Custer passes the Muster

There hasn't been much discussion as yet on the Kyle Gann article on
JI that several people have been mentioning. Could I please have a
show of hands as to how many people have read this article in 1/1??
Three or four out of our 500?? Well, good.

The most striking aspect of the article for me was the way that Gann
was able to integrate the theory of the article to his actual
composition – that's the __Custer and Sitting Bull__ work that was
presented at the Claremont microfest and performed nicely by Gann as
an extended solo item, accompanied by pre-recorded tape and a synth
which he played live.

Essentially, for those of you who have not read the article, Gann
sets up two parallel Just Intonation scales, simple just intonation:
you know, the typical 1/1, 9/8, 6/5, 5/4 etc. However, they are
transposed from each other by 257.2 cents. This is "rationalized" in
the rational world as the 297th harmonic from the C starting point,
or, more comprehensibly, as the 11th harmonic of the Pythagorean
major sixth.

So, what's the point to this? Well, using these parallel scales,
Gann is able to effect, essentially, something akin to quartertone
harmony, but derived from a Just Intonation base! Now, what's the
point to that? Well, in the first place, it mimics and amplifies the
dramatic action on stage. The "quartertoney" music is emblematic of
Custer's stand (almost his last) when he denigrates the Native
American population through his view of the Great White Way.
However, Custer is, apparently a complex persona, and he also at some
times understands the plight of the Indian. My understanding is that
some of these sections rely more heavily on the simpler textures of
only one of the JI scales at a time. I suppose simpler JI can also
be related to the more "natural" style of the Indian culture.

Gann delves further into the theory with a series of drones in the
third movement of the piece. These drones traverse intervals that
are reminiscent of various Pythagorean fourths and fifths, only in a
myriad of different JI colors. Starting with a 21/16 at 470.8 cents,
he goes through a Pythagorean fourth at 4/3 (498 c) and keeps going,
through a 7/5 at 582.5, the Wolf 40/27 that we have been discussing,
and which Gann also discussed on this list (that ain't simple JI) all
the way to the "pure" 3/2 at 702.

Adding to the intrigue, Gann creates various scales derived from
these various drones, and you can refer to the interesting article in
1/1 to see how these are used with the drones.

Basically, this is a very "composerly" article, meaning it relates
to "real" composed music and describes in an intelligible way the
background of a piece which probably many of you are likely to hear
one place or another (since it's been done all over the place)
without any deliberately obfuscatory balderdash intended to bolster a
writers apparent erudition.

I guess part of the point of this is the fact that JI really can be
used in a number of ways, an echo, really, of the post that I saw
Margo Schulter just made. So, really it can be quite a rich and
varied world and not something necessarily simplistic or
monochromatic.

The version I saw at the microfest consisted of synthesized
accompaniment. I see here in the article that actual instrument are
indicated: flute, trumpet in Bb, Bassoon, Doublebass:

I don't know if Kyle is going to come around here for a while, but I
was somewhat curious if this work is intended as a live performance
by these instruments. If so, I was wondering about the
microtonality. I see the flute with these various extended JI
pitches – I guess these would be "bent" since I don't see any
fingering charts per se. Dunno. Bassoon and Trumpet, in the short
excerpt, seem to be playing unaltered 12-equal notes, but the Marimba
seems to be doing extended JI. I'm not quite sure how that's done.
And the English Horn is doing extended JI, and I believe it's quite
difficult to get doublereeds to bend.

Most probably, then, I guess, this is meant more as an illustration
of the MIDI emulation, in altered tuning, of these instruments. That
would seem to make sense.

Fun stuff.

Joe Pehrson

Hi Joe,

There are posts I believe can't be answered, but I'm not that easily scared away. Thanks for bringing up the 1/1 article.

I'll tell you a guilty secret of mine, but don't tell anyone else on the list. I have a theoretical bias against quarter-tone music, considering it no more than a convenience without acoustical justification - but the truth is, my ear is greatly titillated by quarter-tone music, and I love listening to it. And that's probably a constant with me, that the less theoretically justified a tuning is, the less I could imagine using it myself and the more seductively exotic I find it.

That's why I hate to see the JI and ET people choose up sides and blast away at each other, because the two approaches are complementary and need each other. I'm a confirmed JI user and can't imagine I would ever write a non-12 ET piece, but that's just because of the way my brain works, able to juggle dozens of fractions while composing in a way that I doubt many people could. The number of fractions and inequality of the scales I use would, I imagine, stifle creativity for a lot of microtonalists, and the important thing is to be creative with your materials, not come up to some theoretical criterion of purity or anything else. We need to explore the upper reaches of the harmonic series and the higher ET scales too. On principle I don't think much of ETs below 19, but I once heard the Music for Homemade Instruments people sing a piece in perfect 13tet, and I was blown away, speechless. When it comes to tuning, my ears and brain disagree, and I am never hypocritical enough to let one get the last word over the other.

And so yes, in the first scene of Custer I went through some sleight-of-hand to write a JI quarter-tone piece. In fact I'm always plugging away at that 11th harmonic, always inserting my 11/9 in between 6/5 and 5/4 because I love the quarter-tone sound. The notation, by the way, is Ben Johnston's, as always, so what looks like 12tet is actually just pure E-flat major scale, with G of 386 cents, etc.

>I see here in the article that actual instrument are indicated: >flute, trumpet >in Bb, Bassoon, Doublebass... I was somewhat curious >if this work is intended
>as a live performance by these instruments. If so, I was wondering about the
>microtonality. I see the flute with these various extended JI pitches - I
>guess these would be "bent" since I don't see any fingering charts per se.
>Dunno. Bassoon and Trumpet, in the short excerpt, seem to be playing unaltered
>12-equal notes, but the Marimba seems to be doing extended JI. I'm not quite
>sure how that's done. .... Most probably, then, I guess, this is meant more as
>an illustration of the MIDI emulation, in altered tuning, of these
>instruments. That would seem to make sense.

And you're also right that the names of the instruments merely refer to the sounds on my Proteus. I would love to someday have the piece played acoustically on those actual instruments, but it's beyond my expertise to make that happen, and someone else will have to do it for me someday, if posterity cares enough.

I've always said that if ever microtonality gets a power base in academia (and it will - we're doing something more interesting than they are, and they all secretly know it), we'll make the 12-toners' take-no-prisoners academic jihad look like a Sunday school picnic. For one thing, we've got better math. So I'd love to defuse the theoretical rivalries we have before they get entrenched and become endless power wars. I'm glad a lot of people are exploring extended ETs even though I'm not, and I would appreciate the same consideration from the ET people. Leave no tuning or temperament unexplored.

In my new JI opera, Cinderella's Bad Magic, I use lots and lots of 5/4s, and it's so rare to hear in-tune major thirds that I just revel in it. And there's no reason to apologize for that. Once I've gotten my fill of 5/4s, Margo Schulter's 14/11s look very inviting.

Thanks for grabbing the captain's wheel and changing course - you're a mensch,

Kyle

--- In tuning@y..., Kyle Gann <kgann@e...> wrote:

> I've always said that if ever microtonality gets a power base in
> academia (and it will - we're doing something more interesting than
> they are, and they all secretly know it), we'll make the 12-toners'
> take-no-prisoners academic jihad look like a Sunday school picnic.
> For one thing, we've got better math.

The Math Indians are a comin'! Kill 'em with better math--charge!

--- In tuning@y..., Kyle Gann <kgann@e...> wrote:
> .... Once I've gotten
> my fill of 5/4s, Margo Schulter's 14/11s look very inviting.

Around the beginning of this year I wrote Margo the following:

<< Just for fun, here's a new scale with identical tetrachords (in
the harmonic proportion and all of the primes through 11) that I came
up with following this principle: if Margo were an ancient Greek
theorist, what would her diatonic scale have been? Take a look at it
and tell me if it doesn't have your name written all over it:

E F G A B C D E
1/1 22/21 25/21 4/3 3/2 11/7 25/14 2/1
21:22 22:25 25:28 8:9 21:22 22:25 25:28

When you figure out what the comma is, I'll name it after you. >>

She correctly identified it as "the difference between the two sizes
of whole-tones at 22:25:28 that equably (here harmonically) divide
the 11:14, 616:625 or about 25.11 cents."

--George

--- In tuning@y..., "Gene Ward Smith" <genewardsmith@j...> wrote:
> --- In tuning@y..., Kyle Gann <kgann@e...> wrote:
>
> > I've always said that if ever microtonality gets a power base in
> > academia (and it will - we're doing something more interesting
than
> > they are, and they all secretly know it), we'll make the 12-
toners'
> > take-no-prisoners academic jihad look like a Sunday school
picnic.
> > For one thing, we've got better math.
>
> The Math Indians are a comin'! Kill 'em with better math--charge!

They don't call 'em number-crunchers for nothing!

--George

Kyle Gann wrote:

>
>
> I've always said that if ever microtonality gets a power base in
> academia (and it will - we're doing something more interesting than
> they are, and they all secretly know it), we'll make the 12-toners'
> take-no-prisoners academic jihad look like a Sunday school picnic.
> For one thing, we've got better math. So I'd love to defuse the
> theoretical rivalries we have before they get entrenched and become
> endless power wars. I'm glad a lot of people are exploring extended
> ETs even though I'm not, and I would appreciate the same
> consideration from the ET people. Leave no tuning or temperament
> unexplored.
>

I'd like to hear more of this sort of talk - most inspiring!

>
> In my new JI opera, Cinderella's Bad Magic, I use lots and lots of
> 5/4s, and it's so rare to hear in-tune major thirds that I just revel
> in it. And there's no reason to apologize for that. Once I've gotten
> my fill of 5/4s, Margo Schulter's 14/11s look very inviting.

And will there be any possibility of seeing the score or hearing the piece?

Kind Regards
a.m.

>
>

Joseph Pehrson wrote:

> There hasn't been much discussion as yet on the Kyle Gann article on
> JI that several people have been mentioning. Could I please have a
> show of hands as to how many people have read this article in 1/1??
> Three or four out of our 500?? Well, good.

Sorry to snip your post Joseph. I like this kind of writing - looking at how pieces work. In
general we need more analysis to heighten the profile of the music.
If you haven't already done so I recommend reading 1/1 of Summer 2001 - Vol 10 no. 4 which is Lou
Harrison's Microfest 2001 Keynote address. There are score excerpts, analyses, lattices, tuning
information and many thought provoking reflections.

Kind Regards
a.m.

Hi Alison,

Depends on where you live. Cinderella's Bad Magic is the first in a trilogy of just intonation chamber operas I'm writing on librettos by Jeffrey Sichel, and we'll be performing it and possibly the next installment in New York in the spring, probably April. We premiered it in Moscow and St. Peterburg, and are looking to tour. I'll let you know what comes up. The ultimate plan is all three operas at the Kitchen in New York in 2004. If you're interested in a score or recording, contact me privately and I could probably get one to you.

Thanks,

Kyle