Re : Haba MIDI & Monzo quarter-tone notation

(Joe Monzo:)

> I just uploaded a refined version of my MIDI sequence
> of the opening of Haba's _2nd Quartet_:
> http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/haba/2qt.mid
>
> and would love to get some feedback.
> (hope you have good string sounds...)

This sounds convincing! I wonder if a MIDI-version could eventually help a
*real* stringquartet to gain accuracy for the intonation of quarter tone
values. As a quarter tone guitarist, when I try to sing ahead of what I'm
playing, the resulting notes do not always correspond to what the frets tell
me. (Is this because of the harmonic entropy, my voice being naturally
attracted to nearby simple ratios?) I wonder if string players actually hear
the sound of the quarter tones before they set their finger, or if it's a
mechanical process, consisting of fingering halfway between two 12-ET
values? In that case your MIDI realization would be most helpfull.

> As Partch argued so much, no amount of theory can
> replace the function of *significant music* in changing
> one's willingness to accept an alternative tuning system.

Agree. I had one of my guitars transformed into 24-ET to have access to Haba
and Carrillo. I just purchased a very good Pappalardo guitar, which
eventually can be transformed into another n-ET version, but who's gonna
be the composer?

> HABA'S DIFFERENT USES OF QUARTER-TONES
> --------------------------------------
>
> Haba's use of quarter-tones in this particular piece
> falls into three distinct categories:
>
>
> 1) The notes of the 12-eq chromatic scale are 'targets',
> and the quarter-tones above and below (more often above)
> are used as appogiaturas which resolve to the 12-eq pitch.
> The appogiaturas are usually of longer duration than the
> resolving note.

It also happens that 12-eq notes are clearly resolving into quarter-tones!

> 3) Melodic passages, sometimes in parallel harmony, of
> successive '3/4-tone' [150-cent] intervals, which can
> be considered subsets of octatonic scales comprised
> entirely of conjunct 3/4-tone steps, i.e.:

I've not yet heard Haba use all the eight steps in a row. That's what
Carrillo is doing all the time.

> Later, as can be heard in the opening of the _14th Quartet_
> (also on my website), he used pentatonic scales with essential
> 5/4-tone [= 1 & 1/4-tone = 250 cent] intervals. (I'll shortly
> be sending a posting on that piece.)

His Detske Nalady Opus Nr. 51 (for guitar and child's voice) is full of
that. Defintely one of his most *consonant* quarter-tone compositions.

> MONZO QUARTER-TONE NOTATION

With 24 steps and only 7 different names the use of *phantasy* accidentals
implies too much brain-activity before we realize what step or interval
we're talking about. Your notation is a keyboard tablature, which allows a
quick overview, very practical to recognize e.g. a scale in 3/4 or 5/4-tone
steps immediately. I adapted standard guitar tablature notation myself, but
transformed it into 24 numbers in an octave. I skipped the dots on the neck
of the instrument and numbered every position separately (from 1 up to 24!).
The octatonic scale in 3/4-tone steps, starting on a low E, would read:

E ------------------------------
B ------------------------------
G ------------------------------
D ------------------------------
A ------------------------------
E 0--3--6--9--12--15--18--21--24 if played on one string, or:

E -------------------------
B -------------------------
G -------------------------
D ---------------------1--4
A ------------2--5--8------
E 0--3--6--9--------------- if played on seperate strings. Note that
the fourth is exactly 10 steps.

I *hear* the music better while watching numbers then seeing standard notes
with phantasy-accidentals. The same could be true for a keyboard-player,
perceiving the inner sound, as soon as it's connected to a fingering.
Dowland used it all his life!

Besides, when performing quarter-tone music, I finger most 5/4-tone steps in
such a way that the interval gets slighly larger, pushing up the string
with my third or fourth finger. Especially for Haba this gives a more
natural result. 5/4-tone (250 cents) is of course attracted to the 7/6 ratio
(267 cents).

This is the very end of the Suite Nr.2 Opus 67 for quarter-tone guitar:

E 0---0-O---7-5-0---------------------------0------14-----------5----
B 0-------5-------5-0-----------------------0----------15------5-----
G 2-------------------5-2----------------3-----13-------------2------
D ------------------------9-4----------------------------------------
A 4---------------------------9-4-----9----------------------4-------
E 0--------------------------------0------------------------0--------

If the two last figures were 6 instead of 5, the chord would be very simular
to the one Jimi Hendrix used so often.

Wim Hoogewerf