Fantasia in 8ET

New (short) piece written over the past two days, uploaded here as a MIDI file:

<http://www.h-pi.com/midi/Fantasia8ET.mid>

Thanks to Igliashon Jones, Daniel Thompson and Dan Stearns for throwing down the 8ET gauntlet on the MMM list. 'Fantasia in 8ET' is my first piece in this tuning. I thought of 8ET basically as two 12ET diminished seventh chords, where the only standard voiceleading is a tritone resolving via large halfsteps, and the resolution must be minor (or diminished). So, the piece is made up of diminished and minor harmonies exclusively. Diminished arpeggios are also featured, which feel natural to play in this tuning because they map as whole tone scales on the keyboard. It took me a while to get acclimated to the 'halfsteps'. Suspensions in 8ET are super-nasty dissonances. Enjoy!

Yours,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

So Bach-like, I'm having a hard time believing you didn't
retune a Bach piece to 8-ET. In particular, it reminds me
of the Fantasy in Gmin, S.542. -Carl

At 05:13 PM 5/22/2007, you wrote:
>New (short) piece written over the past two days, uploaded here as a
>MIDI file:
>
><http://www.h-pi.com/midi/Fantasia8ET.mid>
>
>Thanks to Igliashon Jones, Daniel Thompson and Dan Stearns for throwing
>down the 8ET gauntlet on the MMM list. 'Fantasia in 8ET' is my first
>piece in this tuning. I thought of 8ET basically as two 12ET diminished
>seventh chords, where the only standard voiceleading is a tritone
>resolving via large halfsteps, and the resolution must be minor (or
>diminished). So, the piece is made up of diminished and minor harmonies
>exclusively. Diminished arpeggios are also featured, which feel natural
>to play in this tuning because they map as whole tone scales on the
>keyboard. It took me a while to get acclimated to the 'halfsteps'.
>Suspensions in 8ET are super-nasty dissonances. Enjoy!
>
>Yours,
>Aaron Hunt
>H-Pi Instruments

Aaron Andrew Hunt wrote:

> New (short) piece written over the past two days, uploaded here as a
> MIDI file:
>
> <http://www.h-pi.com/midi/Fantasia8ET.mid>

Another good one.

This really should be heard using a high-quality synth/soundfont with a full pipe organ sound, because the diminished-chord sound really fits the mood.

~D.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Aaron Andrew Hunt <aahunt@...>
wrote:
>
> New (short) piece written over the past two days, uploaded here as a
> MIDI file:
>
> <http://www.h-pi.com/midi/Fantasia8ET.mid>

A very nice piece, one of my favorites of yours. I think it works well
with organ. After hearing this, I think it would be interesting to hear
your take on 16 edo.

Thank you Dan, Carl, Danny, and Daniel!

Dan, is the "thing" the conflation of half/wholesteps?

Carl, the Gm S.542 is in fact one of my favorite
of Bach's organ works (which I feel are his best works)
and that piece has a lot of those diminished
suspensions in it. I made conscious references;
the Bach was in fact going through my head as I
wrote the Fantasia.

Danny, I took a cue from you and made an mp3 using
the (free) Jeux organ soundfont. Posted here:
http://www.h-pi.com/downloads.html

Daniel, I'm looking forward to 16ET!

Yours,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com,
"daniel_anthony_stearns" <daniel_anthony_stearns@...> wrote:
>
> nice, as always.and while this still has that "thing" i
> have a hard
> time with about 8edo,I think this piece really works
> just as it is
> without resorting to any special timbre manipulations,
> et al. So good
> job (applause thingy goes here)

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com,
Carl Lumma <ekin@...> wrote:
>
> So Bach-like, I'm having a hard time believing you didn't
> retune a Bach piece to 8-ET. In particular, it reminds me
> of the Fantasy in Gmin, S.542. -Carl

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com,
"Danny Wier" <dawiertx@...> wrote:
>
> Another good one.
>
> This really should be heard using a high-quality
> synth/soundfont with a full
> pipe organ sound, because the diminished-chord sound
> really fits the mood.
>
> ~D

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com,
"Daniel Thompson" <microtonaldan@...> wrote:
>
> A very nice piece, one of my favorites of yours.
> I think it works well
> with organ. After hearing this, I think it would
> be interesting to hear
> your take on 16 edo.

Hi Aaron,

>Carl, the Gm S.542 is in fact one of my favorite
>of Bach's organ works (which I feel are his best works)
>and that piece has a lot of those diminished
>suspensions in it. I made conscious references;
>the Bach was in fact going through my head as I
>wrote the Fantasia.

I fully agree that Bach is at his best behind
the organ. I think you did a great job with this
piece.

-Carl

Carl Lumma wrote to Aaron Hunt:
>> Carl, the Gm S.542 is in fact one of my favorite >> of Bach's organ works (which I feel are his best works) >> and that piece has a lot of those diminished
>> suspensions in it. I made conscious references; >> the Bach was in fact going through my head as I
>> wrote the Fantasia.
>> >
> I fully agree that Bach is at his best behind
> the organ. I think you did a great job with this
> piece.
> While Bach's organ works are tremendous, I have a hard time saying what I consider 'top drawer Bach', b/c I think it's all tremendous.

One of my favorite discs is of Michaela Petri on recorder and Keith Jarrett on harpsichord doing the recorder sonatas, which you would never see on anyone's list of top drawer Bach, but maybe on mine. The performance is stellar, and the pieces are even more so. Drop everything and get this disc if you don't know it. And personally, I can't stand the whole idea of doing them on flute, which makes it a whole different bland color, IMO.

Anyway, I think looking at the Goldberg Variations, the Brandenburgs, the Art of Fugue, Musical Offering, the Matthew Passion (and the others), the motets,
and the B-minor mass alone gives lie to the 'Bach is greatest behind the organ' idea, personally. And I didn't even mention the WTC or suites....

Let's take the remainder of this OT thread to metatuning, shall we?

-AKJ, (i.e. 'Krister Johnson', not 'Andrew Hunt')

I'm feeling grumpy and you're going to have.to suffer for it. Many of
the Cantatas, the Passions, obviously, concertos and the keyboard works
are some of the most electrifying music there is hat more do you want?
I think Michaela Petri is just a Glitzy show-off and Keith Jarrett
should have stuck to what he understood.

And, by the way, Bach never wrote any recorder sonatas.

Aaron K. Johnson wrote:
>
> Carl Lumma wrote to Aaron Hunt:
> >> Carl, the Gm S.542 is in fact one of my favorite
> >> of Bach's organ works (which I feel are his best works)
> >> and that piece has a lot of those diminished
> >> suspensions in it. I made conscious references;
> >> the Bach was in fact going through my head as I
> >> wrote the Fantasia.
> >>
> >
> > I fully agree that Bach is at his best behind
> > the organ. I think you did a great job with this
> > piece.
> >
>
> While Bach's organ works are tremendous, I have a hard time saying what
> I consider 'top drawer Bach', b/c I think it's all tremendous.
>
> One of my favorite discs is of Michaela Petri on recorder and Keith
> Jarrett on harpsichord doing the recorder sonatas, which you would never
> see on anyone's list of top drawer Bach, but maybe on mine. The
> performance is stellar, and the pieces are even more so. Drop everything
> and get this disc if you don't know it. And personally, I can't stand
> the whole idea of doing them on flute, which makes it a whole different
> bland color, IMO.
>
> Anyway, I think looking at the Goldberg Variations, the Brandenburgs,
> the Art of Fugue, Musical Offering, the Matthew Passion (and the
> others), the motets,
> and the B-minor mass alone gives lie to the 'Bach is greatest behind the
> organ' idea, personally. And I didn't even mention the WTC or suites....
>
> Let's take the remainder of this OT thread to metatuning, shall we?
>
> -AKJ, (i.e. 'Krister Johnson', not 'Andrew Hunt')
>
>

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