Research Assistanship Available

******************


Opportunity (for general release):

One Year Graduate Research Assistanship Available, Dartmouth College Graduate
Program in Electro-Acoustic Music, Bregman Electro-Acoustic Music Studio.

For graduate or post-graduate student (at least a B.A, but any level will be
considered) with strong abilities in computer music, mathematics, and excellent
writing skills, to work on a series of educational modules in mathematics and
music and computer music. Some teaching possibilities as well, depending on
level of experience. Send c.v and introductory email or letter to:

Larry Polansky
Bregman Electro-Acoustic Music Studio
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755

larry.polansky@dartmouth.edu
http://music.dartmouth.edu


(Note to members of this tuning list: Obviously, these modules will include
components on experimental intonation, tuning theory, and computer music
intonation ideas, so please spread the word. It's a nice opportunity for
someone to be in a good environment for a year, get a lot of their own work
done, do an interesting project with me, and get a "modicum" of support (a full
graduate stipend, which is an austere living wage for a single person here --
lp)

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I don't consider myself a member of any sort of Just Intonation
community. I say that by no means because I don't like JI, or don't use
it, but because I don't use it exclusively. I have mostly experimented
with octave-repeating harmonic- and subharmonic-series fragments, but my
current fascination with a nonoctave equal temperament.

So with that background, I'll briefly (re)state my opinion on to what
degree temperament constitutes unnecessary dissonance pollution.

In summary, I personally agree with that idea up to the degree that JI
ratios are the essential reference points for harmony. I disagree beyond
there though. I disagree both from the perspective of the words
"unnecessary" and "pollution", and also from the perspective of the roles
of melody and harmony.

From the "unnecessary" perspective, using the analogy I've stated
before, I have no doubt that JI ratios represent the navigational bouys in
pitch space, but we don't have to jump heroically between the 5:4 and 4:3
bouy panic-stricken that we might fall into the waters between. The waters
between 5:4 and 4:3 are every bit as interesting too, and the only way to
explore them is to take off our JI tuxedos, put on our swimsuits, and dive
in headfirst! But again, I have no doubt that our ears will characterize
the the waters between those two bouys as "five cents sharp of 5:4", or
halfway between.

From the pollution perspective, as I mentioned above, I don't see "off"
versions of JI-defined intervals as fundamentally undesirable. 12TET's
sharp approximation to 5:4 has a very distinctive "YOW!" sensation to it,
and that can be useful musically. For one thing, it makes the third in a
block chord stand out more, where quarter-comma meantone in that same major
chord will call attention to the fifth.

Still, there can be no doubt that that's a matter of degree, depending
upon not only how far off, but also upon the "basicness" of interval being,
and the overtone structure of the timbre in which its realized. It's hard
to deny, for example, that off octaves are more panic-striking than
equally-off major thirds.

Finally, I think it's apparent that the question is different from
perspective of harmony vs. melody. A C-major-scale fragment tuned to the
traditional 1:1 9:8 5:4 4:3 3:2, playing the repeated melodic fragment C D
E F G F E D C... has a very different effect when played against a C drone
or not. With the drone, the cleanliness of the harmony demands a lot of
attention, but without the drone, it's the comparatively large between C
and D can feel disconcerting (especially so in the descending sequence, to
my ears). I'm not suggesting that that disconcerting feeling is
necessarily undesirable; just that that's how it can sound.

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