out to me, they are quite "dated" sounding (as in
> > they'd probably be more at home in the musical climate of 1987 than
> > 2007) due to the FM-synth sounds and the general low-end digital
> > production quality.
> >
> > However, the pop-song format employed in most of them is, I think,
> > more appropriate for some of the less low-limit-consonant EDOs like 16
> > and 11...when I hear composers come at those EDOs from a classical
> > background, I can't help but think that the resulting compositions are
> > the audio equivalent of Vin Diesel trying to squeeze into a slinky
> > prom dress. Really, the secret to making a lot of these tunings sound
> > good is just to not get ambitious with them: find a simple tonality,
> > stick to it, and avoid complex vertical structures. Lots of
> > alternative tonalities do contain familiar progressions, and keeping
> > just enough familiarity helps things sound more pleasant. And don't
> > be afraid to add some groovin' beats. An interesting beat, I have
> > found, can make even the dullest composition sound good.
> >
> > Thanks for listening!
> > -Igs
> > >
> > >
> > > Igliashon, you wrote:
> > >
> > > "I just uploaded 5 new songs to my microtonal music page at the
above
> > > address..."
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Congrats, these are most excellent! My favorites of these are
"She Is My
> > > Lilac-Hued Obsession" and "Illegible Red Ink". Just goes to show how
> > > difficult tunings can be turned to beautiful music in the hands
of an
> > > artiste with good taste. The rest of us need to take notes -- pun
> > > intended.
> > >
> > > (Most of my "microtonalist" compadres are their own worst enemy, I'm
> > > afraid. Ear-cringing, spine-shuddering "xenharmonies" and gnarly
timbres
> > > do not a good case for alternate tunings make.)
> > >
> > > If new tunings are to be accepted and used generally, they must
first
> > > make inroads into popular consciousness -- your music employs these
> > > tunings in a way that is both easily absorbed and enjoyable.
Very well
> > > done indeed.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > jls
> > >
> >
>