Shifts to equal 7 tone tuninig

Dear tuning group,

I'm working on a commission for a trio with clarinet, cello, and
piano, and would like to be able to move from 12-tone equal
temperament to and from sections in Thai equal seven-tone tuning for
clarinet and cello (preferably oriented from concert c# or E). Does
anyone have information on alternate fingerings for clarinet for
playing in equal 7-tone scale given those conditions? Also, any tips
on how to best orient the cellist to tuning shifts within the piece?
(The players are very accomplished musicians in standard repertoire).

Michael Mathis
Composer, theorist

--- In tuning@y..., "drm90405" <Drmrmathis@a...> wrote:
> Dear tuning group,
>
> I'm working on a commission for a trio with clarinet, cello, and
> piano, and would like to be able to move from 12-tone equal
> temperament to and from sections in Thai equal seven-tone tuning
for
> clarinet and cello (preferably oriented from concert c# or E). Does
> anyone have information on alternate fingerings for clarinet for
> playing in equal 7-tone scale given those conditions? Also, any
tips
> on how to best orient the cellist to tuning shifts within the
piece?
> (The players are very accomplished musicians in standard
repertoire).
>
> Michael Mathis
> Composer, theorist

hi michael, that sounds really exciting!

if johnny reinhard were here (?), i'm sure he would have some advice
for you -- he has plenty of experience playing in this tuning (and of
course many others). he plays bassoon and recorder but i'm sure he
has specific advise for other wind players too . . . johnny?

clem fortuna wrote an article about 7-equal for strings, or at least
a score . . .

basically, i feel that, for the cello, you may want to introduce the
tuning system in its entirety, preferably with a reliable reference
such as a synthesizer. there are only a few intervals possible in
this tuning system, and they should all be committed to sensory/motor
memory. with practice the cellist's location references for the 7-
equal pitches will begin to crystallize, and invoking locations in
terms of sevenths of a semitone or multiples of 14 cents should be
unnecessary. the music will then be performed with assuredness and
confidence in the 7-equal sections that will have a chance to match
that in the 12-equal sections.

that all of course depends on how much time you have to spend with
the musicians. and if they have no experience with microtonality, you
may find some have significant barriers against hearing new
intervals -- however accomplished they might be!

good luck,
paul

> --- In tuning@y..., "drm90405" <Drmrmathis@a...> wrote:
> Dear tuning group,
>
> I'm working on a commission for a trio with clarinet, cello, and
> piano, and would like to be able to move from 12-tone equal
> temperament to and from sections in Thai equal seven-tone tuning
> for
> clarinet and cello (preferably oriented from concert c# or E). Does
> anyone have information on alternate fingerings for clarinet for
> playing in equal 7-tone scale given those conditions? Also, any
> tips
> on how to best orient the cellist to tuning shifts within the
> piece?
> (The players are very accomplished musicians in standard
> repertoire).
>
> Michael Mathis
> Composer, theorist

Hi there Michael,

I cannot give you any useful advice, I'm afraid, but I'd like to know
more about Thai tuning and music from you and others.

FWIW, I can extensively play Turkish music on soprano recorder and I
can tell about the fingerings if needed.

Best,
Ertugrul

--- In tuning@y..., "ertugrulInanc" <ertugrulinanc@y...> wrote:

> Hi there Michael,
>
> I cannot give you any useful advice, I'm afraid, but I'd like to
know
> more about Thai tuning and music from you and others.

the Thai classical tuning system conceives of the octave as divided
into seven equal parts. neither the tuning of the octave, or of the
seven parts, approaches the degree of accuracy typically required of
tuning systems in the West. but since a literal 7-tone-equal-
temperament tuning falls well within thai musicians' parameters of
what is considered acceptable, i have no problem referring to thai
tuning as 7-equal.

the reasons that Thailand adopted 7-tone-equal-temperament on their
fixed-pitch instruments and the reason the West adopted 12-tone-equal-
temperament on its fixed-pitch instruments are the same: the desire
for extensive modulation. Thai music is based on pentatonic melodies
that are typically transposed to three or four different keys in the
course of a composition. the typical Thai pentatonic scales can be
expressed in cents as

0 343 514 686 1029 (1200)

0 171 514 686 1029 (1200)

0 171 343 686 857 (1200)

Daniel Wolf has reported that vocalists and players of flexible-pitch
instruments in Thailand tend to shade these intervals toward meantone
tuning which distinguishes major and minor thirds (unlike 7-equal);
the 'target' scales of such an operation would resemble:

0 310 503 697 1006 (1200)

0 194 503 697 1006 (1200)

0 194 387 697 890 (1200),

respectively. however, nearby in Bali one finds the most common
pentatonic scales bent in the *opposite* direction relative to 7-
equal -- such as, just as examples,

0 365 522 678 1043 (1200)

0 157 522 678 1043 (1200)

0 157 313 678 834 (1200)

which come from the 'pelog' tuning system, while 'slendro',
resembling a 5-tone equal temperament scale, stands beside pelog in
importance in many Indonesian cultures as well . . . .