Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic Anniversary of Vicentino piece (1555) -- mp3 and ogg

Hello, everyone, and please let me announce the availability of a
version of Nicola Vicentino's composition _Musica Prisca Caput_ (1555)
in mp3 and ogg versions produced using Aaron K. Johnson's application
et_compose written in the python programming language.

These files, possibly subject to a bit of further "proofreading" or
other emendations, are released to celebrate the 450th anniversary of
the publication of Vicentino's treatise _L'antica musica ridotta alla
moderna prattica_, which includes _Musica prisca caput_ as a piece
using all three genera (diatonic, chromatic, enharmonic), the last
featuring steps of an enharmonic diesis or fifthtone. Now, as then,
the result is very striking: this is "MMM" at its best, however well
advised or otherwise my choice of MIDI timbres for this version.

<http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPriscaCaput.mp3>
<http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPriscaCaput.ogg>
<http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPrisca027.mid>

The title of Vicentino's treatise might be rendered in English, as
Maria Rika Maniates and Claude Palisca do render it in their recent
translation, as _Ancient Music Adapted to Modern Practice_. To
celebrate this very important anniversary, I would like to make
available some audio files for other "enharmonic" or fifthtone
compositions from the 16th and early 17th centuries.

Here the tuning system is 1/4-comma meantone, of which Vicentino's
piece uses a subset of the complete 31-note circulating temperament
provided on his archicembalo, together with five extra notes or "comma
keys" which might be interpreted as providing pure rather than usual
meantone fifths for a few of the most frequent notes and sonorities.
(Vicentino originally intended two 19-note manuals, but could only fit
in 17 keys on the upper manual, so that E# and B# occur only on the
lower keyboard.)

While Vicentino doesn't specify the degree of meantone temperament, or
"foreshortening" or "blunting" of the fifths as he puts it, saying
only that one should follow good modern practice, the division of a
chromatic semitone (e.g. C-C#) into two more or less equal "minor
dieses" or fifthtones (C-C*-C#, with an asterisk representing
Vicentino's dot placed above a note to raise it by a diesis) implies a
temperament of 1/4-comma or nearby, i.e. in the vicinity of 31-EDO.

For this rendition in 1/4-comma temperament, Aaron's et_compose is
used with a division of 1,200,000-EDO, thus permitting accuracy (in
the coding, that is) to within 0.001 cents.

Another feature of et_compose used in this rendition is Gaussian
rhythm, which introduces slight random variations into the timing of
notes in a MIDI file produced by the python script. This device was
very artfully used in Aaron's recording in 19-EDO of a famous piece
from the epoch around 1600 by John Bull with remote transpositions on
the hexachord _Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la_:

<http://www.akjmusic.com/audio/bull_ut_re.ogg>

Please let me also very warmly thank Harold Fortuin and others for
their good advice to be aware of things like phrasing -- quite
available as a matter for artistic refinement in coding rhythms
numerically. Specifically, I found that digitally "breathing" by
borrowing part of the value of a note at the end of phrase for a pause
is a wise counsel, complemented here by Aaron's Gaussian rhythm
algorithm.

As I mention above, a question which I'm not sure about is
instrumentation, or the MIDI equivalent. While I tend to like bright
timbres for lots of early music, and a "mixed consort" kind of sound to
bring out the different lines, I'm not sure that that's the best approach
here. Bright timbres bring out the smoothly blending thirds of meantone,
and also lend a special emphasis to the diesis steps and shifts in the
last section of the piece -- an overemphasis, or just making the most of a
very striking effect?

A final comment on this important Vicentino anniversary: all too
often, this great composer's and theorist's writings are discussed in
the abstract, without an opportunity for actually hearing the
"enharmonic" or fifthtone music of what is now often called the
Manneristic Era in Western European music (roughly 1540-1640, say).

While begging pardon for any imperfections in these files, inevitable
or otherwise, I hope that this opening of my Internet celebration of
the 450th anniversary of Vicentino's great treatise may illustrate how
both mp3 and ogg formats can be useful in making and sharing
microtonal music.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter
mschulter@...
mschulter@...

🔗Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@...>

Hello Margo.
Pardon the delay on listening to this as having a dial up connection , i tend to wait till the end of the day to download. and i went with the ogg as my preferred format .
It is quite impressive pieces here and it is remarkable how natural the last is even if it is striking in a way, it still sounds as a logical outgrowth of that very music as opposed to it being a hint of the way we hear and use such things.

Margo Schulter wrote:

>Hello, everyone, and please let me announce the availability of a
>version of Nicola Vicentino's composition _Musica Prisca Caput_ (1555)
>in mp3 and ogg versions produced using Aaron K. Johnson's application
>et_compose written in the python programming language.
>
>These files, possibly subject to a bit of further "proofreading" or
>other emendations, are released to celebrate the 450th anniversary of
>the publication of Vicentino's treatise _L'antica musica ridotta alla
>moderna prattica_, which includes _Musica prisca caput_ as a piece
>using all three genera (diatonic, chromatic, enharmonic), the last
>featuring steps of an enharmonic diesis or fifthtone. Now, as then,
>the result is very striking: this is "MMM" at its best, however well
>advised or otherwise my choice of MIDI timbres for this version.
>
> <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPriscaCaput.mp3>
> <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPriscaCaput.ogg>
> <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPrisca027.mid>
>
>
>
>
> >

--
Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles

🔗Aaron K. Johnson <akjmicro@...>

Margo,

Congrats on another successful and engaging realization! I've never actually
heard a Vicentino piece in the flesh, so to speak. Please share with us the
relevant info on the score....also, have you considered trying this with
Campbells's harpsichord soundfont in fluidsynth, or Timidity might also
handle it.....

Best,
Aaron.

On Tuesday 22 February 2005 03:02 pm, Margo Schulter wrote:
> Hello, everyone, and please let me announce the availability of a
> version of Nicola Vicentino's composition _Musica Prisca Caput_ (1555)
> in mp3 and ogg versions produced using Aaron K. Johnson's application
> et_compose written in the python programming language.
>
> These files, possibly subject to a bit of further "proofreading" or
> other emendations, are released to celebrate the 450th anniversary of
> the publication of Vicentino's treatise _L'antica musica ridotta alla
> moderna prattica_, which includes _Musica prisca caput_ as a piece
> using all three genera (diatonic, chromatic, enharmonic), the last
> featuring steps of an enharmonic diesis or fifthtone. Now, as then,
> the result is very striking: this is "MMM" at its best, however well
> advised or otherwise my choice of MIDI timbres for this version.
>
> <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPriscaCaput.mp3>
> <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPriscaCaput.ogg>
> <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPrisca027.mid>
>
> The title of Vicentino's treatise might be rendered in English, as
> Maria Rika Maniates and Claude Palisca do render it in their recent
> translation, as _Ancient Music Adapted to Modern Practice_. To
> celebrate this very important anniversary, I would like to make
> available some audio files for other "enharmonic" or fifthtone
> compositions from the 16th and early 17th centuries.
>
> Here the tuning system is 1/4-comma meantone, of which Vicentino's
> piece uses a subset of the complete 31-note circulating temperament
> provided on his archicembalo, together with five extra notes or "comma
> keys" which might be interpreted as providing pure rather than usual
> meantone fifths for a few of the most frequent notes and sonorities.
> (Vicentino originally intended two 19-note manuals, but could only fit
> in 17 keys on the upper manual, so that E# and B# occur only on the
> lower keyboard.)
>
> While Vicentino doesn't specify the degree of meantone temperament, or
> "foreshortening" or "blunting" of the fifths as he puts it, saying
> only that one should follow good modern practice, the division of a
> chromatic semitone (e.g. C-C#) into two more or less equal "minor
> dieses" or fifthtones (C-C*-C#, with an asterisk representing
> Vicentino's dot placed above a note to raise it by a diesis) implies a
> temperament of 1/4-comma or nearby, i.e. in the vicinity of 31-EDO.
>
> For this rendition in 1/4-comma temperament, Aaron's et_compose is
> used with a division of 1,200,000-EDO, thus permitting accuracy (in
> the coding, that is) to within 0.001 cents.
>
> Another feature of et_compose used in this rendition is Gaussian
> rhythm, which introduces slight random variations into the timing of
> notes in a MIDI file produced by the python script. This device was
> very artfully used in Aaron's recording in 19-EDO of a famous piece
> from the epoch around 1600 by John Bull with remote transpositions on
> the hexachord _Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la_:
>
> <http://www.akjmusic.com/audio/bull_ut_re.ogg>
>
> Please let me also very warmly thank Harold Fortuin and others for
> their good advice to be aware of things like phrasing -- quite
> available as a matter for artistic refinement in coding rhythms
> numerically. Specifically, I found that digitally "breathing" by
> borrowing part of the value of a note at the end of phrase for a pause
> is a wise counsel, complemented here by Aaron's Gaussian rhythm
> algorithm.
>
> As I mention above, a question which I'm not sure about is
> instrumentation, or the MIDI equivalent. While I tend to like bright
> timbres for lots of early music, and a "mixed consort" kind of sound to
> bring out the different lines, I'm not sure that that's the best approach
> here. Bright timbres bring out the smoothly blending thirds of meantone,
> and also lend a special emphasis to the diesis steps and shifts in the
> last section of the piece -- an overemphasis, or just making the most of a
> very striking effect?
>
> A final comment on this important Vicentino anniversary: all too
> often, this great composer's and theorist's writings are discussed in
> the abstract, without an opportunity for actually hearing the
> "enharmonic" or fifthtone music of what is now often called the
> Manneristic Era in Western European music (roughly 1540-1640, say).
>
> While begging pardon for any imperfections in these files, inevitable
> or otherwise, I hope that this opening of my Internet celebration of
> the 450th anniversary of Vicentino's great treatise may illustrate how
> both mp3 and ogg formats can be useful in making and sharing
> microtonal music.
>
> Most appreciatively,
>
> Margo Schulter
> mschulter@...
> mschulter@...
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

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

🔗Aaron K. Johnson <akjmicro@...>

🔗Margo Schulter <mschulter@...>

Hello, there, everyone, and thank you for your comments on the
Vicentino piece, to which I'll attempt some responses here.

Kraig:

> It is quite impressive pieces here and it is remarkable how natural
> the last is even if it is striking in a way, it still sounds as a
> logical outgrowth of that very music as opposed to it being a hint
> of the way we hear and use such things.

This is a really interesting comment, Kraig, and I'd agree that there is
a wholeness to the piece that fits the elements (diatonic, chromatic,
enharmonic) together.

Aaron:

> Congrats on another successful and engaging realization! I've never
> actually heard a Vicentino piece in the flesh, so to speak. Please
> share with us the relevant info on the score....also, have you
> considered trying this with Campbells's harpsichord soundfont in
> fluidsynth, or Timidity might also handle it.....

First, your harpsichord soundfont indeed sounds ideal for lots of this
music, either as a solo instrument or as one instrument in an ensemble
texture! Your Bull realization suggests the potential of this. We
should discuss this further on-list or off. Since the archicembalo or
"superharpsichord" is Vicentino's main instrument (along with his
similarly tuned arciorgano or "superorgan"), the soundfont you're
discussing seems just the thing for some realizations like this
(remarks by Vicenzo Galilei suggest that singers of Vicentino's
enharmonic music were often accompanied on archicembalo).

As you say, I need to look into how Timidity handles soundfonts, or
what other software might be required.

Please let me note that while you in a subsequent message provided a
helpful link for the Maniates/Palisca edition which offers a modern
transcription of _Musica prisca caput_ (and the other musical examples
in Vicentino's treatise), there is a fine point of taste as to the
cadence at measures 9-10 of their score, or about 0:24-0:27 into this
version.

<http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPriscaCaput.ogg>
<http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPriscaCaput.mp3>
<http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPrisca027.mid>

Generally it's normal 16th-century practice to use an accidental
inflection, if necessary, to make a sixth major in a cadence to the
octave, with a suspension (here 7-6 between tenor and soprano, and 4-3
between bass and soprano) often signalling such a cadence.

However, since in this opening section Vicentino is writing in the
diatonic proper -- which, as he defines this genius, is hard to do
pleasingly because ordinary inflections of this kind aren't available,
unlike in common practice which he argues actually "mixes" genera --
I've left the Bb in the soprano uninflected, producing a progression
from minor sixth to octave, although Maniates/Palisca suggest the
usual B-natural alteration.

Most appreciatively,

Margo
mschulter@...

🔗Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@...>

🔗Dave Seidel <dave@...>

Hi Margo,

Sorry for taking so long to comment, but this is quite wonderful! I thought the timbres you chose worked very well. My only criticism (and this is about the composition itself, not your realization of it), is that, in the latter part of the piece, I wanted it to longer a little longer between shifts. But that's just my personal aesthetic prejudice (as I've stated elsewhere on the list).

I'm looking forward to hearing more like this.

- Dave

Margo Schulter wrote:
> Hello, everyone, and please let me announce the availability of a
> version of Nicola Vicentino's composition _Musica Prisca Caput_ (1555)
> in mp3 and ogg versions produced using Aaron K. Johnson's application
> et_compose written in the python programming language.
> > These files, possibly subject to a bit of further "proofreading" or
> other emendations, are released to celebrate the 450th anniversary of
> the publication of Vicentino's treatise _L'antica musica ridotta alla
> moderna prattica_, which includes _Musica prisca caput_ as a piece
> using all three genera (diatonic, chromatic, enharmonic), the last
> featuring steps of an enharmonic diesis or fifthtone. Now, as then,
> the result is very striking: this is "MMM" at its best, however well
> advised or otherwise my choice of MIDI timbres for this version.
> > <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPriscaCaput.mp3>
> <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPriscaCaput.ogg>
> <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/MusicaPrisca027.mid>
> > The title of Vicentino's treatise might be rendered in English, as
> Maria Rika Maniates and Claude Palisca do render it in their recent
> translation, as _Ancient Music Adapted to Modern Practice_. To
> celebrate this very important anniversary, I would like to make
> available some audio files for other "enharmonic" or fifthtone
> compositions from the 16th and early 17th centuries.
> > Here the tuning system is 1/4-comma meantone, of which Vicentino's
> piece uses a subset of the complete 31-note circulating temperament
> provided on his archicembalo, together with five extra notes or "comma
> keys" which might be interpreted as providing pure rather than usual
> meantone fifths for a few of the most frequent notes and sonorities.
> (Vicentino originally intended two 19-note manuals, but could only fit
> in 17 keys on the upper manual, so that E# and B# occur only on the
> lower keyboard.)
> > While Vicentino doesn't specify the degree of meantone temperament, or
> "foreshortening" or "blunting" of the fifths as he puts it, saying
> only that one should follow good modern practice, the division of a
> chromatic semitone (e.g. C-C#) into two more or less equal "minor
> dieses" or fifthtones (C-C*-C#, with an asterisk representing
> Vicentino's dot placed above a note to raise it by a diesis) implies a
> temperament of 1/4-comma or nearby, i.e. in the vicinity of 31-EDO.
> > For this rendition in 1/4-comma temperament, Aaron's et_compose is
> used with a division of 1,200,000-EDO, thus permitting accuracy (in
> the coding, that is) to within 0.001 cents.
> > Another feature of et_compose used in this rendition is Gaussian
> rhythm, which introduces slight random variations into the timing of
> notes in a MIDI file produced by the python script. This device was
> very artfully used in Aaron's recording in 19-EDO of a famous piece
> from the epoch around 1600 by John Bull with remote transpositions on
> the hexachord _Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la_:
> > <http://www.akjmusic.com/audio/bull_ut_re.ogg>
> > Please let me also very warmly thank Harold Fortuin and others for
> their good advice to be aware of things like phrasing -- quite
> available as a matter for artistic refinement in coding rhythms
> numerically. Specifically, I found that digitally "breathing" by
> borrowing part of the value of a note at the end of phrase for a pause
> is a wise counsel, complemented here by Aaron's Gaussian rhythm
> algorithm.
> > As I mention above, a question which I'm not sure about is
> instrumentation, or the MIDI equivalent. While I tend to like bright
> timbres for lots of early music, and a "mixed consort" kind of sound to
> bring out the different lines, I'm not sure that that's the best approach
> here. Bright timbres bring out the smoothly blending thirds of meantone,
> and also lend a special emphasis to the diesis steps and shifts in the
> last section of the piece -- an overemphasis, or just making the most of a
> very striking effect?
> > A final comment on this important Vicentino anniversary: all too
> often, this great composer's and theorist's writings are discussed in
> the abstract, without an opportunity for actually hearing the
> "enharmonic" or fifthtone music of what is now often called the
> Manneristic Era in Western European music (roughly 1540-1640, say).
> > While begging pardon for any imperfections in these files, inevitable
> or otherwise, I hope that this opening of my Internet celebration of
> the 450th anniversary of Vicentino's great treatise may illustrate how
> both mp3 and ogg formats can be useful in making and sharing
> microtonal music.
> > Most appreciatively,
> > Margo Schulter
> mschulter@...
> mschulter@...
> > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > > > > > > >

🔗Margo Schulter <mschulter@...>

> Hi Margo,

> Sorry for taking so long to comment, but this is quite wonderful! I
> thought the timbres you chose worked very well. My only criticism (and
> this is about the composition itself, not your realization of it), is
> that, in the latter part of the piece, I wanted it to longer a little
> longer between shifts. But that's just my personal aesthetic prejudice
> (as I've stated elsewhere on the list).

Hi, Dave, and you raise an interesting point about diesis shifts:
while Vicentino has lots of them close together in this piece, they
can also be used more "moderately" for sectional contrasts, for
example. As your response, illustrates, tastes may vary.

Thank you for the encouraging feedback on timbres: I wondered if my
choice might emphasize, or even overemphasize, the diesis contrasts,
but decided that "this piece is meant to be dramatic."

Of course, Aaron's harpsichord version lends another perspective to the
piece, especially appropriate since Vicentino's archicembalo might well
have either performed this piece in an instrumental version or lent
support to singers. Congratulations, Aaron, on a really neat rendition!

> I'm looking forward to hearing more like this.

A project I have for this year is to do renditions of other pieces
from the 16th and early 17th centuries using fifthtones, and I hope to
have more of them available soon, with your response lending a bit of
helpful impetus.

The kind of stylistic comments you're offering add interest to the
project.

Of course, Aaron's involvement can help multiply both the quantity and
quality of this kind of endeavor: one of the pleasures of this music is
the range of interpretations possible.

Also, I'm still rapt by _The Gemini Nebula_.

> - Dave

Peace and love,

Margo
mschulter@...