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microtonal "solutions", freedom, generalized diatonics

🔗Jacob <jbarton@rice.edu>

4/9/2006 12:15:31 AM

I assembled this attempt at a classification of instruments relating
to retuning:
<http://riters.com/microtonal/index.cgi/AcousticMicrotonality> I
think it was Kraig Grady that pointed out its Western bias, but indeed
the very notion of microtonality seems to be Western-biased.

What I would like to see much more of are instruments with interfaces
designed with scale-changing in mind. Intsruments that provide a
fixed scale but allow the movement of individual notes (to a degree),
the addition and subtraction of notes, and possibly even extremely
exact systematic manipulation of notes (which might require computer
assistance).

A clavichord with moveable keys. A magstrip-style slide clarinet after
Bart Hopkin with very thin, adjustable keys. A synthesizer with extra
keys hiding in the interior, waiting for you to pull them out should
you need them. (I've hoped for some of these on the Yahoo
new_instruments group.)

I have long wanted to try a piece in a generalized diatonic scale
where the "generalized" is accentuated by having the scale be warped
*in real time* by a controller-controlled generator. Well, it turns
out that Marcus Satellite has been doing this.
<http://www.perfectbuzzmusic.com/music/Continuum5/continuum5.01.html>
(link made known to me by X.J. Scott) (awesome awesome stuff) This is
a possible use for the aforementioned computer control of uber-precise
pitch.

Whew.