seeking Easley Blackwood

Does anyone know how to contact Easley Blackwood?

Preferably by email ... but snail-mail, telephone,
smoke-signal or talking drums is OK too.

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "monz" <monz@...> wrote:
>
> Does anyone know how to contact Easley Blackwood?
>
> Preferably by email ... but snail-mail, telephone,
> smoke-signal or talking drums is OK too.

When you find him, ask if he wants a Tonescape version of Twelve
Microtonal Etudes. He said in the notes he'd love to hear other
people's versions.

There's a phone number listed here: http://music.uchicago.edu/?dir

- Rich Holmes

Rich Holmes<rsholmes@mailbox.syr.edu> writes:

> There's a phone number listed here: http://music.uchicago.edu/?dir

... which on closer examination turns out to the be the Music
Department main office number, but presumably whoever answers that
could help.

- Richard Holmes

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith" <genewardsmith@...>
wrote:
>
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "monz" <monz@> wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone know how to contact Easley Blackwood?
> >
> > Preferably by email ... but snail-mail, telephone,
> > smoke-signal or talking drums is OK too.
>
> When you find him, ask if he wants a Tonescape version
> of Twelve Microtonal Etudes. He said in the notes he'd
> love to hear other people's versions.

Exactly! :-)

... I've already started working on the 16-edo
and 21-edo Etudes.

But what's more interesting is that he wrote a whole
handwritten book as a result of his NEH research grant
to study these microtonal tunings. What he says about
each EDO from 13 to 23 is *far* more detailed than what's
in his published book, "The Structure of Recognizable
Diatonic Tunings".

I have xerox copies of the sections on 15-, 16-, and 18-edo,
which i got from Brink, who long ago got the whole book
directly from Blackwood but has since lost the rest of it.
I want the whole thing.

I think i've found him ... if i get the book i'll report
back here about it.

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "monz" <monz@...> wrote:

> I think i've found him ... if i get the book i'll report
> back here about it.

You might also ask if he'd like a scan available on the Internet.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith" <genewardsmith@...>
wrote:
>
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "monz" <monz@> wrote:
>
> > I think i've found him ... if i get the book i'll report
> > back here about it.
>
> You might also ask if he'd like a scan available on the Internet.

Sure ... but i've already started typing out the parts
that i have (as if i don't have enough else to do)
... it's a lot easier to read that way.

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software

monz wrote:
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith" <genewardsmith@...>
> wrote:
>> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "monz" <monz@> wrote:
>>> Does anyone know how to contact Easley Blackwood?
>>>
>>> Preferably by email ... but snail-mail, telephone, >>> smoke-signal or talking drums is OK too.
>> When you find him, ask if he wants a Tonescape version
>> of Twelve Microtonal Etudes. He said in the notes he'd
>> love to hear other people's versions.
> > > Exactly! :-) > > ... I've already started working on the 16-edo
> and 21-edo Etudes.

Great stuff! Does Tonescape make it easier to follow the harmonic progressions in the etudes? Blackwood's notations for 16 and 21 are pretty reasonable as far as those things go (you can only stretch traditional notation so far), but you still have to pay attention to the enharmonic equivalents.

I started putting together a version of his 15-ET etude using the Mizarian sound font back around the time I wrote Mizarian Porcupine Overture, but I didn't get very far (the sound font technology was too crude for the degree of expressiveness needed for the "cornet solo" part, and ... well, that was a really busy year at work; it's a wonder I managed to find time for any music at all.)

Hi Herman,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:
>
> monz wrote:
>
> > --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith" <genewardsmith@>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> When you find him, ask if he wants a Tonescape version
> >> of Twelve Microtonal Etudes. He said in the notes he'd
> >> love to hear other people's versions.
> >
> >
> > Exactly! :-)
> >
> > ... I've already started working on the 16-edo
> > and 21-edo Etudes.
>
> Great stuff! Does Tonescape make it easier to follow
> the harmonic progressions in the etudes?

Of course! You can see everything happening in
real time on the Lattice.

But that's exactly why i want those research notes:
Blackwood divides scales into two broad categories,
diatonic and symmetric, and goes into great detail
about the types of harmonic progressions he found
available in each EDO.

The problem is how to design the Lattice for each EDO.
Having all that info would help me a great deal in
deciding what to use for the Lattice axes: how many
dimensions should the Lattice have, which prime-factors
should define each axis, and in fact are there generators
other than prime-factors which would be better?

For right now i'm using two simple approaches:

1) According to the data on my Encyclopedia webpage
"EDO Prime Error"

http://tonalsoft.com/enc/e/edo-prime-error.aspx

for most of Blackwood's EDOs i used only one generator
and chose the lowest prime-factor which is best approximated
by that EDO. For the three EDOs which clearly had two
good prime-factor candidates, i used both, on a
2-dimensional lattice. Here's the whole rundown:

EDO prime-factors
13 . 11
14 . 29
15 . 7 and 11
16 . 19
17 . 3
18 . 5
19 . 3 and 5
20 . 13
21 . 7
22 . 3 and 5
23 . 17

2) The other approach is to simply make all the Lattices
one-dimensional, using a single step of the EDO as the
generator.

What's nice is that, even tho a Tonescape Musical Piece
is wedded to the tuning embedded in it (i.e., there is
no way to switch a Musical Piece's tuning within Tonescape),
as long as the various different tunings all have the
same number of pitches, i'm able to edit the .tonescape
files to try different tunings without having to
recompose the whole piece over again. It's still a
tedious process, but not all that bad. So for the Blackwood's
Etudes, since each Etude uses a certain cardinality, it's
really not so hard to try different Lattices for the same
Etude.

> Blackwood's notations for 16 and 21 are pretty reasonable
> as far as those things go (you can only stretch traditional
> notation so far), but you still have to pay attention to the
> enharmonic equivalents.

Well, it's nice that Blackwood put a legend at the beginning
of each Etude which shows the notation *and* the EDO degree
number! It's a pain to have to keep referring to it, but
Tonescape offers the "Select Notation" choice to use logarithmic
values on the Lattice, so i just use the cardinality of the
EDO Blackwood used, and as i move the mouse over the score
i can always see which degree the cursor is hovering over.
As i work on a particular Etude, the notation gradually
becomes familiar enough that i'm simply clicking the notes
into the score fairly rapidly and only checking the legend
once in a while.

I've only just started both of these, but i decided to
upload what i have so far to the Tonescape Den Haag group
Files section, for the perusal of those who are playing
around with Tonescape:

/tuning/files/pieces/blackwood_microtonal-etudes_16-edo.tonescape

/tuning/files/pieces/blackwood_microtonal-etudes_21-edo.tonescape

The 16-Note Etude was actually started awhile ago, and
the Lattice i used here is 2-dimensional.

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "monz" <monz@...> wrote:

> But that's exactly why i want those research notes:
> Blackwood divides scales into two broad categories,
> diatonic and symmetric, and goes into great detail
> about the types of harmonic progressions he found
> available in each EDO.

How does he classify 22? Paul Erlich thought his 22 was about the
weakest of the bunch, because it is a kind of cockeyed diatonic
piece. I thought it was interesting, and amusing in something the way
the Candide Overature is. But things like the recent "Blue Monk" in
22 seem to be more intrinisic to the character of 22. I think maybe
Paul was objecting to the impression he left, that his 22 etude is
what the tuning is *like*, rather than something it makes possible.

> The problem is how to design the Lattice for each EDO.
> Having all that info would help me a great deal in
> deciding what to use for the Lattice axes: how many
> dimensions should the Lattice have, which prime-factors
> should define each axis, and in fact are there generators
> other than prime-factors which would be better?

Interesting questions. For the 23, for instance, I think taking it as
half a 46 might be better. The 16 etude seems to have a diminished
temperament concept to it. What the hell you or anyone can do with 13
is a question. You could look at the chords he was using as, more or
less, consonances to try to sort it out.

> EDO prime-factors
> 13 . 11
> 14 . 29

29?? I'd do what I suggested, and look at his chords.

> Well, it's nice that Blackwood put a legend at the beginning
> of each Etude which shows the notation *and* the EDO degree
> number!

What do you think of his notations? Scala doesn't use them, but of
course it would be relatively easy to produce a Scala version in some
other notation.

Gene Ward Smith wrote:

> Interesting questions. For the 23, for instance, I think taking it as > half a 46 might be better. The 16 etude seems to have a diminished > temperament concept to it. What the hell you or anyone can do with 13 > is a question. You could look at the chords he was using as, more or > less, consonances to try to sort it out.

The 13 etude uses the 8-note MOS scale which he calls "subminor", based on a generator of 5 steps (461.538 cents). The "thirds" of that scale could be considered as, very roughly, approximations of 7/6 and 5/4.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:

> The 13 etude uses the 8-note MOS scale which he calls "subminor",
based
> on a generator of 5 steps (461.538 cents). The "thirds" of that scale
> could be considered as, very roughly, approximations of 7/6 and 5/4.

If I take that seriously, and assume the generator is a sort of fourth,
I end up with <13 21 30 37| as a val, which is as good as you can do
for the 7-limit with 13. It has a TM basis {25/24, 28/27, 160/147}, and
if we take 28/27 and 160/147 as kernel elements, we get <<1 7 3 9 2 -13|
as a wedgie. This looks like a Herman Miller temperament to me. You get
a Fibonacci thing going with 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 ... since (3-sqrt
(5))/2 of an octave, eg 600*(3-sqrt(5)) cents, is a poptimal generator
(so is 13/34, 21/55 etc.)

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Rich Holmes<rsholmes@...> wrote:
>
> Rich Holmes<rsholmes@...> writes:
>
> > There's a phone number listed here: http://music.uchicago.edu/?dir
>
> ... which on closer examination turns out to the be the Music
> Department main office number, but presumably whoever answers
> that could help.

Thanks, Rich. I had already found that before you posted it,
called, and got his email from the person who answered.

Hopefully i'll be hearing from him.

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software

Hi Gene,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith" <genewardsmith@...>
wrote:
>
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "monz" <monz@> wrote:
>
> > But that's exactly why i want those research notes:
> > Blackwood divides scales into two broad categories,
> > diatonic and symmetric, and goes into great detail
> > about the types of harmonic progressions he found
> > available in each EDO.
>
> How does he classify 22?

Well ... i don't know, because that's one of the parts
of the book that i don't have. As i said, i only have
the sections on 15-, 16-, and 18-edo. In fact, the chapters
are not arranged in order of EDO, and the first few are
on 15, 19, 13, 15 again, 16, 18, and 22 ... so you see
that my copy breaks off just before the chapter on 22-edo.

There are 10 pages of introductory material where he
does make general comments, and 22 is included there,
but i haven't read all of it yet. I prefer to keep typing
it out so that it's easier to read.

> Interesting questions. For the 23, for instance, I think
> taking it as half a 46 might be better. The 16 etude seems
> to have a diminished temperament concept to it.

Blackwood's main classifications of the different types
of scales available in the EDOs from 13 to 23 (which
tunings were the subject of his NEH grant research project
of which the Microtonal Etudes are the result) are these:

(i give examples beginning on C, but transpositions
are also assumed to be included)

. recognizable diatonic scales: C D E F G A B C
edos: 12, 17, 19, 22, 24

. "nearly just" diatonic (i.e., 2 sizes of "whole-tone")
edos: 15, 18, 20, 22

. 6-note symmetric mode: C Eb E G Ab B C
edos: 12, 15, 18, 21, 24

. 8-note symmetric mode: C D Eb F F# G# A B C
edos: 12, 16, 20, 24

. 10-note symmetric mode
edos: 15, 20

. 12-note symmetric mode
edos: 18, 24

. 14-note symmetric mode
edos: 21

The 6-note symmetric mode is what we were calling
"augmented" and the 8-note is "diminished" ... i haven't
kept up with the changes of temperament-family names,
so i'm not sure if they are still current or not.

But 16-edo is indeed one of the tunings which Blackwood
as an example of the 8-note symmetric mode, which i
know as the "diminished scale".

> What the hell you or anyone can do with 13 is a
> question. You could look at the chords he was using
> as, more or less, consonances to try to sort it out.

Blackwood gives a table showing essentially the same
data i put in my table above, then concludes:
"From this it appears that the most alien tunings
are those of 13, 14, and 23 notes".

> > EDO prime-factors
> > 13 . 11
> > 14 . 29
>
> 29?? I'd do what I suggested, and look at his chords.

Yes, sure, i'd be able to make a much better Lattice
after i analyze the piece and see what he used as his
harmonic basis. I only chose 29 for now because, as
you'll see if you look at my graph

http://tonalsoft.com/enc/e/edo-prime-error.aspx#14

there are no lower primes than 29 which come anywhere
near as close in accuracy in 14-edo as its approximation to 29.

> > Well, it's nice that Blackwood put a legend at the beginning
> > of each Etude which shows the notation *and* the EDO degree
> > number!
>
> What do you think of his notations? Scala doesn't use them,
> but of course it would be relatively easy to produce a
> Scala version in some other notation.

I've always thought his notations were a little strange,
but given the fact that he did a lot of research into
all 11 of these EDOs, i suppose that he put a lot of
thought behind them.

One thing i never liked was the way he put a circle
near the bottom of the arrow for the notes which use
that symbol for the accidental -- my preference would
be to just use a plain arrow. But that's just a very
minor detail. Anyway, i'll have a clearer opinion
after i study the pieces more.

I look forward to the day when Tonescape can do
Sagittal notation, because then it will be easy to
see the already-done .tonescape files of Blackwood's
pieces in Sagittal.

He also says a bit about notation in the NEH research
notes, but again, i only have a small part of that work
... i actually have only pages 1-24 and 93-218 --
that's only 150 pages of a 512-page book.

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software

Hi Herman,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:

> The 13 etude uses the 8-note MOS scale which he
> calls "subminor", based on a generator of 5 steps
> (461.538 cents).

How do you know that? ...!

Have you analyzed the piece, or is there some info
available somewhere that i'd like to read which
i don't know about?

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software

> Well ... i don't know, because that's one of the parts
> of the book that i don't have. As i said, i only have
> the sections on 15-, 16-, and 18-edo. In fact, the chapters
> are not arranged in order of EDO, and the first few are
> on 15, 19, 13, 15 again, 16, 18, and 22 ... so you see
> that my copy breaks off just before the chapter on 22-edo.
>
> There are 10 pages of introductory material where he
> does make general comments, and 22 is included there,
> but i haven't read all of it yet. I prefer to keep typing
> it out so that it's easier to read.

The NY Public library has a copy.

-Carl

monz wrote:

> I've always thought his notations were a little strange,
> but given the fact that he did a lot of research into
> all 11 of these EDOs, i suppose that he put a lot of
> thought behind them. I recall thinking that his 16-ET notation was strange, but then a while back I realized that the major thirds are the best intervals of 16-ET, and with the exception of C-E, Blackwood's notation of major thirds is consistent with traditional notation. (In that respect it's similar to my porcupine-based notations for 15-ET and 22-ET.) I still find his 23-ET notation very confusing.

monz wrote:
> Hi Herman,
> > > --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:
> >> The 13 etude uses the 8-note MOS scale which he
>> calls "subminor", based on a generator of 5 steps
>> (461.538 cents). > > > How do you know that? ...!
> > Have you analyzed the piece, or is there some info
> available somewhere that i'd like to read which
> i don't know about?

The liner notes for the CD mention that "even this tuning contains a strange mode best described as "sub[-]minor"." I put the hyphen in brackets since it's at the end of the line and it's not clear whether "subminor" or "sub-minor" is intended.

I haven't analyzed the whole piece, but I did look at the first part of it, and I noticed the 8-note scale. I guess I don't know specifically if this is the "mode best described as sub-minor", but that's what I was assuming. I tuned it up in Scala and "show data" reveals that it has Myhill's property, with generators of 461.5385 and 738.4615 cents. You can play along with the recording in this scale, until it eventually modulates into another "key" (but even then many of the notes are shared with the "tonic" key).

Hi Herman,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:
>
> monz wrote:
>
> > I've always thought his notations were a little strange,
> > but given the fact that he did a lot of research into
> > all 11 of these EDOs, i suppose that he put a lot of
> > thought behind them.
>
> I recall thinking that his 16-ET notation was strange,
> but then a while back I realized that the major thirds
> are the best intervals of 16-ET, and with the exception
> of C-E, Blackwood's notation of major thirds is consistent
> with traditional notation. (In that respect it's similar
> to my porcupine-based notations for 15-ET and 22-ET.)
> I still find his 23-ET notation very confusing.

I've read the first 22 pages of Blackwood's
_NEH Research Notes_ so far, and he does go into
some detail about how he devised his notations.

He places a lot of importance on enharmonic equivalence,
drawing parallels to how it works in 12-edo.

So far i've only really read about 15-edo, and the
way he devised his notation for that tuning, he
shows how considering 5-edo as a series of very
sharp 5ths (720 cents) makes a series of five 5ths
upward enharmonically equivalent: thus, in the
sequence C - G - D - A - E - B, the C and B are
the same pitch. Similarly for G/F# in G-D-A-E-B-F#,
F/E in F-C-G-D-A-E, etc. And of course 15-edo
contains 5-edo, so this is significant to him.

He also examines the symmetric modes in detail,
again drawing parallels with how they work in 12-edo.

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software