Some new music and some new experience

Hi everyone.

Again, I've just tried another tuning for the very first time and I was so pleased with it that I made just spontaneously, once again, another improvised piece. After I let you listen to it and get some kind of first impression, I'll tell you more about the tuning I used -- for right now, I'll just say that it is a linear temperament.
Here it is: http://download.yousendit.com/A324C7503259DDE9

Petr

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Petr Parí­zek <p.parizek@...> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone.
>
> Again, I've just tried another tuning for the very first time and I
was so pleased with it that I made just spontaneously, once again,
another improvised piece. After I let you listen to it and get some
kind of first impression, I'll tell you more about the tuning I used -
- for right now, I'll just say that it is a linear temperament.
> Here it is: http://download.yousendit.com/A324C7503259DDE9

Hi Petr,

Your latest piece is very enjoyable. As it wanders thru a number of
different styles, it shows off the tuning's versatility. I find this
a very mellow tuning. Thank you for sharing it with us.

However, I refuse to guess what it might be! There are just too many
possible contenders ...

... by the way, exactly how do you improvise in different tunings?
It sounds very much like you're playing a guitar in real-time, rather
than having a computer perform a MIDI score. Do you perhaps have a
guitar MIDI controller to which you download your tuning?

Keep up the lovely music!

Regards,
Yahya

music on the web: http://www.esnips.com/web/yahyas-music

Petr Pařízek wrote:
> Hi everyone.
> > Again, I've just tried another tuning for the very first time and I was so > pleased with it that I made just spontaneously, once again, another > improvised piece. After I let you listen to it and get some kind of first > impression, I'll tell you more about the tuning I used -- for right now, > I'll just say that it is a linear temperament.
> Here it is: http://download.yousendit.com/A324C7503259DDE9
> > Petr

This one had me puzzled for a while; it obviously has lots of good fifths for the number of notes you're using, which narrows it down, but it also has very small, comma-sized steps. Listen around 1:17 and then restart at the beginning and you can hear the comma transition (it's pretty well hidden if you listen through from the beginning). What's more, it has what at first sounds much like a diatonic scale. The comma shifts are just apparent enough that you can tell it isn't meantone, and porcupine has larger comma shifts so it can't be that either. I tried a couple of temperaments with small comma shifts, but nothing seemed to fit.

But I think I've figured out what it is.......

I was thinking about this at work today and it occurred to me that it sounds like something close to a multiple of 7-ET (but with better fifths) -- the size of the "diatonic" steps seemed about right for that. I realized that you could account for the small comma shifts by having a generator slightly larger than a step of 7-ET. One ET that has these characteristics, and a reasonably good fifth, is 34-ET. Then you end up with a fifth divided into four equal parts -- and the thing that came to mind is tetracot temperament. Everything seems to fit with that.

in style,it sounds very chinese, some mongolian too , with a touch of harmonia (group)

-----Original Message-----
From: Herman Miller [mailto:hmiller@IO.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 09:18 PM
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [tuning] Some new music and some new experience

Petr Pařízek wrote:
> Hi everyone.
>
> Again, I've just tried another tuning for the very first time and I was so
> pleased with it that I made just spontaneously, once again, another
> improvised piece. After I let you listen to it and get some kind of first
> impression, I'll tell you more about the tuning I used -- for right now,
> I'll just say that it is a linear temperament.
> Here it is: http://download.yousendit.com/A324C7503259DDE9
>
> Petr

This one had me puzzled for a while; it obviously has lots of good
fifths for the number of notes you're using, which narrows it down, but
it also has very small, comma-sized steps. Listen around 1:17 and then
restart at the beginning and you can hear the comma transition (it's
pretty well hidden if you listen through from the beginning). What's
more, it has what at first sounds much like a diatonic scale. The comma
shifts are just apparent enough that you can tell it isn't meantone, and
porcupine has larger comma shifts so it can't be that either. I tried a
couple of temperaments with small comma shifts, but nothing seemed to fit.

But I think I've figured out what it is.......

I was thinking about this at work today and it occurred to me that it
sounds like something close to a multiple of 7-ET (but with better
fifths) -- the size of the "diatonic" steps seemed about right for that.
I realized that you could account for the small comma shifts by having a
generator slightly larger than a step of 7-ET. One ET that has these
characteristics, and a reasonably good fifth, is 34-ET. Then you end up
with a fifth divided into four equal parts -- and the thing that came to
mind is tetracot temperament. Everything seems to fit with that.

Herman wrote:

> I realized that you could account for the small comma shifts by having a
> generator slightly larger than a step of 7-ET. One ET that has these
> characteristics, and a reasonably good fifth, is 34-ET. Then you end up
> with a fifth divided into four equal parts -- and the thing that came to
> mind is tetracot temperament. Everything seems to fit with that.

Although I’ve never heard about tetracot, I have to say, of course, that you’ve guessed it perfectly again. This time, the generator was the 9th root of 5/2, which is almost a model example of tempering out the PSC of "5 -9 4" (or 20000/19683).

To be sincere, I wanted, at first, to divide the 5/2 into 18 steps instead of 9 and use this as the generator, which is a very nice kind of 7-limit temperament. But this would require at least two MIDI channels for the scale so I couldn’t play it in its "entirety" in real-time. Maybe I’ll try some multi-track layering with my sequencer later. Anyway, I was surprised when I first realized how good the 7-limit approximations were in this tuning.

Petr

Yahya wrote:

> Your latest piece is very enjoyable. As it wanders thru a number of
> different styles, it shows off the tuning's versatility. I find this
> a very mellow tuning. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Glad you like it, that makes me even happier about it.

> However, I refuse to guess what it might be! There are just too many
> possible contenders ...

In fact, if you listen carefully, you realize there are not that many of them as you might think, which is just what Herman has perfectly described. Anyway, he's got it so you don't need to care if you don't want.

> ... by the way, exactly how do you improvise in different tunings?
> It sounds very much like you're playing a guitar in real-time, rather
> than having a computer perform a MIDI score. Do you perhaps have a
> guitar MIDI controller to which you download your tuning?

You've almost figured it out but not exactly. Although I was playing in real-time, I was not playing a guitar. I was actually playing my keyboard -- BTW: I play guitar very poorly. :-D In most cases, I play either keyboards or various flutes; sometimes I sing as well.

Petr