the great journey of foum is complete

This just out:

foum, or Xenharmonic Variations on a Theme by Mozart (jacob barton, microtonal player
piano) is available for download at my "fun with xenharmonicity" soundclick site. If you've
heard "foum"...it's more of that tasty foum. Nice overall form too, I think. Seven
variations. Each in a different root of two. Something for everyone

The accompanying MIDI and score [probably some dialect of sagittal] will be forthcoming,
with any luck.

I'm particularly interested in your reactions to the tempos; some of them still feel a little
wrong to me. Also, are some variations too imitative of 12-tet for you? Also this notion
of an innate "mood" supplied by the tuning - any thoughts there? Also, what's your
favorite moment?

The "foum simultaneous" also up is just funny/interesting. I think you'll experience it
differently depending on whether you've heard the other version.

Thank goodness I finished that,
Jacob

Jacob-

This is an impressive piece of work! I really dig the boogie-woogie section a
lot, and some of the other things Carl Lumma mentioned as well.
Unfortunately, the mp3 ends abruptly (Carl mentioned this). It's a shame too,
that variation was my favorite (esp. because of the quick 5/8 accompaniment).
I love the humor here, and the mechanical 'Conlon Nancarrow-ness' works--it
makes me wonder what Nancarrow might have done had he written for wacky
tunings....

My one critique is that the elegant Mozart theme is not suited to the bad
digital piano timbre, although the variations that follow are, so once the
variations came in I got into it. But like I told Jeff Harrington regarding
his preludes, it's always better to hear a good piano sound (for me anyway)
than one of these old Korg-"M1 piano"-type sounds (yuck), but somehow, the
wacky tunings make them go down easier (I suppose they add a nice comic
touch, too..)

However, to get a 'Mark Andre Hamelin' virtuoso on a good Steinway type
effect, if you have a good Yamaha PS-200 digital piano, or Kurzweil or
something and you want to go microtonal without access to multi-channel MIDI,
(meaning it only plays 1 midi channel at a time--a cleaner and better
solution than soundfonts, but more work), the solution would be to do a
midi-mapping in Scala, and record one track at a time, then merge them in a
soundfile editor. A lot of work, but worth the sonic results!

Anyhow, "bravo!!" for completing what was clearly a lot of work, and for
writing humorous music, which I think is a noble cause, and the sign of true
depth (where would Beethoven's depth be without his simultaneous penchant for
the comical?) I look forward to more from you.

BTW, care to share some details about conception and realization with us? How
about details of tunings, and equipment? Did you hand-enter midi data, or
play at 1/4 tempo, etc?

Best,
Aaron.

On Saturday 20 November 2004 11:56 pm, Jacob wrote:
> This just out:
>
> foum, or Xenharmonic Variations on a Theme by Mozart (jacob barton,
> microtonal player piano) is available for download at my "fun with
> xenharmonicity" soundclick site. If you've heard "foum"...it's more of
> that tasty foum. Nice overall form too, I think. Seven variations. Each
> in a different root of two. Something for everyone
>
> The accompanying MIDI and score [probably some dialect of sagittal] will be
> forthcoming, with any luck.
>
> I'm particularly interested in your reactions to the tempos; some of them
> still feel a little wrong to me. Also, are some variations too imitative
> of 12-tet for you? Also this notion of an innate "mood" supplied by the
> tuning - any thoughts there? Also, what's your favorite moment?
>
> The "foum simultaneous" also up is just funny/interesting. I think you'll
> experience it differently depending on whether you've heard the other
> version.
>
> Thank goodness I finished that,
> Jacob
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

--
Aaron Krister Johnson
http://www.akjmusic.com
http://www.dividebypi.com

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Aaron K. Johnson" <akjmicro@c...> wrote:
> Jacob-
>
> This is an impressive piece of work! I really dig the boogie-woogie section a
> lot, and some of the other things Carl Lumma mentioned as well.
> Unfortunately, the mp3 ends abruptly (Carl mentioned this). It's a shame too,
> that variation was my favorite (esp. because of the quick 5/8 accompaniment).
> I love the humor here, and the mechanical 'Conlon Nancarrow-ness' works--it
> makes me wonder what Nancarrow might have done had he written for wacky
> tunings....

If you re-download, you'll notice I fixed the lop-off. Funny that after all of that, the
variation written first really holds its own. Although nos. 4&5 have their moments.

> My one critique is that the elegant Mozart theme is not suited to the bad
> digital piano timbre, although the variations that follow are, so once the
> variations came in I got into it. But like I told Jeff Harrington regarding
> his preludes, it's always better to hear a good piano sound (for me anyway)
> than one of these old Korg-"M1 piano"-type sounds (yuck), but somehow, the
> wacky tunings make them go down easier (I suppose they add a nice comic
> touch, too..)

Don't worry. These are mere digital realizations of a work for acoustic microtonal player
piano, so when one exists...

> Anyhow, "bravo!!" for completing what was clearly a lot of work, and for
> writing humorous music, which I think is a noble cause, and the sign of true
> depth (where would Beethoven's depth be without his simultaneous penchant for
> the comical?) I look forward to more from you.

Don't forget we're going to collaborate one of these days...wink wink nudge nudge

> BTW, care to share some details about conception and realization with us? How
> about details of tunings, and equipment? Did you hand-enter midi data, or
> play at 1/4 tempo, etc?

Let's see here. These were composed on an iMac with Metro SE (a $70 sequencer limited
to 4 audio channels), using Scala for OSX Panther to relay MIDI to an Alesis QS8 synth,
using various piano patches from the QS8. All of the notes were played in at some point,
up-tempo, down-tempo, or step-entry. They were then dragged around, copied, velocity-
adjusted, etc. Subsequently each variation was bounced to audio using Metro. The final
mix (and the simultaneous mix) were done in ProTools on a G5.

The only trouble I ran into was when two of the same notes sounded simultaneously; this
would cause scala to make one of them stick. While recording I often had to send a PANIC
or two!

Before I reveal the tunings, can anyone figure them out?

Jacob

>Before I reveal the tunings, can anyone figure them out?

It starts on 12, and we know it ends on 19. And it does seem
to move consecutively in between. The variation with the nice
4:5:7s would be 15-tET... the variation that would be 18-tET
sounds augmentedy, the 1st variation I've already guessed as
13. Seems like 7-tET poking its head out in the 2nd variation.

Of course, I could be wrong.

-Carl

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@l...> wrote:
> >Before I reveal the tunings, can anyone figure them out?
>
> It starts on 12, and we know it ends on 19. And it does seem
> to move consecutively in between. The variation with the nice
> 4:5:7s would be 15-tET... the variation that would be 18-tET
> sounds augmentedy, the 1st variation I've already guessed as
> 13. Seems like 7-tET poking its head out in the 2nd variation.
>
> Of course, I could be wrong.
>
> -Carl

Naaah, you got it. Didn't mean for 18 to come out so augmentedy. Did intentionally put a
lot of diminished action into 16, though. 15 has a lot of chords featuring a near
harmonic-11th (welll 9 cents off); I'm surprised you don't immediately hear them that way.

>> >Before I reveal the tunings, can anyone figure them out?
>>
>> It starts on 12, and we know it ends on 19. And it does seem
>> to move consecutively in between. The variation with the nice
>> 4:5:7s would be 15-tET... the variation that would be 18-tET
>> sounds augmentedy, the 1st variation I've already guessed as
>> 13. Seems like 7-tET poking its head out in the 2nd variation.
>>
>> Of course, I could be wrong.
>>
>> -Carl
>
>Naaah, you got it. Didn't mean for 18 to come out so augmentedy.
>Did intentionally put a lot of diminished action into 16, though.
>15 has a lot of chords featuring a near harmonic-11th (welll 9
>cents off); I'm surprised you don't immediately hear them that
>way.

Do you omit the 5th? I hear 11ths, but only in the melody.
I heard the block chords as 4:5:7, but I only listened quickly.

-Carl