That elusive "new" microtonal sound so many of us are after...

> From: Robert C Valentine [mailto:bval@iil.intel.com]
>
> Most of it sounds so much like 12tet that you can't notice. I was
> surprised but probably shouldn't have been.
>
> Bob Valentine

Bob brings up a point which has interested me for years: What makes a
tuning system sound distinctly microtonal versus out of tune? Alternately,
what makes a tuning system sound microtonal and not just more in tune? I
have experimented with dozens of systems trying to come up with something
that sounds "new".

Examples:

The Bartok violin concerto with the quartertones, the quartertones are
hardly noticeable. (but nice if you are paying really close attention)
What's the point? Just more work for the performer?

Robert Fripp's Johnny One Note solo on "Starless" kicks butt microtonally,
and he's playing a 12TET instrument.

Ives quarter tone piano pieces sound microtonal, but mostly because he plays
recognizable melodies and transposes them by quarter tones.

Partch's music finds new consonances, and not just new dissonances or weird
sounds. He also has melodies with very small microtonal steps in them.
(Think about some of the harmonic cannon lines) To me his music covers the
gamut from more out of tune, to more in tune, to new and distinctly
microtonal.

Most Indian music regularly uses notes 16 cents away from 12TET, and it's
played over a drone, yet it usually doesn't sound microtonal. It just
sounds right, or in tune.

Why?

Jon Catler recently had me cut a neck for him where we added 7-limit Just
frets to a 12TET guitar neck. That sounded new and microtonal. Maybe
because of the strength of the 5-limit 12TET system against the purity of
the occasional 7-limit JI note?

---
Glen Peterson
30 Elm Street North Andover, MA 01845
(978) 975-1527
http://www.OrganicDesign.org/Glen/Instruments

> Every Society gets the Art that they Deserve-Mark Twain

... while the good stuff is archived for their grand-children.