Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic Rhapsody for Dan Stearns (mp3)

On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 Aaron Krister Johnson wrote:

> I'm behind on my posting, but I did listen--I enjoyed this....is this in your
> 2/7 comma 'temperament extraordinaire'?
>
> All best,
> Aaron.
>
> > <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/RhapsodyForDanStearns1.mp3>

Hello there, Aaron and all.

Actually I'm just catching up myself, since I've just downloaded some
of your pieces on your newly formatted page

<http://www.akjmusic.com/works.html>

For now I'll just say that your a cappella renditon of _Most Blessed
of Mornings_ in a Neidhardt temperament is beautiful; the _I Dream of
Tibet_ piece in 7-tET is most wonderful; and _Melancholic_ is for me a
fascinating mixture or medley of styles, and from a theoretical
viewpoint one might ask how much of this is specific is to the 53-EDO
tuning, and how much to some other creative elements -- but a
consummate piece of music.

There's also some Prent Rodgers and Dan Stearns I'm been catching up
on, another reason for me to post again soon.

It's curious that you mention this tuning (the temperament extraordinaire
based on Zarlino's 2/7-comma meantone), since it's what I've mostly
been playing in lately, and indeed I'm trying to get some pieces ready
for recording.

This piece, however, is in something I did in part as a change of pace
-- 11-tET (or 11-EDO, as people prefer), based on a main scale of a
kind which I came upon in the Spring of 2002 and which it turned out Dan
Stearns had earlier found. This basic type of pattern is:

0 2 4 6 8 9 11
0 218 436 655 873 982 1200

Part of the fun was finding synthesizer timbres so that the 6-step
interval (about 654.55 cents) would serve musically as a "fifth." The
fact that it's considerably narrow of 3:2 makes possible a special
effect: when the excellent 11-tET major third (just wide of a pure
9:7) expands to a fifth, both voices move by a semitone of 1 step
(about 109.09 cents), a progression I use to open the piece. This
progression calls for some steps outside the above basic hexatonic
scale, here:

5 6
1 0

However, the final cadence formula is available within the basic
scale:

9 11
8 6
2 0

This might be approximately described as a xentonal variation on a
13th-century European formula where an outer minor sixth (here very
close to a just 14:9) expands to an octave and an upper minor second
to a fourth. Both the original and this 11-EDO variation are very
moving and and powerful and beautiful, each in its own way.

Anyway, sooner or later I wanted to document this tuning/timbre, but
the desire for a "change of pace" gave me an immediate incentive.

Again, thank you both for your response to this piece, and for your
beautiful music.

Peace and love,

Margo

Thanks Margo! This is the same 11-edo scale I used extensively in my
Charles Ives tribute "Over the Rivers":

http://zebox.com/daniel_anthony_stearns/
http://podcast1024.blogspot.com/2004/11/over-rivers-by-dan-
stearns.html
http://webjay.org/iteminfo/317045/1931b3d00366046e0a2f2b328f96dc03

Btw, I'm checking out your rhapsody now,more later...

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Margo Schulter
<mschulter@c...> wrote:
> Hello, everyone, and here's an improvisation for Dan Stearns:
>
> <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/RhapsodyForDanStearns1.mp3>
>
> Any comments would, of course, be welcome and appreciated; in
another post
> I'll say more about some points.
>
> Peace and love,
>
> Margo
> mschulter@c...

Rhapsody for Dan Stearns (mp3)

🔗Margo Schulter <mschulter@...>

🔗Aaron Krister Johnson <aaron@...>

🔗Margo Schulter <mschulter@...>

🔗daniel_anthony_stearns <daniel_anthony_stearns@...>