CPS

GenevaI have been fooling around with some
scale and would like to ask you if I am correct; I don't quite
unerstand the concept of CPS scales as explained in the Warren Burt
articles in 1/1.


However, I have been looking at the scales described by Johnny Reinhard
recently on the tuning forum, as used by his wife under the name
"Harmonic 13." This scale in its non-abbreviated form (Mayumi R.
leaves out several notes and adds a couple of others, if I recall
correctly) includes only pitches with a numerary nexus of 13. This
scale might be better described as the 13-Plane Scale, since all of its
tones are found on the "13-plane" of a multi-dimensional lattice
containing ratios of all primes less than 13, inclusive.


The 13-Plane Scale is easily divided into two subsets. The first
always has 13 in its numerator, and its pitches are:

ratio 1/1 (13/13) 13/12 13/11 13/10 13/9 13/8 13/7

cents 0 139 289 454 637 841 1072


The second always contains 13 in its denominator, and is the inversion
of the previous subset.

ratio 1/1 (13/13) 14/13 16/13 18/13 20/13 22/13 24/13

cents 0 128 359 563 746 811 1061


My question: is this simply another way to find CPS pitches? Am I
completely misguided about these two concepts?


Yours,

Adam

_________________

Adam B. Silverman

153 Cold Spring Street; A3

New Haven, CT 06511

(203) 782-1765


abs22@pantheon.yale.edu



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> In these days of sequencing and computer composition, there are
> certain styles in which the composer does not have to be a performer at
> all.

Everybody will have to decide that for himself, but I have found that ...

***********************************************************************
Sequencers can't help composers of music write fine symphonies much
more than word processors help composers of poetry write fine verse.
***********************************************************************

An' ya could betcha bottom dollah that I'd be the first one dancin' in the
streets if they could! But it's just simply not that easy.

Most any sequencer can provide punch-in and punch-out so that you can more
accurately lay down the notes. But I have yet to find an unpracticed performer
or humanization algorithm that can simulate finesse, and only a very few
performances that couldn't benefit from more of it.

And lord knows that includes my own compositions.


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I must agree with Neil that actually playing music to the appreciation of
audiences is quite nutricious to one's musical well-being in
composition. Roger Sessions wrote that music was at its greatest when
composers play their own music and are the greatest listeners to what
they both play and create.

Any composer that spends even a little time performing and developing
chops will achieve greater success in their compositions. (Both my
intellect and my intuition concur, which I take to be a good enough sign
to take a risk and make the statement.)

Thank you all you delurkers, wherever you are. I hope you continue to
gain sustenance from the combination tones of this list.

I'll be in Toronto for the December 14th Critical Band concert at the
Music Gallery. I will be performing my solo Dune for bassoon, Eye of
Newt for alto recorder - both polymicrotonal - the majority of Li Po with
Marc Sabat on his own adapted viola. Also schedule are 2 31ET pieces and
some JI for ensembles by John Gzowski. Hope to meet some Torontoers like
Paul Rapoport et al.

Also, please check out the latest newsletter of the British Harry Partch
Society. And see also their latest journal which has an alternative text
to a major Partch work that is quite colorful...and which has the use of
"chromo" as an abbreviation for chromelodeon." (Gotcha, Jon).

Back to NYC on Dec. 16th. (Hope Brian and the "Wolf" don't blow down any
houses.) (G) (g) (.) ( ) O o .

Johnny Reinhard
American Festival of Microtonal Music
318 East 70th Street, Suite 5FW
New York, New York 10021 USA
(212)517-3550/fax (212) 517-5495
reinhard@ios.com


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> Gee, Neil, that's a pretty mean thing to say. I like your tape and
> appreciate your good guitar skills, but to condemn music as being lousy
> because it doesn't "groove" or doesn't fit your _opinion_ of what "good"
> music is closed-minded and, if I may speak freely, a very limiting attitude
> which is mostly shaped by commercialism and arrogance.

I suspect that that's a misinterpretation of Neil's appeal. In particular, I
don't see that he's advocating any particular style of music over any other.
Here's what I think he's pointing out, and I believe quite accurately and
appropriately: Technical, improvisational, and compositional skill of the sort
that comes only with untold hours and hours of practice, has a VERY big effect
upon the excitement of the music that comes of it.

And that, I believe quite firmly, is true of ALMOST every style of music.

As I think I mentioned, I've taken up the saxophone recently, with my nominal
goal being to improve my WX-11-based MIDI sequencing skills. There can be no
doubt that the skills I lost over several years of composing and theorizing
instead of performing, have taken a really serious (although not fatal) toll on
the quality of my music. And I see that it has on other xenharmonikers' music
as well. For example:
1. I have to perform a passage for the sequencer, often twelve or more
times before I get it right. The result, when the sequencer glues
together all of the pieces, is too mechanistic, because by about the fifth
take, all of the sponteneity and vivaciousness in the performance is gone.
2. Lacking technical capability on an instrument, makes it very difficult to
conjure up music on the instrument (in those cases where you compose at
the instrument that is). The results very often sound contrived or
haphazard.
3. Lack of really solid background in ear-training in a new tuning makes it
very difficult to reliably devise instrumental parts to a larger work, like
devising accompaniment parts to fill in harmony, or accurately notating
melodies conjured up in your head. This is clearly important even in
traditional tunings as well of course, but it's even more difficult to hunt
for food in an alien landscape than in your own back yard. (Xenharmonic
Ear Training is one area where I am probably better off than average, but
that's largely because the average, or at least the standard, is not
nearly high enough. Or that's my opinion anyway.)

Now I say that virtuosity is valuable to "almost" every style of music,
because I suppose that if you actually WANT to express a feeling of rigidity and
clumsiness, then I guess you would actually benefit from lack of virtuosity.
But rigidity and clumsiness are certainly a very limited realm of expression.


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