Music for your ears

While mp3.com ponders if my latest offerings I worthy, you can find them
anyway at this alternative site:

http://zebox.com/genewardsmith/

The star.mp3 piece starts out in the 126/125 planar temperament, then
"hypermodally" (unless you have a better word?) transforms itself and
lands in the 64/63 planar temperament, where it noodles around on various
keyboard instruments until finding a bell-like canon for harpsichord,
which then "hypermodulates" back to 126/125.

--- In tuning@y..., "jonszanto" <JSZANTO@A...> wrote:
> --- In tuning@y..., "genewardsmith" <genewardsmith@j...> wrote:

> > How am I doing as a neo-Renaissance-type composer, do you think?

> Quite well, I'd say! Gene, I haven't had time to listen except for
about twice, and they were a tad distracted. My initial impressions were
that I liked the first temperament best (I believe it returns?), but
maybe it is just a matter of context. I *did*, however, like your first
motive very well, and the variations that came to it.

It seems to me I recall responding to this once, but it seems not to have
appeared; oh well. The first temperament (126/125) is in better tune, the
second (64/63) is in a version more like 27-et, and could have been a
little tamer in something like 22-et. If you liked the first (which, yes,
does return) better, it could mean you like to get close to JI. :)

> > Help. As in what sort of gear?
>
> I won't jump in too much here. One of the problems is with extended
intonations, where you need to access more than 12 steps per octave, our
current lineup of hardware/software are still far from ideal. However,
there are a good number of people over at MMM that could counsel you well
in this area.

Any takers? I've been using Scala and Timidity, which is freeware, but I
don't know if there is any software out there which would be better.

> But it is clear where you are going, and especially if you were to
really pinpoint an 'orchestration' for a piece - say, a woodwind quintet
or something - then you can get your information going as you have, and
then find someone with more outboard gear to do a 'realization' for you
that would come closer to acoustic renditions.

I was thinking more along the lines of writing a woodwind quartet (which
I am for the nonce, in "Magic") and then seeing if Johnny or someone
would consider it for a *live* performance. I think that's where I need
to go if I'm going to try to get serious about this.

> That's all from me, congrats and any follow-ups I can do at MMM...

Thanks, Jon. With your interest in cellular automata, we'll make a
mathematician of you yet.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., Gene W Smith <genewardsmith@j...> wrote:

/makemicromusic/topicId_2880.html#3182

>
> I was thinking more along the lines of writing a woodwind quartet
(which
> I am for the nonce, in "Magic") and then seeing if Johnny or someone
> would consider it for a *live* performance. I think that's where I
need
> to go if I'm going to try to get serious about this.
>

***That sounds great, Gene! But, wouldn't you need a lot
of "alternate fingerings" for this? That's always my "hangup" with
woodwinds and, so far, few players want to take the time to work with
me to develop new fingerings....

Joseph

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., "jpehrson2" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., Gene W Smith <genewardsmith@j...> wrote:
>
> /makemicromusic/topicId_2880.html#3182
>
> >
> > I was thinking more along the lines of writing a woodwind quartet
> (which
> > I am for the nonce, in "Magic") and then seeing if Johnny or
someone
> > would consider it for a *live* performance. I think that's where
I
> need
> > to go if I'm going to try to get serious about this.
> >
>
>
> ***That sounds great, Gene! But, wouldn't you need a lot
> of "alternate fingerings" for this?

not if you're submitting it to the AFMM! johnny reinhard and friends
will worry about the fingerings -- you just provide the cents
deviations.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., "jpehrson2" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:

> ***That sounds great, Gene! But, wouldn't you need a lot
> of "alternate fingerings" for this? That's always my "hangup" with
> woodwinds and, so far, few players want to take the time to work with
> me to develop new fingerings....

I'm not competent to develop new fingerings, and Johnny said leave the question of how the music gets played to the pros, so if I can produce a score for him, that is what I'd do. Who else have you worked with?

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., "genewardsmith" <genewardsmith@j...>
wrote:

/makemicromusic/topicId_2880.html#3231

> --- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., "jpehrson2" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:
>
> > ***That sounds great, Gene! But, wouldn't you need a lot
> > of "alternate fingerings" for this? That's always my "hangup"
with woodwinds and, so far, few players want to take the time to work
with me to develop new fingerings....
>

> I'm not competent to develop new fingerings, and Johnny said leave
the question of how the music gets played to the pros, so if I can
produce a score for him, that is what I'd do. Who else have you
worked with?

***Hi Gene!

Well, that will probably work for Johnny's group. However, I must
say that it was Johnny *himself* who suggested to me that I include
alternate fingerings in my microtonal pieces. (Not necessarily for
*his* group, but in general)

My *own* objective is to write pieces that could be performed
by "standard" players, not necessarily microtonal specialists, so I
try to make my scores accessible to that larger group.

Last night, in fact, I worked with a violist, Olivia Koppell, who has
played *very little* microtonal music. Of course, for string
instruments I don't need fingerings. She almost quit the piece,
thinking it was "too hard." However, it ended up that she did quite
a nice job of it and even learning a *lot* in the process: about
pitch perception (which was enhanced, of course) and about bowing
technique (apparently vibrato covers a multitude of sins, and
playing "senza vibrar" entails an entirely new and valuable bowing
technique...)

So, in the end, she really enjoyed the experience and is even
thinking of playing the piece for a "viola conference"
demonstrating "new things" that can be done with the instrument...

best,

JP