Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic Re: Automated counterpoint (more MIDI examples)

Hello, there, Kraig and Robert, and thank you both very warmly for
your comments on my automated counterpoint example -- which, of
course, grew out of your post, Kraig, with a bit of inspiration from
your CD, also, Robert, to keep Sesquisexta "on the radar screen," to
use a curious expression.

Kraig, your idea of parallel sonorities with fifths and minor
sevenths, like D-A-C or G-D-F, led me to do a MIDI example of this in
Sesquisexta, where these minor seventh sonorities are a just 4:6:7,
using the same chantlike melody as in the last example:

http://value.net/~mschulter/seskg002.mid

Here's the Sesquisexta notation for this three-voice style:

A4 B}4 D}5 E}5 D}5 C}5 B}4 A}4 G}4 A4
A4 B4 D5 E5 D5 C5 B4 A4 G4 A4
D4 E4 G4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 C4 D4

In this notation, a curly brace } shows a note on the upper keyboard,
raised by a pure 7:6 (in theory -- actual tuning tables involve some
approximations). At cadences, the outer 7:4 seventh very nicely
contracts to a fifth, and the upper 7:6 third to a unison.

Your three-voice parallels happen to be a subset of a four-voice
texture I have often used in Sesquisexta, with parallel 12:14:18:21
sonorities -- 7:6 third, 3:2 fifth, and 7:4 seventh above the lowest
voice, and with a 9:7 major third between the middle voices. To use
one popular terminology, these thirds are actually subminor/supramajor
or septimal thirds -- although they're often so much the norm for me
that I just call them major and minor.

Before giving the four-voice version, please let me say that I really
like the flavor of yours, a bit different, and in some tunings easier
to improvise on keyboard. There's a bit more emphasis with 4:6:7 or
the like on that seventh, while 12:14:18:21 has more on the thirds.
Either sounds "way cool" and jazzy to me.

Here's a four-voice version:

http://value.net/~mschulter/seskg003.mid

along with the Sesquisexta notation:

A4 B}4 D}5 D}5 D}5 C}5 B}4 A}4 G}4 A4
A4 B4 D5 E5 D5 C5 B4 A4 G4 A4
D4 E}4 G}4 A}4 G}4 F}4 E}4 D}4 C}4 D4
D4 E4 G4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 C4 D4

This is identical to the 4:6:7 version, except that the next to lowest
voice is added in parallel fifths below the highest voice, and in
parallel 7:6 minor thirds above the lowest voice except at cadences
where this third resolves to a unison.

On a Sesquisexta keyboard, this is very easy to play: for the parallel
passages, play the same set of parallel fifths in visual "unison" on
the two manuals. Kraig, for your parallel 4:6:7 sonorities, it's just
a question of playing in fifths on the lower manual, and the upper
note of these fifths in visual unison on the upper manual.

With your inspiration, Kraig, I tried playing in parallel fifths and
minor sevenths in George Secor's 17-tone well-temperament (17-WT as we
call it) where the minor thirds and sevenths in the nearer keys or
transposition are rather close to 7:6 and 7:4. I really like it there,
also -- not quite so "lush" as 12:14:18:21, but with its own
character, a bit more econonmic, and very pleasantly floating,
announcing "This is somewhere else."

Like you, I very much like "time machine" effects, and with either the
(super)major sixth parallels I did the first time or either of these
(sub)minor seventh textures, there's a neat connection.

When I played in Sesquisexta for the first time, I hit on four-voice
parallels within maybe ten minutes, and felt that somehow it was very
21st-century. At the same time, those 7-based intervals can nicely fit
into a 14th-century kind of cadential ethos: the 7:4 very efficiently
contracts to a fifth, and the 7:6 to a unison, while the 9:7 likewise
expands to a fifth, and the 12:7 to an octave, and the 8:7 to a
fourth.

Maybe this is a bit like 4:5:6:7 in a different kind of style:
sometimes it's advocated because it's a "just" or "consonant" tuning,
and sometimes because that 5:7 diminished fifth can very neatly
resolve to a major third in an 18th-century European fashion.

One term I have for this kind of thing is "streamlining": the sonority
is smooth, and it resolves efficiently, also, when that's the pattern
in a style of interest.

By the way, Kraig, you also mentioned parallel sonorities with fifth
and major sixth above the lowest note -- I really like this kind of
sound, and in Sesquisexta we get a pure 14:21:24 (pure 3:2, 12:7, and
upper 8:7). In one naming approach, this would be a "supermajor added
sixth" kind of sonority. I find that in various tunings, the effect is
very vibrant.

Robert, now I need to get to my notes on your CD, and post some
comments.

Thanks to you both for giving me an occasion to make a bit of music,
and those parallel 4:6:7 sonorities are something that I can use in a
range of tunings.

With peace and love,

Margo

P.S. Joe, thank you for your encouragement, and I should explain that
these quick examples are rather like examples from a treatise -- they show
the basic technique, but indeed invite expansion into larger pieces. What
I really need to do, speaking of "play," is to record an improvisation in
Sesquisexta and make it available here -- as Jacky so helpfully assisted
me in doing with some 13-tET (or 13-EDO) improvisations. I'd love to hear
some of your Blackjack pieces -- I have the means to generate MIDI files
with Scala, and to proofread the output in an ASCII translation (a bit
like checking a score), but not to listen to them.

Re: Automated counterpoint (more MIDI examples)

🔗M. Schulter <MSCHULTER@...>

🔗Robert Walker <robertwalker@...>

🔗jpehrson2 <jpehrson@...>

🔗Robert Walker <robertwalker@...>