Intrada in F Lydian (Thanks, Harold Fortuin!)

Hello, everyone, and here's a piece inspired by some performances by and
conversations here with Harold Fortuin.

<http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/IntradaFLydian.mp3>

I'll be leaving again tomorrow for four weeks in Los Angeles with my Mom,
who is in the middle of chemotherapy for cancer that was detected earlier
this year; she's doing well, and I hope that my musicmaking, which she
enjoys and much encourages, can help to lend her a bit of support while
I'm there. (One of her nurses has been so kind as to lend us a Casio MIDI
keyboard with its own sound generator and speakers, which can also be used
as a controller for a TX-802 at my Mom's place, also very generously
loaned by a member of this community.)

The Intrada in F Lydian is performed in a 12-note circulating temperament
with eight fifths (F-C#) in Zarlino's 2/7-comma meantone, and the others
equally wide.

Again, my best to Harold and all.

Peace and love,

Margo

Lovely Intrada, Margo! My ear (which tonight was apparently mired in
12-ET) was surprised and pleased by the low leading tones and pure
M3's (all of course natural consequences of meantone).

I also noted that you placed your 'instruments' around the virtual
space nicely, although I'd have prefered an additional wind or string
instrument somewhere on the left along with the harpsichord.

I think this is one of your best pieces--I'm sure you'd make Zarlino
proud!

And what makes this piece Lydian? I am likely limited in my conception
of Lydian by the definition:
"a major scale, except that the 4th scale degree is raised 1/2 step"
(or F-f on white keys)

Best of luck with your mom. You might also consider alternate
therapies--for example, I think it was Linus Pauling who apparently
laughed himself to health when he had cancer.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Margo Schulter <mschulter@c...>
wrote:
> Hello, everyone, and here's a piece inspired by some performances by and
> conversations here with Harold Fortuin.
>
> <http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/IntradaFLydian.mp3>
>
> I'll be leaving again tomorrow for four weeks in Los Angeles with my
Mom,
> who is in the middle of chemotherapy for cancer that was detected
earlier
> this year; she's doing well, and I hope that my musicmaking, which she
> enjoys and much encourages, can help to lend her a bit of support while
> I'm there. (One of her nurses has been so kind as to lend us a Casio
MIDI
> keyboard with its own sound generator and speakers, which can also
be used
> as a controller for a TX-802 at my Mom's place, also very generously
> loaned by a member of this community.)
>
> The Intrada in F Lydian is performed in a 12-note circulating
temperament
> with eight fifths (F-C#) in Zarlino's 2/7-comma meantone, and the others
> equally wide.
>
> Again, my best to Harold and all.
>
> Peace and love,
>
> Margo

On Wed, 8 Jun 2005 MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 03:01:58 -0000
> From: "harold_fortuin" <harold@...>
> Subject: Re: Intrada in F Lydian (Thanks, Harold Fortuin!)
>
> Lovely Intrada, Margo! My ear (which tonight was apparently mired in
> 12-ET) was surprised and pleased by the low leading tones and pure
> M3's (all of course natural consequences of meantone).

Dear Harold,

Thank you very much for this response, which I've just read on returning
home from Los Angeles and checking my e-mail over the last four weeks. I'm
delighted that the intonation came across well, and your beautiful
rendition of Willaert provided lots of inspiration for something using
meantone.

Your comments suggest to me that the 12-note temperament I was using based
on Zarlino's 2/7-comma meantone has much the same sonorous effect as
1/4-comma. Another trait of either tuning I really like -- and tying in
with your comment about low leading tones -- is the contrast between
wide regular diatonic and narrow chromatic semitones, really neat for
Renaissance chromaticism and the like (e.g. C-C#-D or F-F#-G).

> I also noted that you placed your 'instruments' around the virtual
> space nicely, although I'd have prefered an additional wind or string
> instrument somewhere on the left along with the harpsichord.

This is an area in which, frankly, I'm just starting to learn, with your
renditions (e.g. the fine use of aural space in the Willaert) as a nice
model to consider. One of my starting points might be something like a
two-manual organ; but the options to map any "instrument" on the TX-802 to
either or both stereo output channels, for example, makes things, of
course, much more intricate (or intricate in new ways). Also, there's the
process of setting channel levels and balance on the mixer in the
recording process.

Your remarks suggest to me an interesting experiment -- why don't I try it
and comment more.

> I think this is one of your best pieces--I'm sure you'd make Zarlino
> proud!
>
> And what makes this piece Lydian? I am likely limited in my conception
> of Lydian by the definition:
> "a major scale, except that the 4th scale degree is raised 1/2 step"
> (or F-f on white keys)

For the moment, I might quickly commment that while your definition is
oriented to major/minor tonality as a point of reference, the 16th-century
situation is in some ways parallel: people like Zarlino (and earlier
Glareanus, whose theory Zarlino adopts as one basis for his own) note that
the characteristic of true Lydian is a modality of F with regular use of
the unaltered step B-natural. This doesn't exclude the use of Bb also; but
if Bb is used as the regular form of this step (as indicated in the
signature), then Zarlino and Glareanus regard this as a transposed Ionian
(C-C, the same step pattern as a later major key).

The opening of the Intrada, for example, presents B-natural as a regular
step (C4 here indicates middle C):

1 2 + | 1 2 | 1 + + 2 | 1
F4 F4 G4 A4 A4 G4 A4
C4 D4 D4 F4 F4 E4 D4 E4 F4
A3 A3 B3 C4 C4 C4 C4
F3 D3 G3 F3 F3 C3 F4

Both Glareanus and Zarlino suggest that Lydian (F-F with B-natural as the
usual step) is in modern practice the least common mode, since the Bb
signature for pieces centering on F is so prevalent.

That's a quick version. Since I'm accustomed to Lydian in a 13th-14th
century setting (where its use under a definition like that of Glareanus
or Zarlino is much more common), I found it fun to do something with this
mode in a late 16th-century kind of setting (with meantone accidentalism
as a creative element).

> Best of luck with your mom. You might also consider alternate
> therapies--for example, I think it was Linus Pauling who apparently
> laughed himself to health when he had cancer.

Thank you -- I'm happy to be returning home for a bit at a time when my
Mom is doing very well: a recent PET scan was "negative" as to detected
abnormal metabolic activity at tumor sites, which is exciting news. She
has a wonderful sense of humor, and I'm trying to lend her some extra
encouragement.

Again, thank you so much both for inspiring this piece and for so
graciously lending both your encouragement and your expertise on things
like aural space and balance.

Most appreciatively, in peace and love,

Margo