Bernard Herrmann meets John deLaubenfels!

Bernard Herrmann meets John deLaubenfels!

Hello to all!

John deLaubenfels was kind enough to oblige me in tuning two of my
favorite Bernard Herrmann themes from Alfred Hitchcock films: "North
by Northwest" and "Psycho", and the results are unbelievable!

Some notes:

1. "Psycho": Psycho2cr11.mid, Psycho2cr7.mid, Psychocr11.mid,
Psychocr7.mid

John's program rendered the Psycho theme in such a beautiful way.
Everywhere chords are heard, they are noticeably more in-tune
sounding than the original midi file (which I listened to many times
to ingrain the 12tET version - ick!). He provided both 7 and 11/13-
limit versions of the two variations of the theme. Both of these
sound remarkably good and have a very different sound in the
harmonies. It's really hard to say in this case which I like best. I
think it has to be a dead tie! The 11/13 versions have a darker sound
that just blows me away - but both are extraordinary.

2. "North by Northwest": northcr11.mid, northcr7.mid

Now "North by Northwest" is another story. This is where I really
have connected in the most significant way with John's tuning
goals. "North by Northwest" is an extremely dissonant theme, and the
12tET version of this was so "painful" to listen to - I mean really
uncomfortably "tense" sounding. Well, John's program gave this
sequence the most wonderful depth, as to make one think that *he*
made this midi file - difference of day and night. It's a real jaw
dropper to hear the magic it worked on this piece - especially with
regard to the absolutely beautiful way the organ is being tuned
throughout the composition. I agree with John on this one - I seem
to prefer the 7 limit version, but the 11/13 is also, if not equally
wonderful sounding. I love it when the 11/13 really breaks
Xenharmonic at points.

Conclusion:

The effect of "Pain" reduction is something I now understand
empirically, thanks to John's amazing display of tunery. The effect
that this had on these midi files is like that of taking a 2
dimensional image, and making it into a 3d animation - it just
breaths life into the sequence, making it sound more "real". One can
easily transpose that this is why "12tET" acoustic orchestral music
sounds so great; it's not playing in 12tET exactly. His program adds
in the effect of a "human like" real-time pitch adjustment to bring
chord simultaneities into better Just alignment - thus the
name "Adaptive". This also succeeds in the area of tuning harmonic
timbres - which makes one realize the potentials of turning this
noble science onto the inharmonic series as well. I was very excited
when I heard John's Big Band tunings recently, and have wanted to see
how some Herrmann would come off. I am humbled by the mind that can
create things like this.

I have uploaded all of the midis to the below files section, so that
all may experience John deLaubenfels' fine handiwork (breathtaking!):

http://www.egroups.com/files/tuning/Ligon+FFT/

Please note that the original midis are in the zip file
labeled "Herrmann-12tETmidis.zip", for those who may care to be
dazzled by a little bit of comparative listening. I recommend it -
hear the 12tET first then play his, and you'll surely hear the magic
like I did!

Here are Johns notes too about the tunings:

Psycho2cr11.dbg (2001 Jan 25 05:57:26):
1 Didn't have to drop any notes; used 6 channels.
2 12-tET Total spring pain: 987527.039
3 Werckmeister III spring pain: 1240537.086
4 Kirnberger III Total spring pain: 1211502.177
5 Thomas Young Total spring pain: 1183826.060
6 COFT Total spring pain: 735258.362
7 After relaxing, Total spring pain: 167072.428
8 Final vertical spring pain: 67778.999
9 Final horizontal spring pain: 22907.051
10 Final grounding spring pain: 76386.378
[end]

Psycho2cr7.dbg (2001 Jan 25 05:48:44):
1 Didn't have to drop any notes; used 6 channels.
2 12-tET Total spring pain: 768779.674
3 Werckmeister III spring pain: 1026233.362
4 Kirnberger III Total spring pain: 996088.274
5 Thomas Young Total spring pain: 966088.589
6 COFT Total spring pain: 581019.085
7 After relaxing, Total spring pain: 243479.457
8 Final vertical spring pain: 185959.785
9 Final horizontal spring pain: 17774.048
10 Final grounding spring pain: 39745.624
[end]

Psychocr11.dbg (2001 Jan 25 05:57:02):
1 Didn't have to drop any notes; used 6 channels.
2 12-tET Total spring pain: 1113549.267
3 Werckmeister III spring pain: 1387223.742
4 Kirnberger III Total spring pain: 1352158.296
5 Thomas Young Total spring pain: 1318338.020
6 COFT Total spring pain: 840512.575
7 After relaxing, Total spring pain: 181734.416
8 Final vertical spring pain: 71414.252
9 Final horizontal spring pain: 20747.615
10 Final grounding spring pain: 89572.548
[end]

Psychocr7.dbg (2001 Jan 25 05:48:24):
1 Didn't have to drop any notes; used 6 channels.
2 12-tET Total spring pain: 897878.790
3 Werckmeister III spring pain: 1185510.151
4 Kirnberger III Total spring pain: 1156645.868
5 Thomas Young Total spring pain: 1120319.651
6 COFT Total spring pain: 670996.025
7 After relaxing, Total spring pain: 267348.679
8 Final vertical spring pain: 197895.006
9 Final horizontal spring pain: 23296.417
10 Final grounding spring pain: 46157.256

BTW, I'm using fairly rigid vertical springs, meaning that the chords
are generally forced to be quite close to JI, at some cost to
horizontal
consistency. I usually use softer vertical springs when I tune piano-
only sequences; then the output file names would be something like
northcs7.mid rather than northcr7.mid ('r' == rigid, 's' == soft).

JdL

northcr11.dbg (2001 Jan 25 08:34:04):
1 Didn't have to drop any notes; used 11 channels.
2 12-tET Total spring pain: 2076974.095
3 Werckmeister III spring pain: 2292487.757
4 Kirnberger III Total spring pain: 2328074.586
5 Thomas Young Total spring pain: 2125475.946
6 COFT Total spring pain: 1762103.093
7 After relaxing, Total spring pain: 369882.478
8 Final vertical spring pain: 137394.697
9 Final horizontal spring pain: 55084.470
10 Final grounding spring pain: 177403.312
[end]

northcr7.dbg (2001 Jan 25 08:33:10):
1 Didn't have to drop any notes; used 11 channels.
2 12-tET Total spring pain: 1593483.330
3 Werckmeister III spring pain: 1733338.811
4 Kirnberger III Total spring pain: 1791887.064
5 Thomas Young Total spring pain: 1613641.468
6 COFT Total spring pain: 1333748.199
7 After relaxing, Total spring pain: 314867.863
8 Final vertical spring pain: 155218.340
9 Final horizontal spring pain: 42649.768
10 Final grounding spring pain: 116999.755
[end]

Thanks for this John!

Jacky Ligon