the tuning of _A Noiseless Patient Spider_

I'm finished contributing to the flame war 'stuff' thread,
but I have to correct an erroroneous implication about
my piece:

> [David Beardsley, TD 344.1]
>
> OK. So that piece of yours that I turned into a cd for
> the fest, ... <snip> ..., what was it called?

_A Noiseless Patient Spider_, a setting of the Walt Whitman poem.

> [Dave]
>
> Why was it in 12tet/ji instead of ji?

You might be able to just barely say that it hints at 12-tET.
But it would be most correct to describe it thus:

The piece is entirely microtonal, using a 13-tone symmetrical
5-limit JI system for the middle section, and a much more
complex set of JI pitches for the other sections, with some
of the intervallic relationships also deriving from 144-tET
and its various subets such as 24-, 36-, 48-, and 72-tET.

In general, I used a lattice diagram with the nearest implied
144-tET pitches plugged into the ratio-places as a guidepost
in getting out of my MIDI sequencer what I heard in my head.
The JI implications were basically an 11-limit system, and
I assumed the listener could ignore the small differences
between my pitch-bend values, which were based on 144-tET,
and the implied JI ratios - I'd have to go back into my sketches
and score for the piece to say exactly how large an error it
is, but it is on the order of max error = ~4 cents.

In parts of the piece where a sustaining of the harmony
made me want strict JI pitches, I tweaked the pitch-bend
values to get them. Again, I'd have to rummage thru the
score and compare it with the MIDI file to describe this
more precisely. Perhaps I'll get around to adding it to
the webpage someday, or better still, maybe someone else
out there would be interested in analyzing what I did...?

The MIDI file of the instrumental parts is available on the
webpage. I performed the vocal extemporaneously at the
Microthon!, but it was based almost entirely on a composed
part that I never bothered to figure out how to notate.

I do eventually plan to put at least an excerpt from the
score up on the webpage.

http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/spider/spider.htm

BTW, hope to see some of you Monday night at the AFMM
concert. I'm very excited about hearing the Sandberg Psalm,
Johnny's 'Middle Earth' symphony, and the Pythagorean
version of 'Unanswered Question'. As always, I think it
would be great to have a dinner get-together after the show.

-monz

Joseph L. Monzo Philadelphia monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
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