Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic New music from Dan Stearns

List,

Letting you know that there is a new piece by Dan Stearns up on the MMM site, Microtonal.org. Dan submitted the following to me:

-----------------------------------
"Study No. 1"
For the Alesis HR-16:B drum machine
Voice 39, pitches -16 through 0

Sometimes inspiration and the process of composing show a startling indifference to the real-world events and stimuli that surround them. Certainly this was the case when I wrote the bulk of this piece while honeymooning in Maine during the late summer of 1990--this piece had its own momentum and its own agenda, and neither late summer reverie nor post-marital glow could temper their course.

At some point in the months that preceded the wedding and the Maine vacation I noticed that the drum machine I recently acquired was utilizing a tuning schematic based on something other than 12-tone equal temperament. Initially I was more curious than obsessed, so I contacted the manufacture to inquire how, and perhaps why, this machine was tuned as it was. Surprisingly, no one I contacted in the Alesis tech department--employees of the very company that makes the machine--had any idea; and when I asked them if they could point me in the direction of someone who did, they said no! So, having exhausted that avenue and at a loss of where else to turn, I set out on my own.

The Alesis HR-16:B is designed so that the pitch of a given sample can be altered by way of a slider that traverses a number line from -16 through +15. In this composition I used voice 39; what they call a "pipe". I used this particular sample because its ponk had a desirable amount of hang time and this allowed my ear to get a better read on its pitch content. Voice 39 is tuned to harmonics 16 through 47 as follows:

-16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16:17:18:19:20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:39:40:41:42:43:44:45:46:47

The first line represents the HR-16:B's slider and its -16 through +15 number line, and the second line represents the corresponding harmonics. This arrangement gives eight complete octaves (and a ninth that abruptly stops at 24:47):

-16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0
-15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2
-14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
-13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
-12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
-11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
-10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
-9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
(-8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15)

16:17:18:19:20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32
17:18:19:20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34
18:19:20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36
19:20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38
20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:39:40
21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:39:40:41:42
22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:39:40:41:42:43:44
23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:39:40:41:42:43:44:45:46
(24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:39:40:41:42:43:44:45:46:47)

So while I still didn't--and still don't--know why this was, from that time on I knew what it was. And it wasn't long before vague but powerful images of Conlon Nancarrow and Lou Harrison began dancing in my head and I started to daydream in earnest about a series of studies for the HR-16 and its secretive just intonation component.

Study No. 1 uses a single 16-32 overtone octave, and the bulk of this piece was composed on the aforementioned vacation from head to paper and later step-written into the machine in a tortuously slow-going process that nearly exceeded my capacity to endure! Composing in this queer and restrictive fashion gives the results a certain character and dimension beyond the notes and the rhythms, as I believe this piece shows, but it also goes against my grain and eventually I abandoned the JI drum machine studies for other projects that better suited my temperament. Recently though, after receiving a generous gift of the complete Nancarrow player piano series, I was inspired to pull this piece out of storage and finish integrating the middle, two-tiered counterpoint section into the main body of the piece. So, fourteen long years after 99% of it was composed one weekend one late summer in Maine, I'd like to dedicate this odd little piece to Jon Szanto who coined the MMM moniker not as a hammer but as a light...
Make Microtonal Music!

4/23/04,
Dan Stearns
-----------------------------------

You can take a listen to the piece, as well as viewing a few measures from the score (which Dan had to devise his own notation) by going to:

http://www.microtonal.org/music.html

Cheers,
Jon

🔗danieljameswolf <djwolf1@...>

🔗daniel_anthony_stearns <daniel_anthony_stearns@...>

Thanks Jon. Like Nancarrow's player piano pieces, part of the charm
for me was making this pop culture machine do things it's designers
never could've imagined--or in this case, even seemed to know about!
The other samples were tuned differently, and voice 39 was really the
only one I took the time to get a good read on. Taken as a timbre in
its own right it's very poor, but--again, like the Nancarrow pieces--
taken as a component of the whole enterprise I actually quite liked
it; and if you listen hard you can hear sonic artifacts of it
fighting the things I'm making it do (weird snipping and clipped
electronic junk in the signal). The Lou Harrison reference was meant
as one of style:I wanted to use the just tunings in a lighter style
than I usually compose with while still focusing on melody and
harmony as opposed to timbre and drone.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Jonathan M. Szanto"
<JSZANTO@A...> wrote:
> List,
>
> Letting you know that there is a new piece by Dan Stearns up on the
MMM
> site, Microtonal.org. Dan submitted the following to me:
>
> -----------------------------------
> "Study No. 1"
> For the Alesis HR-16:B drum machine
> Voice 39, pitches -16 through 0
>
> Sometimes inspiration and the process of composing show a startling
> indifference to the real-world events and stimuli that surround
them.
> Certainly this was the case when I wrote the bulk of this piece
while
> honeymooning in Maine during the late summer of 1990--this piece
had its
> own momentum and its own agenda, and neither late summer reverie
nor
> post-marital glow could temper their course.
>
> At some point in the months that preceded the wedding and the Maine
> vacation I noticed that the drum machine I recently acquired was
utilizing
> a tuning schematic based on something other than 12-tone equal
temperament.
> Initially I was more curious than obsessed, so I contacted the
manufacture
> to inquire how, and perhaps why, this machine was tuned as it was.
> Surprisingly, no one I contacted in the Alesis tech department--
employees
> of the very company that makes the machine--had any idea; and when
I asked
> them if they could point me in the direction of someone who did,
they said
> no! So, having exhausted that avenue and at a loss of where else to
turn, I
> set out on my own.
>
> The Alesis HR-16:B is designed so that the pitch of a given sample
can be
> altered by way of a slider that traverses a number line from -16
through
> +15. In this composition I used voice 39; what they call a "pipe".
I used
> this particular sample because its ponk had a desirable amount of
hang time
> and this allowed my ear to get a better read on its pitch content.
Voice 39
> is tuned to harmonics 16 through 47 as follows:
>
> -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9
> 10 11 12 13 14 15
>
>
16:17:18:19:20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:3
9:40:41:42:43:44:45:46:47
>
> The first line represents the HR-16:B's slider and its -16 through
+15
> number line, and the second line represents the corresponding
harmonics.
> This arrangement gives eight complete octaves (and a ninth that
abruptly
> stops at 24:47):
>
> -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0
> -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2
> -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
> -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
> -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
> -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
> -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
> -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
> (-8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15)
>
> 16:17:18:19:20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32
> 17:18:19:20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34
> 18:19:20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36
> 19:20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38
> 20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:39:40
> 21:22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:39:40:41:42
> 22:23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:39:40:41:42:43:44
>
23:24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:39:40:41:42:43:44:45:4
6
>
(24:25:26:27:28:29:30:31:32:33:34:35:36:37:38:39:40:41:42:43:44:45:46:
47)
>
> So while I still didn't--and still don't--know why this was, from
that time
> on I knew what it was. And it wasn't long before vague but powerful
images
> of Conlon Nancarrow and Lou Harrison began dancing in my head and I
started
> to daydream in earnest about a series of studies for the HR-16 and
its
> secretive just intonation component.
>
> Study No. 1 uses a single 16-32 overtone octave, and the bulk of
this piece
> was composed on the aforementioned vacation from head to paper and
later
> step-written into the machine in a tortuously slow-going process
that
> nearly exceeded my capacity to endure! Composing in this queer and
> restrictive fashion gives the results a certain character and
dimension
> beyond the notes and the rhythms, as I believe this piece shows,
but it
> also goes against my grain and eventually I abandoned the JI drum
machine
> studies for other projects that better suited my temperament.
Recently
> though, after receiving a generous gift of the complete Nancarrow
player
> piano series, I was inspired to pull this piece out of storage and
finish
> integrating the middle, two-tiered counterpoint section into the
main body
> of the piece. So, fourteen long years after 99% of it was composed
one
> weekend one late summer in Maine, I'd like to dedicate this odd
little
> piece to Jon Szanto who coined the MMM moniker not as a hammer but
as a
> light...
> Make Microtonal Music!
>
> 4/23/04,
> Dan Stearns
> -----------------------------------
>
> You can take a listen to the piece, as well as viewing a few
measures from
> the score (which Dan had to devise his own notation) by going to:
>
> http://www.microtonal.org/music.html
>
> Cheers,
> Jon

🔗daniel_anthony_stearns <daniel_anthony_stearns@...>

http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/rhythmicon/
http://www.mute.com/mute/came/camemore.htm

There's no doubt that drum machines are a kind of lowbrow offspring
of the Rhythmicon, and in the piece I posted the tempo changes almost
every measure strictly according to simple integer proportions
(ratios). What's surprising--to me anyway--is how intuitive and
direct this level of rhythmic complexity can sound if it's organized
towards that end. BTW, I'd be surprised if noone else has used this
method, but the harmonic series notation I used in this piece--16-32
harmonic series numbers as note heads on the standard staff--affords
the convience of seeing vertical and horizontal JI sonorities at a
glance sans any special augmented accidentals, but this is contingent
on the Just sonorities being derived from series.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "danieljameswolf"
<djwolf1@a...> wrote:
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Jonathan M. Szanto"
> <JSZANTO@A...> wrote:
> > List,
> >
> > Dan Stearns wrote: "And it wasn't long before vague but powerful
> images
> > of Conlon Nancarrow and Lou Harrison began dancing in my head and
I
> started
> > to daydream in earnest about a series of studies for the HR-16
and its
> > secretive just intonation component.
> >
> > Study No. 1 uses a single 16-32 overtone octave,..."
>
>
> From this description, the images that come to mind are more those
of
> Henry Cowell and Leon Theremin, who built the Rhythmicon for Cowell,
> an electronic polyrhythm machine, with a frequency output based
on
> the harmonic series.
>
> But Harrison and Nancarrow aren't far-off, either: Lou was Cowells
> student and close friend, while Nancarrow's debt to Cowell's _New
> Musical Resources_ was oft-repeated.
>
> Daniel Wolf

🔗Daniel Wolf <djwolf1@...>

A small but landmark piece by Ron Kuivila, _Alphabet_ (on his first Lovely recording with Nic Collins), uses a similar technique. The only input is a recording of the spoken word "alphabet". Using a homemade delay line (this is from the early '80s) with a sawtooth control oscillator, he creates a polyphony where frequency and rhythmic proportions are all derived from the harmonic series. DJW

daniel_anthony_stearns wrote:

> http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/rhythmicon/
> http://www.mute.com/mute/came/camemore.htm
>
> There's no doubt that drum machines are a kind of lowbrow offspring
> of the Rhythmicon, and in the piece I posted the tempo changes almost
> every measure strictly according to simple integer proportions
> (ratios). What's surprising--to me anyway--is how intuitive and
> direct this level of rhythmic complexity can sound if it's organized
> towards that end. BTW, I'd be surprised if noone else has used this
> method, but the harmonic series notation I used in this piece--16-32
> harmonic series numbers as note heads on the standard staff--affords
> the convience of seeing vertical and horizontal JI sonorities at a
> glance sans any special augmented accidentals, but this is contingent
> on the Just sonorities being derived from series.
>

New music from Dan Stearns

🔗Jonathan M. Szanto <JSZANTO@...>

🔗danieljameswolf <djwolf1@...>

🔗daniel_anthony_stearns <daniel_anthony_stearns@...>

🔗daniel_anthony_stearns <daniel_anthony_stearns@...>

🔗Daniel Wolf <djwolf1@...>

🔗kraig grady <kraiggrady@...>

🔗tentothe99 <tentothe99@...>