Wow! Interesting threads.

Hey all, Jeez, I leave for a couple of days, and look at how the sparks fly. :-) First -- in regards to Carl's question about how I used the softsynths in Logic: for the chorale, I used the simpler softsynths (ESE and ESP) to create some timbres that were different enough that you could aurally keep the voices somewhat distinct (you can argue about how well I succeeded in that). I think I mentioned the softsynths I used in "Smooth Ride" somewhere on the webpage (ESE, ESP, ES2, EVOC20). Any digital processing I used stayed away from "chorus" or "ensemble" or any sort of detuning effect that would obscure the purity of the harmony.
As for the tuning process -- every MIDI note message in both pieces is the C in the octave of the pitch. So, for example, if I wanted a 5/4 above C3, I inputted the note as a C3, and then added the appropriate 2-byte pitch bend message (one octave range -- I converted the ratios logarithmically to the (+/-)8192-value pitch bend gamut) at some point before the pitch in question. In "Smooth Ride", this required me to use several channels for one individual timbre (the melodic sections and the arpeggio sections, for example, required an individual channel for every member of the "scales" used. This, of course, led to a LOT of tracks, which was very taxing on the processor.) In the chorale, I simply inputted a pitch bend before every note in each individual voice -- since there is some latency in how quickly the system responds to pitch bend messages, there is more separation between notes than I would've liked, so the "Cathedral reverb" was an attempt to hide some of that, and maybe make it sound a bit more organ-like.

Now, as for the intents of each piece, which seems to be a major point of contention (unexpectedly)... PARTCH CHORALE: To be honest, this was simply written for a presentation in my Research Techniques class about Partch's Monophonic Fabric. In the presentation (in which I gave credit where credit was due to Joe Monzo), I converted Monzo's lattice diagram of the Monophonic Fabric into HEWM notation (actually, the "Commatic Notation" labelled as "JI" in Scala -- credit was given to Manuel, as well), since, at least to me, that notation system is more musically intuitive than using ratios. Since Bach Chorales are often heralded as "following all the rules of counterpoint," I thought it would be interesting to show off the Monophonic Fabric with a chorale that (mostly) followed the "rules" of harmonic resolution which Partch sets forth in his chapter "A Question of Resolution," and yet also followed the "rules" of traditional common-practice counterpoint in terms of dissonance preparation and resolution -- the main difference being that the definition of "consonance" has been extended to subsets of a hexad (Tonality) rather than a major/minor triad. I chose the particular melody, only because it was also used in Berg's Violin Concerto, a work which also mixes the "old" with the "new."
So, in answer to questions about my "aesthetic aims" -- yes, it is just an exercise. However, I hoped it might compel other composers (especially more "conservative" ones like myself) to examine the tonal possibilities of the Monophonic Fabric, especially in terms of augmenting (no pun intended) "old" harmonic progressions. One of the common complaints I hear when people write tonal, "conservative" music is that "it's all been done." I hoped that this would at least invite the possibility of adding a newer dimension to the harmonies. If this is "shoehorning," so be it; I just see it as one of the many not-yet-fully-explored possibilities inherent in Partch's system. SMOOTH RIDE: This was actually written before the Partch Chorale. This was my first composition project in my second semester of the Music Technology sequence here at Bowling Green, where we were to demonstrate our facility in using MIDI with the softsynths. I took this as an opportunity to explore JI in a real-time composition -- up to this point, I'd only been able to mess around with the Chromatic Clavier in Scala. The process of having to use a calculator and a five-step step-entry procedure to input every note was more than a bit annoying, but I was happy with the result (not that it's an earth-shattering piece compositionally, but it's fun, eh?). It was, according to directions, supposed to be between 2 and 2.5 minutes in length, which is why it's just a "teaser". (I'm working on a much larger-scale piece now -- more on that when I've made more progress. I'm using the EXS24 Sampler and tuning things by ear this time around, rather than using pitch bends.) And with how many hours it took me to input that short composition, I'm frankly glad it didn't have to be longer! Glad to see some conversation stirred up by my stuff! If I can get Scala to retune things properly (still working on that), I'll have some MIDI's posted sooner or later. Eric