exposing folks to microtones

Jacky...I have made my microtonal pursuits an everyday part of my
interaction with others, especially students, of which I have many. The
interesting thing I've noticed is that, once they are made aware that
other tuning systems even exist, the rest is easy. I get people
constantly asking me about the subject; they've heard about something
unusual I'm into, and are curious. And, overall, the response is very
favorable. I, too, look to the day when 12 eq is not the king of the
tunings...and, if this does happen, I'm sure it will largely come about
because of all the hard work the folks on this list have put into making
it happen...Hstick

--- In tuning@egroups.com, Neil Haverstick <STICK@U...> wrote:

http://www.egroups.com/message/tuning/16285

OK... here is something to add to the mix. There are preparations
underway for a concert of some of my works in Moscow in March. (I
will have pieces on some other programs there too during that time,
but one "dedicated" concert).

My friend there who is organizing it... Anton Rovner, for those of
you who might know him... he had a piece on the last microthon... was
really afraid of presenting my new VIOLAHEXY to the young lady
violist he had in mind... This is a piece in a hexanys scale.

He thought the Russian musicians would be totally incapable of
performing it, and would just say "I don't know how to do this..."

HOWEVER, he encountered an entirely different response. Upon
examining the notation, which involves cents deviations from the
12-tET staff, the young lady violist immediately replied, "Oh sure, I
know how to do this... I've done music like this before..."

The point is that younger musicians all over the globe seem to know
what's going on with microtonality... and MANY are more and more
interested and capable in performing it!!!

________ ___ __ _
Joseph Pehrson

--- In tuning@egroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson" <josephpehrson@c...>
wrote:
> --- In tuning@egroups.com, Neil Haverstick <STICK@U...> wrote:
>
> http://www.egroups.com/message/tuning/16285
>
> HOWEVER, he encountered an entirely different response. Upon
> examining the notation, which involves cents deviations from the
> 12-tET staff, the young lady violist immediately replied, "Oh sure,
I
> know how to do this... I've done music like this before..."
>
> The point is that younger musicians all over the globe seem to know
> what's going on with microtonality... and MANY are more and more
> interested and capable in performing it!!!
> Joseph Pehrson

This is the kind of response I'd hoped to elicit, and it's really
great to hear these kinds of things.

And how encouraging to hear about this microtonal interest in Russia!
Too bad we don't see some internet connected Russian microtonalists
on the list. Perhaps language barriers and lack of internet access
thwarts this for many.

Thanks Joseph and Neil for sharing what's going on in your quarters!

Jacky Ligon

--- In tuning@egroups.com, ligonj@n... wrote:

> http://www.egroups.com/message/tuning/16319
>
> And how encouraging to hear about this microtonal interest
> in Russia! Too bad we don't see some internet connected
> Russian microtonalists on the list. Perhaps language barriers
> and lack of internet access thwarts this for many.

Yes, Jacky, there are some truly *amazing* musical goings-on
in Russia right now!

About a year ago I found a .wav-to-MIDI application that's
awesome. I don't have the URL handy now, but you should be
able to find it in a search. The latest version I know of
is called 'WIDI 2.6'. The connection was very poor: it took
me about 15 download attempts before I finally got the whole
thing around 4 am my time.

Apparently it uses Fourier transforms or some such method
to break a .wav file into its component parts and then
put those parts on separate MIDI tracks and channels.

I ran a .wav-file of the _Good Times_ TV theme thru it
(a gospel-style piece with several vocal parts, the singers
using lots of vibrato), and played the resulting MIDI-file
output with ocarina timbres (ocarinas being as close as I
could get to sine waves), and I swear you could almost hear
the words of the singers!! The program was *that* good at
emulating the vowel formants with pitch as well as the
consonants with the attack envelopes.

I emailed the MIDI-file to Paul Erlich at the time and he was
as amazed as I was. I also emailed the programmer who wrote
the software and suggested that he make use of pitch-bend
for even better accuracy with the vowel formants. The version
then current did not make any use of pitch-bend. He wrote
me a favorable response, but as far as I know, has not yet
implemented pitch-bend in WIDI.

Check it out - I guarantee you'll be impressed!

-monz
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
'All roads lead to n^0'

on 12/6/00 12:02 AM, tuning@egroups.com at tuning@egroups.com wrote:

> Message: 25
> Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2000 22:05:29 -0700
> From: Neil Haverstick <STICK@USWEST.NET>
> Subject: exposing folks to microtones
>
> Jacky...I have made my microtonal pursuits an everyday part of my
> interaction with others, especially students, of which I have many. The
> interesting thing I've noticed is that, once they are made aware that
> other tuning systems even exist, the rest is easy. I get people
> constantly asking me about the subject; they've heard about something
> unusual I'm into, and are curious. And, overall, the response is very
> favorable. I, too, look to the day when 12 eq is not the king of the
> tunings...and, if this does happen, I'm sure it will largely come about
> because of all the hard work the folks on this list have put into making
> it happen...Hstick
>
>

Kudos. Please keep it up. It IS through people on this list, making JI
accesible to their students and audiences that help further interest in JI
and microtonal music.

In the instances where I have explained this to my students, largely in the
context of slide guitar or improvisation classes, people have quickly become
fascinated with JI and were willing to ask more and more questions through
the glazed over eyes portion of the experience to an awareness of using
these concepts in their own music. In a couple of cases, I've turned people
on to it to the point where they had instruments refretted to 19 or 31 tone
ET. This is very gratifying.

Seth
--
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
email; seth@sethausten.com

--- In tuning@egroups.com, Seth Austen <acoustic@l...> wrote:
> on 12/6/00 12:02 AM, tuning@egroups.com at tuning@egroups.com wrote:
>
>
> Kudos. Please keep it up. It IS through people on this list, making
JI
> accesible to their students and audiences that help further
interest in JI
> and microtonal music.
>
> In the instances where I have explained this to my students,
largely in the
> context of slide guitar or improvisation classes, people have
quickly become
> fascinated with JI and were willing to ask more and more questions
through
> the glazed over eyes portion of the experience to an awareness of
using
> these concepts in their own music. In a couple of cases, I've
turned people
> on to it to the point where they had instruments refretted to 19 or
31 tone
> ET. This is very gratifying.
>
> Seth

Seth,

This is great!

You know one of my favorite demonstrations of JI is to have one of my
midi modules playing on piano samples on two different channels,
where I can - by changing the midi channel - be able to alternately
sound 1/1, 5/4, 3/2 then, 0, 400, 700 cents. Also 1/1, 6/5, 3/2, - 0
300 700. This simple demo is so much fun because folks hear those
nasty 12 tET 3rds in their true light (and on the familiar "piano"
timbre, this is especially effective)! Usually recognizing it for the
first time. A great way to lay the groundwork for other more exotic
possibilities.

Thanks for sharing this with the list!

Jacky Ligon

Monz,

This is extremely interesting! Please let me know about anything such
as this that you find!

To other interested parties; this is available on Shareware Music
Machine:

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/WIDI/

I'll test it out soon and let the list know how it behaves for me.
Now, where's my Tibetan Chant Cd?

Thanks!!!

Jacky Ligon

--- In tuning@egroups.com, " Monz" <MONZ@J...> wrote:
>
>
> About a year ago I found a .wav-to-MIDI application that's
> awesome. I don't have the URL handy now, but you should be
> able to find it in a search. The latest version I know of
> is called 'WIDI 2.6'. The connection was very poor: it took
> me about 15 download attempts before I finally got the whole
> thing around 4 am my time.
>
> Apparently it uses Fourier transforms or some such method
> to break a .wav file into its component parts and then
> put those parts on separate MIDI tracks and channels.
>
> I ran a .wav-file of the _Good Times_ TV theme thru it
> (a gospel-style piece with several vocal parts, the singers
> using lots of vibrato), and played the resulting MIDI-file
> output with ocarina timbres (ocarinas being as close as I
> could get to sine waves), and I swear you could almost hear
> the words of the singers!! The program was *that* good at
> emulating the vowel formants with pitch as well as the
> consonants with the attack envelopes.
>