Klingon Opera Overture (17et)

This an improvisation with layered software synthesizers. Specifically, various percussion ensembles, french horn, piano, and two synthesizers. At one point I forgot what in the world I was doing because I transposed the arpeggio synth down 12 notes when I meant it to be an octave - which would mean 17 notes of course.

I like how alien it sounds in places and that aspect I will follow up because that is truly the microtonal music I wish to compose.

Download only at this point - 14 megabytes.

http://micro.soonlabel.com/17-ET/daily20110109-albino-17et.mp3

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "christopherv" <chrisvaisvil@...> wrote:
>
> This an improvisation with layered software synthesizers.
> Specifically, various percussion ensembles, french horn, piano, and
> two synthesizers. At one point I forgot what in the world I was doing
> because I transposed the arpeggio synth down 12 notes when I meant it
> to be an octave - which would mean 17 notes of course.
>
> I like how alien it sounds in places and that aspect I will follow up
> because that is truly the microtonal music I wish to compose.
>

Sounds good at first listen - definitely alien. But I will need more time to listen through.

Anyway, I am posting here now because your message raises an important question:

WHAT IS THE APPROPRIATE TUNING FOR KLINGON MUSIC??

Until now, I knew only William Sethares's Klingon song in 60EDO. http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/mp3s/rojqoq.html says it's in a traditional Klingon scale.

I just did a short web search, and apparently, there is not much information about this around... There is an official source saying older Klingon music was based on a nonatonic scale (http://www.kli.org/wiki/index.php?nonatonic%20scale ), but not specifying in what tuning that is to be.

I also found an old message on this very list (http://launch.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/tuning/message/86909) proposing a division of the tritave (3/2) into 27 equal parts.
xvanwersch, are you still around, and do you have news about your project?
--
Hans Straub

Why assume only one tuning is in common use by Klingons?

I would think any tuning that can be used to compose music suitable for
brave warriors with honor would be applicable.

It IS a good day to die!

Chris

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 10:39 AM, <straub@...> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com <tuning%40yahoogroups.com>, "christopherv"
> <chrisvaisvil@...> wrote:
> >
> > This an improvisation with layered software synthesizers.
> > Specifically, various percussion ensembles, french horn, piano, and
> > two synthesizers. At one point I forgot what in the world I was doing
> > because I transposed the arpeggio synth down 12 notes when I meant it
> > to be an octave - which would mean 17 notes of course.
> >
> > I like how alien it sounds in places and that aspect I will follow up
> > because that is truly the microtonal music I wish to compose.
> >
>
> Sounds good at first listen - definitely alien. But I will need more time
> to listen through.
>
> Anyway, I am posting here now because your message raises an important
> question:
>
> WHAT IS THE APPROPRIATE TUNING FOR KLINGON MUSIC??
>
> Until now, I knew only William Sethares's Klingon song in 60EDO.
> http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/mp3s/rojqoq.html<http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/%7Esethares/mp3s/rojqoq.html>says it's in a traditional Klingon scale.
>
> I just did a short web search, and apparently, there is not much
> information about this around... There is an official source saying older
> Klingon music was based on a nonatonic scale (
> http://www.kli.org/wiki/index.php?nonatonic%20scale ), but not specifying
> in what tuning that is to be.
>
> I also found an old message on this very list (
> http://launch.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/tuning/message/86909) proposing a
> division of the tritave (3/2) into 27 equal parts.
> xvanwersch, are you still around, and do you have news about your project?
> --
> Hans Straub
>
>
>

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, straub@... wrote:
>
> Anyway, I am posting here now because your message raises an important question:
>
> WHAT IS THE APPROPRIATE TUNING FOR KLINGON MUSIC??
>
> Until now, I knew only William Sethares's Klingon song in 60EDO.
> http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/mp3s/rojqoq.html says it's
> in a traditional Klingon scale.
>
> I just did a short web search, and apparently, there is not much
> information about this around... There is an official source saying
> older Klingon music was based on a nonatonic scale
> (http://www.kli.org/wiki/index.php?nonatonic%20scale ), but not
> specifying in what tuning that is to be.
>
> I also found an old message on this very list
> (http://launch.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/tuning/message/86909)
> proposing a division of the tritave (3/2) into 27 equal parts.
> xvanwersch, are you still around, and do you have news about your
> project?

Just did a quick calculation and saw that one step of 27EDT (xvanwersch's scale) is 70.44 cents - nearly identical to one step of 17EDO (70.59 cents). Seen from this viewpoint, 17EDO looks indeed appropriate!
--
Hans Straub

straub@... wrote:
> Anyway, I am posting here now because your message raises
> an important question:

For suitable definitions of "important".

> WHAT IS THE APPROPRIATE TUNING FOR KLINGON MUSIC??

I don't think you can really answer that question unless
you've immersed yourself in the culture. Has anybody here
even trained with a Klingon master? I bow to the superior
knowledge of any Klingons lurking on the list. (From what
little I know, this seems to be the best way of dealing with
Klingons.)

(Aside: what is the correct plural of "Klingon"? My spell
checker is happy with "Klingon" but not "Klingons".)

> Until now, I knew only William Sethares's Klingon song in
> 60EDO.
> http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/mp3s/rojqoq.html
> says it's in a traditional Klingon scale.

Klingon tuning literature is notorious for the lack of
correlation between theory and pitches used in practice.
No Klingon would recognize this scale as remotely authentic.

> I just did a short web search, and apparently, there is
> not much information about this around... There is an
> official source saying older Klingon music was based on a
> nonatonic scale
> (http://www.kli.org/wiki/index.php?nonatonic%20scale ),
> but not specifying in what tuning that is to be.

Somebody can't count. If the first and the ninth are the
same, it's an octatonic scale.

Graham

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Graham Breed <gbreed@...> wrote:

> Klingon tuning literature is notorious for the lack of
> correlation between theory and pitches used in practice.
> No Klingon would recognize this scale as remotely authentic.

Not to mention the strong influence from American popular music.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, straub@... wrote:

> WHAT IS THE APPROPRIATE TUNING FOR KLINGON MUSIC??
> Until now, I knew only William Sethares's Klingon song in 60EDO.
> http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/mp3s/rojqoq.html says
> it's in a traditional Klingon scale.
> I just did a short web search, and apparently, there is not much
> information about this around... There is an official source
> saying older Klingon music was based on a nonatonic scale
> (http://www.kli.org/wiki/index.php?nonatonic%20scale ), but not
> specifying in what tuning that is to be.

Very good question!

A 9-tone scale compatible with 12-ET (and therefore conceivably
used in movies about Klingons) and having perhaps the right
character for Klingon music, is the Tcherepnin augmented scale.
The 7-limit and 5-limit tunings are similar, but Klingons strike
me as the 7-limit type, so that would be Augene[9]. 60-ET,
being divisible by 12, would also support it. Finally, Tcherepnin
was Russian, and we all know Klingons and Russians have certain
similarities.

> I also found an old message on this very list
> (http://launch.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/tuning/message/86909)
> proposing a division of the tritave (3/2) into 27 equal parts.
> xvanwersch, are you still around, and do you have news about
> your project?

Hoping xvanwersch chimes in... this is similar to 17-ET and
not compatible with the Tcherepnin/augmented series.

-Carl

No doubt that was contamination from the United Federation of Planets
that occurred when they obtained Shakespeare in the original Klingon.

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 3:12 PM, genewardsmith
<genewardsmith@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Graham Breed <gbreed@...> wrote:
>
> > Klingon tuning literature is notorious for the lack of
> > correlation between theory and pitches used in practice.
> > No Klingon would recognize this scale as remotely authentic.
>
> Not to mention the strong influence from American popular music.
>