Re: Notation of 20-tet?

Hi herman:

I've worked with 20TET (Nightwalking III 1993, Scrimshaw 1992)
a bit and always found Blackwood's notation the most useful.

Have you seen it from his scores for those etudes you talked
about having the CD of? it helps to have the scores when
listening.

Rick Sanford
Manhattan

On Tue, 12 Jan 1999 08:56:58 -0800, Rick Sanford <rsanf@pais.org> wrote:

>I've worked with 20TET (Nightwalking III 1993, Scrimshaw 1992)
>a bit and always found Blackwood's notation the most useful.
>
>Have you seen it from his scores for those etudes you talked
>about having the CD of? it helps to have the scores when
>listening.

No, I haven't seen his scores, but I'd be interested in seeing them. Are
they still available? If not, could you describe the system of notation he
used?

>The scale that I'm especially interested in right now, 20-tet, is resisting
my efforts to notate it.

>Because four cycles of fifths (with only five notes) are needed to cover
the scale, any notation that uses the seven diatonic names will be
inconsistent.

If you map xFf + xfF and xf + xff onto a triad square you create two fifths;
A
{H}orizontal {F}ifth comprised of 2870 �ordinal intervals� of xO squared,
and a "+1" (12/49ths of a cent) {v}ertical {f}ifth comprised of 2871
�ordinal intervals�...

If you transferred the (x) triad square to the circle of clockwise [(d � O)
� xF] integer xF�s, and counterclockwise [(d � O) � xf] integer xf�s you
could yield a chromatic 20 spelled:

C
Db/B#
C#
D/Ebb
CX/Fbbb
Eb/D#
Fb
E
F/Gbb
E#
F# � Gb
Abb
G/FX
Ab
G#
A/Bbb
Cbb/GX
Bb/A#
Cb
B/Dbb
C

C
-------------------------
F 8 12 G
Bb 17 3 D ("+1")
Eb 5 15 A
Ab 13 7 E
Db 1 19 B ("+1")
Gb 10 10 F#

Cb 18 2 C#
--------------------------------
Fb 6 14 G#
Bbb 15 5 D# ("+1")
Ebb 3 17 A#
Abb 11 9 E#
Dbb 19 1 B# ("+1")
Gbb 8 12 FX

Cbb 16 4 CX
------------------------------
Fbbb 4 16 GX

Respectfully,
Dan Stearns

Ps. I've played 20-tET guitar for about seven years... For those who may be
interested there is a picture @:

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Stadium/1429/Stearns.html