Composition -- version in 29-EDO (ogg link)

Hello, everyone, and for my first post of 2005 I'd like to share a
piece:

<http://www.calweb.com/~mschulter/librar29a.ogg>

This piece for three voices, which I composed in 1985, is here
realized in 29-EDO (aka 29-tET), using Scala 1.86 for Linux
(text-based version) to generate a MIDI file, and then Timidity++ to
convert the MIDI to ogg format.

Please let me apologize for not also having already made available a
version in mp3 format, which I'd like to do as soon as I figure out
how, and possibly download some more software to have the right
tool(s) for this -- with the Slackware Linux 10.0 distribution, there
are a number of applications for _playing_ mp3's. Also, I'd like to
find a good site for a general archive of my music (composed or
improvised) in ogg and mp3 formats, and would prefer a policy of
making pieces available in both formats. There have been some helpful
posts on this topic of sites for making audio files generally
available, and I'd welcome more discussion and advice on this (I've
also had some helpful discussions offline).

One question raised by my General MIDI instrumentation is the nature
of default MIDI-based string timbres, which I find add diversity to
the consort of sounds (with contrasting timbres helping to
differentate the melodic layers), but without closely emulating the
variations characteristic of acoustical string playing.

Here 29-EDO is a kind of modern variation on medieval Pythagorean
tuning, the "historically correct" intonation for this kind of style.
The genre might be described as conductus, with the voices often
moving together in more or less note-against-note style; three-voice
textures in this genre are common around 1200, with a range of modern
performance interpretations. During my youth, ensembles mixing voices
with contrasting instrumental timbres for different lines were often
favored; over the last three decades, performances by voices alone
have come more into vogue.

Please let me express many thanks to those of you here and elsewhere
who have helped to get me to this point.

In view of Aaron Johnson's special role in facilitating my adventures
with Linux, I would like warmly to dedicate this modest version of my
piece to Aaron, his wife Lorna, and his grandfather Clarence -- with
many thanks.

Most appreciatively,

Margo
mschulter@...

Hello, everyone, and I'd like briefly to comment on the "22-EDO
keyboard" discussion: it might suggest "different folks, different
styles, different keyboards" -- whatever the connections.

I'm hesitant to get very deeply into this discussion without posting
some music played on the keyboard layout I'm describing, for better or
worse <grin>. However, for the record, I will describe what I actually
use, not necessarily as elegant or logical as a generalized keyboard
-- as George Secor might not object to my observing.

The basic idea is two 12-note keyboards with standard
Pythagorean-style Eb-G# tunings, at 2 tuning steps apart. This yields
an arrangement I'll here show with an octave of C-C, and the sign "u"
showing a note on the upper keyboard raised by 2/22 octave.

[Nonproportional font suggested -- I can e-mail an ASCII version also]

5 7 14 18 20
C#u/Eb Ebu/D# F#u/Ab G#u/Bb Bbu/A#
Cu Du Eu Fu Gu Au Bu/Db Cu
2 6 10 11 15 19 23 24
-------------------------------------------------------------------
3 5 12 16 18
C# Eb F# G# Bb
C D E F G A B C
0 4 8 9 13 17 21 22

Fingering varies with this "regularized keyboard" with two 7+5 manuals
each having an identical pattern of steps and intervals -- as opposed
to a generalized keyboard.

For example:

Regular medieval Dorian:

D E F G A B C D
0 4 5 9 13 17 18 22

(or, e.g.)

F G F#u/Ab Bb C D Eb F
0 4 5 9 13 17 18 22

Quasi-Zalzal (lower tetrachord Porcupine-like):

F F# Gu Bb C C# Eb F
0 3 6 9 13 16 18 22

Porcupine (?)

F F# Gu Bb B C C# Du F
0 3 6 9 12 13 16 19 22

Porcupine-like variation, modern Rast (symmetrical tetrachords)

F F# Gu Bb C C# Du F
0 3 6 9 13 16 19 22

Hijaz (neat!), symmetrical tetrachords

F Fu A Bb C Cu E F
0 2 8 9 13 15 21 22

Quasi-Hijaz maqam, contrasting tetrachords

F Fu A Bb C Cu Eb F
0 2 8 9 13 15 18 22

Renaissance Mixolydian variation, quasi-5-limit

F G G# Bb C C# Eb F
0 4 7 9 13 16 18 22

Of course, one thing 22-EDO excels in are approximations of tetrads
like 12:14:18:21 or 4:6:7:9 using regular diatonic spellings, and this
keyboard makes the most of it -- at least in the most common
transpositions under an Eb-G# convention! With a generalized keyboard,
that might be rephrased "in all transpositions" -- although I'm not
sure of the best pattern.

Again, I'd like to record some things in this tuning and keyboard
arrangement -- again cautioning that others might play circles around
me on a generalized keyboard.

Most appreciatively,

Margo
mschulter@...

hi Margo,

good to be back in communication with you! (i haven't been
reading this list regularly, and you haven't been on the
main tuning list in quite a while.)

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Margo Schulter <mschulter@c...>
wrote:

> Hello, everyone, and I'd like briefly to comment on the "22-EDO
> keyboard" discussion:
>
> <snip>
> [Nonproportional font suggested -- I can e-mail an ASCII version
also]
>
>
> 5 7 14 18 20
> C#u/Eb Ebu/D# F#u/Ab G#u/Bb Bbu/A#
> Cu Du Eu Fu Gu Au Bu/Db Cu
> 2 6 10 11 15 19 23 24
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> 3 5 12 16 18
> C# Eb F# G# Bb
> C D E F G A B C
> 0 4 8 9 13 17 21 22
>
> <snip>

i've made a graphic of the ASCII version and put it here:

/makemicromusic/files/Margo%
20Schulter/22edo-keyboard_MMM8491.gif

OR

http://tinyurl.com/45qcq

-monz

> From: "domilare" <domilare@...>
>
> Hello Margo, thanks for Librar29a (or 29c ?, it says "a" on the icon, and
> "c" on the rolling Winamp title). This new piece feels sweeter and more
> supple than Librar22, which I also enjoy. The file for 29 came in with less
> volume than 22.
>
> A happy 2005 to you, and for those with whom you work !
>
> Dominique Larré

Dear Dominique,

Thank you warmly for this helpful response to my quick piece. I take your
interesting comparative remarks as suggesting that the ideal tuning for
this kind of music might be at or not too far from Pythagorean, the
historical norm: for me, 29-EDO is one nice "modernistic" variation.

Could the different in volume result from software mixer settings with
alsamixer in Linux, or from the way that the volumes of different MIDI
instruments are realized in a program called Timidity++ that can convert
General MIDI files directly to ogg? I may need to experiment a little.

Most appreciatively,

Margo
mschulter@...

> From: "monz" <monz@...>
>
> hi Margo,
>
> good to be back in communication with you! (i haven't been
> reading this list regularly, and you haven't been on the
> main tuning list in quite a while.)

Hi, Monz, and it's a pleasure to be in touch with you also; right now I'm
getting into the area of getting more music online, and have been leaning
recently a lot to JI tunings, although not excluding temperaments either.

(for very nice graphics version of my ASCII 22-EDO keyboard mapping)

>
> i've made a graphic of the ASCII version and put it here:
>
> /makemicromusic/files/Margo%
> 20Schulter/22edo-keyboard_MMM8491.gif
>
> OR
>
> http://tinyurl.com/45qcq

Thank you for providing the second URL, because I'm having problems
accessing the first: when I try with an SSL-compatible browser, I get the
message "Aren't you supposed to be somewhere else?"

I'm not sure what kind of error message this is; I might have expected a
request to sign in, if this is required to access a file.

Anyway, you've produced a very faithful representation of my original
ASCII, which should make the notation available to more people more
easily. Thanks!

Most appreciatively,

Margo
mschulter@...

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005, Margo Schulter wrote:

> Thank you for providing the second URL, because I'm having problems
> accessing the first: when I try with an SSL-compatible browser, I get the
> message "Aren't you supposed to be somewhere else?"
>
> I'm not sure what kind of error message this is; I might have expected a
> request to sign in, if this is required to access a file.

Please me happily if somewhat regretfully report -- since I might have
tried both browsers before posting this -- that while I've had some
problems downloading from the MMM files area with Links 0.98, I've
succeeded with a recent version of Lynx 2.8.5rel.1 which supports both SSL
and cookies.

What I might query is whether with Links I might be encountering cookie
problems.

This is one benefit of having two browsers -- if one runs into
difficulties, the other might just solve them.

Most appreciatively,

Margo
mschulter@...

Hello, there, everyone, and I'd like to confirm that Bill Sethares has
struck a euphonious note (or many of them) with his _Aerophonious_.

Listening to it, I'd say that it has a definitely "Setharean" quality in
both wider and narrower interpretations: a xentonal pieces whic is "way
out there" in a pleasing way, and also a piece with some themes which I
tend to hear as a kind of trademark of Bill Sethares.

What I hear is a charming and offbeat "pop" kind of sound that reminds me
rather of _The Turquoise Dabo Girl_ -- very pleasantly. The rhythms,
riffs, and timbres have a quality a bit like a theme for a science fiction
movie or TV show, and which also curiously evoke a theme I seem to have
heard for some detective or mystery series back around the early 1960's --
possibly "The Thin Man" -- or a movie like _The Pink Panther_.

Why not call it "Switched-On and Tuned-In Pop"; the intonation adds to the
"newness" and sheer Setharean affability of the music.

It was, in parts, a bit like a time trip back 40-45 years to that
detective theme, with a bit of a Turqoise Dabo Girl tint to add a curious
and charming perspective.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter
mschulter@...