Roland microtuning

> A friend of mine just bought a Roland XP80, which permits
> 12-note-per-octave tuning, specified in cents, and possibly per-note tuning
> across the whole keyboard as well, althought I'm not as sure about that
> part, as I only had a quick look at the manual, and about 5 minutes of
> actual playing with the settings.

The Roland JV-1080, XP-50 and XP-80 each have sixteen 12-note-per-octave
tuning tables. Even the low-priced XP-10 has one 12-note-per-octave user
tuning table. The XP-10's $895 list price probably qualifies it as the
least expensive microtonal keyboard ever marketed. It's refreshing to see
microtonal support, no matter how limited, in an instrument in this price
range. Older Roland models with microtuning include the SC-50, SC-55mkII,
SC-88, M-GS64, JV-90 and JV-880.

John Loffink


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Perhaps my new year should begin by cleaning up some mistaken notions
expressed by D. Wolf. The world of microtonal music is too great to
assume _total_ understanding. I realize it doesn't help that we are all
geographically far apart. Still, some on this list have made great
efforts to discover what their contemporaries are doing. Others remain
happier in a self-designed bubble.

On Wed, 1 Jan 1997, Daniel Wolf wrote:

> I would agree heartily that the Morley is the first _complete_ treatise on
> music, but it does remain sadly deficient on tuning containing not a single
> ratio, and the entire section on Hexachord singing ia already at least 20

My mention of Morely was originally to state his useage of the term "just"
regarding intervals, the first that I had noticed in the English language.
The real knowledge of tuning possessed by Morley is contained within his
music. The title of his treatise contains the words "easy" and
"practical" which seem to me to make clear the author's desire to fall on
the simpler side of things...ratios are not simple. And yet, his music
demonstrates his mastery of the materials.

> As to the exactitude of the harmonic series in the human voice - this would
> require a vocal chord with no imperfections. Of course, I am setting a high
> standard for precision, but I think it is useful to be precise and say that
> the harmonics _tend_ to approximate the harmonic series, or deviate from
> the series by a tolerable amount, or the integration into a single complex
> sound is so good that we accept the deviations as harmonic. But the simple
> equation of actual vocal sounds with the harmonic series does no service to
> either.

The above reasoning belongs in a science laboratory. It is an important
insight into acoustics, however. Alongside the above one should include
Prof. Rudolf Rasch's work with "jitter" which is the tiniest imperfection
produced in sustaing pitch due to the heartbeat. To take the extreme
position further, one could never call a note G or C because each only has
a single frequency or its multiple in the musical tone. One should never
listen to digital recording, perhaps, because certain frequencies will be
absent due to the technology. I think the extremes language in
description does no service to music and merely finds us unable to speak
clearly.

> I think that Johnny misrepresents La Monte's position altogether. La Monte
> contends that one can sing Just intervals only through elimination of
> beating and that ET intervals are - because they require the perception and
> stable production of more complex beating practically impossible to produce
> accurately.

Daniel, I am sorry to contradict your assertion here, as before. I
worked with La Monte Young for several years as his archivist and I
contributed as an editor for his program notes, liner notes, and C.V. At
the time of my employ, La Monte explained to me that he did not believe
that one could learn to hear 12ET accurately due to their irrational
basis in sound. La Monte became more flexible in this position when I
would argue that a Masters degree in 12ET allowed for memorization of any
array of tones. Just as gamukas are learned by rote, any intervallic
basis for ordering pitch can be reinitiated by those talented and devoted
enough.

As I understand Johnny's approach to pitch, it has more to do
> with pitch memory (so-callled absolute pitch) than with elimination of
> beats between pitches (and La Monte's approach is more like relative
> pitch). (It is not surprising that Johnny named his journal ''Pitch''
> instead of continuing ''Interval'').

Sorry, Daniel, no absolute pitch here (which I understand is produced by a
gene according to Science Magazine). Elimination of beats is a non-musical
process, usually outside of time...except in a few avant-garde contexts.
I have trained myself to recognize and initiate relative pitch
relationships in multiple contexts. Pitch is merely a smaller unit than
interval.



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Johnny wrote:

Daniel, I am sorry to contradict your assertion here, as before. I
worked with La Monte Young for several years as...

Response:

I'm sorry, but I got this opinion from La Monte himself. (Many times
repeated in previous conversations, last in a telephone call two weeks
ago).

Johnny wrote:

The title of his treatise contains the words "easy" and
"practical" which seem to me to make clear the author's desire to fall on
the simpler side of things..

Response:

A quick look at some of the astonishing examples of diminution in the
Morley - of proto- Ferneyhough rhythmic complexity - will convince you that
''plain and easy'' refers to his explanatory technique and not to his
music. I am afraid that you took your signal from Slonimsky and haven't
spent much time dealing with the Morley itself. (I used it teaching
undergrads for a couple of years).

Johnny wrote:

Pitch is merely a smaller unit than
interval.

Response:

This is so bizarre that I will just let it stand.





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