talk about music

Christopher Smith wanted to hear about our compositions. Unfortunately,
I'm not much of a composer -- I'm more of an improviser. I can sit in on
anything diatonic and throw in chorale-style harmonies, motivically
structured melodies, and flashy solo sections. However, I've only
composed a relatively small amount of music. I developed my ear for
harmony for keyboard but now play guitar. 22-tone equal temperament does
not conform to traditional diatonic thinking the way meantone tunings
like 19 and 31 do. I have a theory (soon to appear in Xenharmonikon 17
and on the Web) about what will work in 22, and I've begun playing
22-tone keyboard and guitar as a result. Although my theory may end up
having a lot to do with how I translate my improvisational skills to
22-TET music, so far my one real composition has nothing to do with it.
I can talk about the composition in diatonic terms, even though it is
nothing if not microtonal.

The main melodic motif is a descending ultrachromatic scale spanning a
perfect fourth. If the harmony is analyzed in JI, the melodic intervals
(descending) are

25 36 49 36 25 256 36 49 36 4
-- * -- * -- * -- * -- * --- * -- * -- * -- = -
24 35 48 35 24 243 35 48 35 3

Relative to the initial tonic at 1/1, this gives the pitches

5 6 7 8 10 16 81 63 27 15
-, -, -, -, --, --, --, --, --, --
4 5 6 7 9 15 80 64 28 16

15/16 is interpreted as the 5/4 of the dominant.

The 256/243 interval comes from the circle of fifths, which is the
source for most of the root progressions. In JI, some of the inner
voices lose their integrity, and the fact that it's in 22 means that you
only have to learn one melodic interval to sing it, instead of four
intervals ranging from 36 to 90 cents. I can only sing it if I'm
imagining the chords in my head (and taking a shower). It doesn't really
stand up as a melody all by itself.

This composition was created with no theory or mathematics in mind; they
were used later to analyse it. If you meet me in person I'll tell you
more about how I wrote this piece. I often suspect that I might be just
as good a musician if deprived of all mathematical abilities, but I'm
not going to test this theory.



SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: mr88cet@texas.net
Subject: Re: theories
PostedDate: 29-07-97 04:18:21
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