72-TET Opera

I'm planning an opera for my master degree at school. After a month and
maybe more thinking about its global harmony I decided, for reasons you
should be well awared of, to choose 72-TET (thanks Monzo ;o). Quiet a
problem for instrumentists though. I seeking different than mine solutions.

Here what I propose seeing (for now) as the best solution even if I know
that musicians won't be comfortable with it (anyway can they really be
comfortable with 72-tet ?;o).

Most instrumentists (at my school) did well working over quarter tones. No
problems up to here. As I want my parts the easiest possible (damned will I
be if not ;o) I decided that scordatura would be the best way to acheive my
goal. Agree?

Here how I plan doing it :

Group I : +16.7 cents over.
Group II : 0.0 cents.
Group III : -16.7 cents under.

So that as everyone are playing marvellously well quarter tones, I complete
my tuning with [-16.7c + 50c =] +33.3c and so on.

I'll have three harpiscorde with two keyboards tuned 1/12th of tone of
difference (that one is the easiest ;o) but long to tune, though !

The real problems are the six violins and the other strings grouped as I
said above. For the rests I'll have three oboes, sax and trombones... The
instrumentation isn't fixed yet. I should have a positive (who is it called
in english... a small organ tuned with factor 2 3 5 9 15 which will support
the male choir)... and percussions... Is there easy to have JI or 72-TET
friendly percussions ?? Any ideas?? Ah!!! I was forgetting the 96-TET
piano retuned in 72-TET !! ;o)

Anyway... I stop here. If more experimented one can examine my setup... my
theacher will do so, but I'll gladly accept others suggestions.

Thanks a lot!!!

Vincent-Olivier.

PS: my 96-TET piano piece should be recorded friday of this week !!!

--- In tuning@y..., "Vog" <dunael@a...> wrote:
>
> Here how I plan doing it :
>
> Group I : +16.7 cents over.
> Group II : 0.0 cents.
> Group III : -16.7 cents under.
>
> So that as everyone are playing marvellously well quarter tones, I
complete
> my tuning with [-16.7c + 50c =] +33.3c and so on.

Superb idea, Vincent-Olivier! James Tenney has used this trick to
write quasi-JI music for 6 harps and for 6 guitars. You may wish to
study his music for ideas . . . or look at the MIRACLE scales we've
been discussing here . . . lattices are a great tool for composing!

> From: Paul Erlich <paul@stretch-music.com>
> To: <tuning@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 10:02 AM
> Subject: [tuning] Re: 72-TET Opera
>

> --- In tuning@y..., "Vog" <dunael@a...> wrote:
> >
> > Here how I plan doing it :
> >
> > Group I : +16.7 cents over.
> > Group II : 0.0 cents.
> > Group III : -16.7 cents under.
> >
> > So that as everyone are playing marvellously well quarter
> > tones, I complete my tuning with [-16.7c + 50c =] +33.3c
> > and so on.
>
> Superb idea, Vincent-Olivier! James Tenney has used this
> trick to write quasi-JI music for 6 harps and for 6 guitars.
> You may wish to study his music for ideas . . . or look
> at the MIRACLE scales we've been discussing here . . .
> lattices are a great tool for composing!
>
>

You beat me to it, Paul. I was going to say the same thing
to Vincent... I think this is a brilliant idea for making
72-EDO practical (I didn't know about Tenney doing this.)
because he's right that, in general, most musicians can
handle 1/4-tones without a problem.

Vincent, also you might keep in mind the terrific antiphonal
possibilities of a set-up like this. Think about the spatial
arrangement of your variously-tuned groups, and how the
different tunings could circulate around the physical locations.

-monz
http://www.monz.org
"All roads lead to n^0"

_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

Joe, Paul, Vincent,

This is post from yesterday, did anyone see this?

I get this list over the net, and one of the big problems as I see it
is that posts that don't ignite an immediate self-sustaining thread
are almost immediately swallowed up into some dusty, far-flung corner
of the archive -- goodnight, sleep tight, long gone, kaput!

Unfortunately, I doubt that there's really any way to combat this save
reposting the same thing for an encore disappearing act.

This was why the Practical Microtonality list appealed to me, but that
went up in a mushroom cloud of ridiculousness and I think it's going
to be hard to get folks to line up behind another music-first type of
splinter group now.

Anyway, here's the invisible post again, and PLEASE NOTE THAT THE
FOLLOWING CONTAINS ACTUAL MUSIC IN 72 USING THE STRATEGIES THAT ARE
RELEVANT TO THIS THREAD!

One of the other fortuitous realities of 72's relation to 12 is that
composers can explore certain aspects of 72 on traditional instruments
in standard notation so long as the instruments overall intonation can
be shimmied up or down by increments (or tuning units) of 72.

For a monochromatic example of just this, and a good long soak in 72,
go here:

<http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/491/491153.html>
<http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/491/491182.html>
<http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/491/491202.html>

Note -- In a private email correspondence with Seth Josel that I
forwarded to the list several months ago he mistakenly cited the
tuning alterations in this piece as tuning units of 36 and not 72 (he
was on the road without any reference materials and it had been
several years since he had played the piece). Thanks to Paul Erlich
for picking up on this and setting the record straight.

--Dan Stearns

--- In tuning@y..., "D.Stearns" <STEARNS@C...> wrote:
> Joe, Paul, Vincent,
>
> This is post from yesterday, did anyone see this?

Of course. I was already familiar with its contents, so I did not
respond.
>
> This was why the Practical Microtonality list appealed to me, but
that
> went up in a mushroom cloud of ridiculousness and I think it's going
> to be hard to get folks to line up behind another music-first type
of
> splinter group now.

_This list_ should be music-first. Tomorrow we'll see the results of
the poll determining whether tuning-math should remain separate. I'm
not voting in that poll.

These are GORGEOUS.

A must hear if you haven't heard them yet. (Maybe that's only me :)
[though it's swiftly unbecoming that.])

Dan Stearns recccommmended:

<http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/491/491153.html>
<http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/491/491182.html>
<http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/491/491202.html>

***From: Christopher Bailey******************

http://music.columbia.edu/~chris

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

> For a monochromatic example of just this, and a good long soak in 72,
> go here:
> <http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/491/491153.html>

This one in particular (I haven't heard the other two yet) strikes me as kinda like microtonal
wind chimes played on guitar! I'm not suggesting that that's bad by any means; but that's just
the sensation it gave me.

Hi Gary,

Due to mp3 file size restrictions and whatnot, it's just one big file
that's broken up into three pieces... but yes, multiple guitars as a
big old wind chime in 72 is exactly how it strikes me as well.

And while it's all a bit static for my tastes, give or take the
occasional change in wind direction, I think it does afford a very
enjoyable way to sit back and take in 72.

And of special interest to me, and obviously relevant to this thread,
is the method of achieving 72 here. This premise could be taken to
interesting extremes, though it would require a lot of careful
planning and writing around the method.

Vincent's 72 Opera idea sounds like a good one along these lines.
Which reminds me -- I'm looking forward to hearing that Carillo-piano
piece of Vincent's too, and I think Vincent said he was going to post
it today?

--Dan Stearns

>Vincent's 72 Opera idea sounds like a good one along these lines.
>Which reminds me -- I'm looking forward to hearing that Carillo-piano
>piece of Vincent's too, and I think Vincent said he was going to post
>it today?
>
>--Dan Stearns
>
>

Not yet, unfortunately... The recording has been delayed to monday (in three
long days). I still don't know where I'll put it... maybe someone may take
it (at least parts of it) on his website ???

:o)

Thanks.

Vincent-Olivier.