In-Between: The Microtonal Universe

[torut]

Thanks for posting that. I purchased From Ancient worlds some years back and found it disappointing and dreary. Just Ancient Loops sounds a good deal more interesting so far (I'm a few minutes in). Strangely enough, the use of just intonation seems largely unnoticeable.

I also felt that the cello work is more natural than the previous piano works. That is probably because he used intentionally commas (64:63) for the piano work, while the tuning / scale for Just Ancient Loop is simpler. (See below.)

The tuning for The Revelation
http://www.michaelharrison.com/Pure_intonation.aspx
The tuning's unique qualities exist in the relationships between the black and white keys, which reveal a wide variety of exotic and colorful intervals. The  revelation tuning has a practical symmetry whereby all of the white keys form a series of Pythagorean fifths (a 3:2 ratio), and all of the black keys form another series of Pythagorean fifths, with each black key tuned to the seventh overtone (a 7:4 ratio) above each corresponding white key. The 7:4 ratio is the naturally occurring minor seventh that exists in the overtone series (approximately 31% of a semi-tone flat from the equal tempered minor seventh). As a result, three black keys are tuned to the  celestial comma (a 64:63 ratio) below three adjacent white keys. This creates ample opportunity to use what I refer to as the  pulsating comma effect in a variety of different harmonic contexts, where the adjacent commas sound simultaneously. This symmetrical layout of the white and black keys allows for a very intuitive approach to playing the piano. For example, the white keys are purely diatonic; by adding any black keys into the mix you will get either  septimal minor intervals or the  pulsating comma effect.

The tuning for Just Ancient Loops

Michael Harrison's composer autograph depicts the just intonation scheme for his piece Just Ancient Loops.

By way of returning the favour, do you know Christer Hennix's The Electric Harpsichord?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGrp_q9RSYA&list=RDiGrp_q9RSYA#t=19

I didn't know that. I am listening to it now. The shimmering sound reminds me of Ellen Fullman or Charlemagne Palestine (he also composed Strumming for Harpsichord.) It sounds nice. Thank you.

[torut]

Arvo Pärt's Stabat Mater played in just intonation

[asin]B00I17D02E[/asin]
Goeyvaerts String Trio (Kristien Roels - violin, Kris Matthynssens - viola, Pieter Stas - celo), Zsuzsi Tóth - soprano, Barnabás Hegyi - countertenor, Olivier Berten - tenor

This is an interesting video in which Goeyvaerts String Trio explains, with a demonstration, how they decided to use just intonation in the recording. First, they played with vibrato and felt that it was not what they wanted. Then, they tried non vibrato but still did not satisfy with the sound. After experimenting different temperaments they eventually chose just intonation. The result is incredibly beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/v/ctutsSGWsrM

[7/4]

Jude Thomas has been cranking out 31 new works in just intonation over 31 days. He's at day 27, I'm catching up listening to these today. Good work man!

https://soundcloud.com/composerjude/sets/31days

[torut]

Jude Thomas has been cranking out 31 new works in just intonation over 31 days. He's at day 27, I'm catching up listening to these today. Good work man!

https://soundcloud.com/composerjude/sets/31days

A lot of good stuff in that. Thank you.

David B. Doty offers free downloads of some recordings from Other Music LPs and Steel Suite (work in progress.)

http://www.dbdoty.com/MusicDownloads.html
Music with Four Tones (1980). 2:10
Gending: A Waning Moon (1979) 5:18
Recom III/River of Dreams (1979) 9:02
Music with Too Many Parts (1983) 7:57

http://www.dbdoty.com/SteelSuiteRecordings.html
harpsichord version and synthesizer version

His web site also contains good information about JI.

[7/4]

A lot of good stuff in that. Thank you.

David B. Doty offers free downloads of some recordings from Other Music LPs and Steel Suite (work in progress.)

http://www.dbdoty.com/MusicDownloads.html
Music with Four Tones (1980). 2:10
Gending: A Waning Moon (1979) 5:18
Recom III/River of Dreams (1979) 9:02
Music with Too Many Parts (1983) 7:57

http://www.dbdoty.com/SteelSuiteRecordings.html
harpsichord version and synthesizer version

His web site also contains good information about JI.

His book is pretty good, mostly.

By the time his album Uncommon Practice came out, the sounds were dated, but the music wasn't.

[torut]

His book is pretty good, mostly.

By the time his album Uncommon Practice came out, the sounds were dated, but the music wasn't.

I have been listening to Uncommon Practice since yesterday. Although at times the timbre of synthesizer is too plain and a bit cheap, the music is nice. The sound of Other Music recordings, using original instruments like Partch or Lou Harrison, is much better.

I read the first chapter (a brief history of tunings and a short introduction of some JI composers) of The Just Intonation Primer and ordered the book. It seems I should read this before Genesis of a Music.

1/1: The Journal of the Just Intonation Network also looks interesting.

[torut]

Kyle Gann's "some simple microtonal pieces for kids," called "Nursery Tunes for Demented Children."

Perverting the Young, Microtonally
http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/2014/08/perverting-the-young-microtonally.html

Lovely and weird.

[milk]

Kyle Gann's "some simple microtonal pieces for kids," called "Nursery Tunes for Demented Children."

Perverting the Young, Microtonally
http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/2014/08/perverting-the-young-microtonally.html

Lovely and weird.

I like the second one best.

[milk]

I'm quite enjoying this.

[torut]

I'm quite enjoying this.

That's very good. My favorite is Joan La Barbara's Silent Scroll. I wish more Dean Drummond's music will be recorded.

[torut]

I was reading a book about temperaments and scales, and found this group. Syzygys is a female duo consisting of Hitomi Shimizu (organ) and Hiromi Nishida (violin). Shimizu plays a Yamaha electric reed organ tuned in Harry Partch's 43 tone tuning "in C". The tuning was done by scratching the flange of the reeds. There is a Flash keyboard of Partch's 43 tone tuning on their web site: http://syzygys.jp/e_pages/index.html. (You can play a code by clicking a key, and without releasing the mouse button, move to the next key and click it quickly.)

Syzygy Moon (from Otona)
https://www.youtube.com/v/UoRpddRYBTM

This piece from the latest album Otona is rather classical, but they had been performing more pop tunes and I like it! ("Microtonal pop for the 21st Century.")

Fauna Grotesque (from Complete Studio Recordings)
https://www.youtube.com/v/cA9AXvD09CM

[milk]

I was reading a book about temperaments and scales, and found this group. Syzygys is a female duo consisting of Hitomi Shimizu (organ) and Hiromi Nishida (violin). Shimizu plays a Yamaha electric reed organ tuned in Harry Partch's 43 tone tuning "in C". The tuning was done by scratching the flange of the reeds. There is a Flash keyboard of Partch's 43 tone tuning on their web site: http://syzygys.jp/e_pages/index.html. (You can play a code by clicking a key, and without releasing the mouse button, move to the next key and click it quickly.)

Syzygy Moon (from Otona)
https://www.youtube.com/v/UoRpddRYBTM

This piece from the latest album Otona is rather classical, but they had been performing more pop tunes and I like it! ("Microtonal pop for the 21st Century.")

Fauna Grotesque (from Complete Studio Recordings)
https://www.youtube.com/v/cA9AXvD09CM

Very interesting stuff!
Here is another xenharmonic synth that can be worked by clicking:
http://nicksworldofsynthesizers.com/flashorgan.php

[torut]

Very interesting stuff!
Here is another xenharmonic synth that can be worked by clicking:
http://nicksworldofsynthesizers.com/flashorgan.php

That's a neat keyboard. There are 22 tones in a octave. The problem (or maybe not a problem for the music they create) with Shimizu's 43-tone organ is that, because a standard keyboard was utilized, the number of octaves and the interval that can be covered by one hand are limited. It is interesting to see how composers realize microtonal tunings on actual instruments. Wyschnegradsky used 2 pianos for quarter-tone, and Haas used 6 pianos for twelfth-tone!

[torut]

Bill Alves is an American composer and video artist, mainly using gamelan. He is the author of Music of the Peoples of the World and wrote many articles about just intonation, which I want to check out soon. He also leads The HMC American Gamelan, an ensemble of gamelan tuned in a specific just intonation.

Mystic Canyon (2008) for violin and American gamelan
https://www.youtube.com/v/AdRmxV-sy5w

I am frequently listening to these albums recently. The combination of violin/cello and gamelan is really nice.

Mystic Canyon: Music for Violin & Gamelan
[asin]B00CLCXFLQ[/asin]
Mystic Canyon (2008) for vn, American gamelan
Concerto for Violin and Gamelan (2008)

Imbal-Imbalan: New Music for Gamelan
[asin]B001G2JO94[/asin]
Imbal-Imbalan (2001) for Pelog Javanese gamelan
Gending Chilao (1999) for Cello and Javanese gamelan (pelog)
Tingklik Toccata (1996) for Tingklik, suling, electronic percussion, and gong
Elegy for Bill Colvig (2000) for Violin and Javanese gamelan (pelog)
In-Yo (1998) for Shakuhachi or xiao and computer disc
Gending Vogel Flats (2002) for Violin and Javanese gamelan (pelog)
Angel's Crest (2007) for Javanese gamelan (slendro)
Elegy for Lou Harrison (2003) for Cello and gamelan (pelog)

[milk]

Bill Alves is an American composer and video artist, mainly using gamelan. He is the author of Music of the Peoples of the World and wrote many articles about just intonation, which I want to check out soon. He also leads The HMC American Gamelan, an ensemble of gamelan tuned in a specific just intonation.

Mystic Canyon (2008) for violin and American gamelan
https://www.youtube.com/v/AdRmxV-sy5w

I am frequently listening to these albums recently. The combination of violin/cello and gamelan is really nice.

Mystic Canyon: Music for Violin & Gamelan
[asin]B00CLCXFLQ[/asin]
Mystic Canyon (2008) for vn, American gamelan
Concerto for Violin and Gamelan (2008)

Imbal-Imbalan: New Music for Gamelan
[asin]B001G2JO94[/asin]
Imbal-Imbalan (2001) for Pelog Javanese gamelan
Gending Chilao (1999) for Cello and Javanese gamelan (pelog)
Tingklik Toccata (1996) for Tingklik, suling, electronic percussion, and gong
Elegy for Bill Colvig (2000) for Violin and Javanese gamelan (pelog)
In-Yo (1998) for Shakuhachi or xiao and computer disc
Gending Vogel Flats (2002) for Violin and Javanese gamelan (pelog)
Angel's Crest (2007) for Javanese gamelan (slendro)
Elegy for Lou Harrison (2003) for Cello and gamelan (pelog)

Great sounding stuff!! Thanks for posting!!!!

[torut]

Great sounding stuff!! Thanks for posting!!!!

My pleasure!

I found another interesting composer.

Mamoru Fujieda - Patterns of Plants

https://www.youtube.com/v/n36eCAoIa4Y https://www.youtube.com/v/9oYcKARaxd0

Influenced by Harry Partch and Lou Harrison, Mamoru Fujieda composed Patterns of Plants between 1996 and 2011, working with "Plantron," a device that measures electrical fluctuations of plants. He composed a series of short pieces based on the measured data, using various tunings such as Pythagorean temperament, extended just intonation, Werckmeister's temperament, etc. I don't know how much he "composed" in a traditional way, but the pieces do not sound "random" at all, unlike Cage's chance operation works. Very listenable.

[asin]B000003YT7[/asin]

[milk]

My pleasure!

I found another interesting composer.

Mamoru Fujieda - Patterns of Plants

https://www.youtube.com/v/n36eCAoIa4Y https://www.youtube.com/v/9oYcKARaxd0

Influenced by Harry Partch and Lou Harrison, Mamoru Fujieda composed Patterns of Plants between 1996 and 2011, working with "Plantron," a device that measures electrical fluctuations of plants. He composed a series of short pieces based on the measured data, using various tunings such as Pythagorean temperament, extended just intonation, Werckmeister's temperament, etc. I don't know how much he "composed" in a traditional way, but the pieces do not sound "random" at all, unlike Cage's chance operation works. Very listenable.

[asin]B000003YT7[/asin]

These are quite enjoyable.

[7/4]

My pleasure!

I found another interesting composer.

Mamoru Fujieda - Patterns of Plants

I like those two albums a lot. An old review.

There's a new solo piano album of this music in 12tet by Sarah Cahill.

[torut]

I like those two albums a lot. An old review.

There's a new solo piano album of this music in 12tet by Sarah Cahill.

Thanks for the review link. (also found other interesting reviews in your blog around that time.)
I would like to know if Cahill's piano is tuned in JI or other temperament. Often JI works for piano or keyboard are played by the composers. Young, Riley, Michael Harrison came to my mind. (Probably because tuning the instrument and the notation are difficult?) Couldn't find any description on the Fujieda's web site (not updated for a long time.)

[7/4]

Thanks for the review link. (also found other interesting reviews in your blog around that time.)
I would like to know if Cahill's piano is tuned in JI or other temperament. Often JI works for piano or keyboard are played by the composers. Young, Riley, Michael Harrison came to my mind. (Probably because tuning the instrument and the notation are difficult?) Couldn't find any description on the Fujieda's web site (not updated for a long time.)

I think her piano is tuned in 12tet. I'll do a bit of research to be sure.

Just Intonation is not a temperament.