22 (On the choice of intonations)

Hi,

The discussion Jon initiated inspired me to share my experiences in
microtonal music making.

When I first got into microtonality I was interested in just
intonation. I was fascinated by tonality diamonds and combination
product sets and the like. But my interest was mostly theoretical.
For me it was just a nice idea. One thing I really hated were the
wolf intervals that are present in all but the most simplest justly
intoned scales like some tunings based on harmonic series segments
and subsets. I actually like to listen to some of the ambient drone
music based on such tunings by artists such as Robert Rich and David
Beardsley. But that was not the kind of music I wanted to make.

I wanted the harmonic and melodic aspects of scales to be more
clearly intertwined just as they are in the diatonic scales. Thus I
gradually got interested in Paul's paper about decatonic scales. I
read and reread it many times. It gave me a good no-nonsense grasp
of the mechanics of not just the decatonic scales but also of the
traditional diatonic and pentatonic scales as well. Then I finally
decided to get my hands dirty and actually try 22-equal out (my
musical setup of that time was such that it required a lot of work
to tune a scale up).

I must say I was at first very disappointed with it. I seemed not to
get anything interesting out of it. But the crucial realization was
that this was the very same feeling I must have had as a child when
I first got my hands on a 12-equal keyboard and just couldn't
translate the musical ideas in my head into actual sounds. So I
persisted and stayed with the tuning.

Now after two of three years I'm finally beginning to get the knack
of it and I love it! Lately I've been playing around with this 12-
tone subset of 22:

2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1

Start on C so that the smallest steps are E-F and B-C. I recommend
this tuning to anyone interested in 22 because with it you can get a
good grasp of what you can do with just one or two pentachordal
decatonic scales. I haven't really thought much about modulation yet
but I have a modded 22-tone keyboard waiting for that.

At the same time I've been making music in good old 12-equal (also
in the 7-limit TOP variety) and just developing my compositional
process. My style of music seems to have been gravitating towards
some kind of rhythmic electronic music with repetitive layers of
sound. I know that most music that is nowadays classified as
electronica fits this description quite nicely. :) But my style is
influenced by various postpunk electronic bands of the late 70's and
early 80's rather than the later house and techno music. One day
I'll post a microtonal piece of such music here!

Kalle

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Kalle Aho" <kalleaho@m...>
wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> The discussion Jon initiated inspired me to share my experiences
in
> microtonal music making.
>
> When I first got into microtonality I was interested in just
> intonation. I was fascinated by tonality diamonds and combination
> product sets and the like. But my interest was mostly theoretical.
> For me it was just a nice idea. One thing I really hated were the
> wolf intervals that are present in all but the most simplest
justly
> intoned scales like some tunings based on harmonic series segments
> and subsets. I actually like to listen to some of the ambient
drone
> music based on such tunings by artists such as Robert Rich and
David
> Beardsley. But that was not the kind of music I wanted to make.
>
> I wanted the harmonic and melodic aspects of scales to be more
> clearly intertwined just as they are in the diatonic scales. Thus
I
> gradually got interested in Paul's paper about decatonic scales. I
> read and reread it many times. It gave me a good no-nonsense grasp
> of the mechanics of not just the decatonic scales but also of the
> traditional diatonic and pentatonic scales as well. Then I finally
> decided to get my hands dirty and actually try 22-equal out (my
> musical setup of that time was such that it required a lot of work
> to tune a scale up).
>
> I must say I was at first very disappointed with it. I seemed not
to
> get anything interesting out of it. But the crucial realization
was
> that this was the very same feeling I must have had as a child
when
> I first got my hands on a 12-equal keyboard and just couldn't
> translate the musical ideas in my head into actual sounds.

Yes -- exactly!

> So I
> persisted and stayed with the tuning.

I'm glad that the "instant gratification" approach isn't universal
around here. Though I have no quarrel with those who follow it, lest
I be misunderstood. No one should be made to feel they have any
responsibility to work against the grain upon which they flow most
naturally at any given time. I just happen to think that sometimes
such hard, difficult work has its unique rewards.

> Now after two of three years I'm finally beginning to get the
knack
> of it and I love it! Lately I've been playing around with this 12-
> tone subset of 22:
>
> 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1
>
> Start on C so that the smallest steps are E-F and B-C. I recommend
> this tuning to anyone interested in 22 because with it you can get
a
> good grasp of what you can do with just one or two pentachordal
> decatonic scales.

Thanks for sharing all this, Kalle. This was the keyboard setup used
in my piece _Decatonic Swing_:

http://lumma.org/tuning/erlich/decatonic-swing.mp3

The guitar in that piece sticks to the same set of pitches, except
for a few notes where I was accidentally off by 1 fret.

Do you have any musical examples in this subset that you'd like to
share yet?

Some people find this subset and the decatonic music in it to be too
conventional-sounding, since structurally it can be accomodated by
12-equal (though with slightly more discordant harmonies). Those
people might be more interested in other subsets of 22-equal, such
as Porcupine, whose ability to completely violate 12-equal behavior
I've posted about to this list recently . . .

/makemicromusic/topicId_8712.html#8726

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Erlich" <paul@s...>
wrote:

> Do you have any musical examples in this subset that you'd like to
> share yet?

Not yet.

> Some people find this subset and the decatonic music in it to be
too
> conventional-sounding, since structurally it can be accomodated by
> 12-equal

I've noticed this. But people talk about well-temperaments and
different 12-tone meantone tunings here which sound much more
conventional than this tuning. Anyway I'll be using the whole 22-
equal eventually.

> (though with slightly more discordant harmonies).

Actually some chords sound more consonant in 12-equal because some
of the dissonances are consonances in 12-equal.

Kalle