User:Rperlner: Difference between revisions

(One intermediate revision by the same user not shown)

Line 55:

The 12 EDO version is pleasant enough to listen to, but I find it less interesting, and at times, less harmonious than some of the nonstandard tunings. (I especially like 26 and 48 EDO here.)

<H1> Non-12EDO world music </H1>

There are a number of living musical traditions that simply do not work in 12EDO, such as Indonesian Gamelan music, and Middle Eastern Maqam/Makam/Dagstah music. Indian music is also decidedly non-12-EDO (using 5-limit JI), but is at least somewhat recognizable if forced into 12EDO, although I suspect it loses more in translation than Baroque or renaissance music written for Meantone.

Of these, I've looked the most into Maqam music, probably because I really like the sound of neutral thirds -- they really smack one over the head with the fact that a piece is not in the tuning we in the West are used to. Unfortunately, or fascinatingly, depending on how one looks at it, there appears to be a lot of dispute about the proper tuning for Maqam music. Arabic theory uses a notation based on 24 EDO (or at the very least some sort of circle of 5ths where sharps and flats can be split exactly in half.) Turkish music uses a notation with several different accidentals analyzed in terms of 53 EDO. In both cases, multiple sources claim that actual intonation differs systematically from theory, but give only vague hints about how. It's also pretty clear that, while Turkish Makams and Arabic Maqams are related systems, with similar names for similar scales, the notational differences do reflect real differences in intonation, some of which are large enough that the Turkish and Arabic versions of a scale should often be considered completely different scales. Iranian music also has a related tradition called Dagstah, which has its own idiosyncratic notation and intonation. Even within these three traditions, there is a lot of variation from what I can tell.

As an outsider to these traditions, I suspect I have no hope of passing for an insider in using these systems. Nonetheless I aspire to take them as a source of inspiration which I can use to write music that sounds good to me personally (which is frankly what I do with traditions I know better as well.) Here's an example of a piece I wrote using 34 EDO (a system that has been occasionally proposed for approximating Turkish music) to approximate Arabic scales, and push them in a slightly more contrapuntal direction than I believe to be standard. I could probably write pages about my idiosyncratic reasoning for why I think this is a good tuning for Arabic music, but I have not yet. (A little more detail is given in the file description.) All I can really say with authority is that it is a good tuning for my little song:

[[File:A stroll through some retuned maqams.mp3|thumb|none|A Stroll Through some Retuned Maqams]]

<H1>Xenharmony Proper</H1>

Using alternate tunings can also open the door to new sounds and scale structures that are not part of any prior musical tradition. Here the xenharmonic community has the greatest freedom and the greatest responsibility to create its own traditions.

One of the examples where I see the Xenharmonic community as being furthest along in creating such a new tradition is the family of Porcupine temperaments, that temper out the porcupine comma, 250/243, and usually also the 11 limit commas 55/54, 100/99, and 121/120, dividing the perfect fourth into 3 equal parts. 7 and 8 note scales are very common, and I like to think of the former as a sort of weird version of the diatonic scale, where there's one extra minor third. Many people from the xenharmonic community have worked with this system. My example of this tuning is a little lullaby in 37EDO I wrote around 2010 and subsequently transcribed into Musescore to create an mp3.

[[File:Porcupine_Lullaby.mp3|thumb|none|Porcupine Lullaby]]

Another system which has been explored some by the xenharmonic community, but needs to be explored much much more in my opinion is 26EDO. I cannot emphasize enough how much I love this little rank 1 temperament. There are a number of ways to approach 26-edo via higher rank temperaments. It's a near optimal tuning for Flattone, Lemba, and Orgone temperaments, and it works nicely for the partially detempered Octatonic scale I discuss above. But 26-edo is much more than that. It is the smallest equal temperament that can consistently render all 13-limit harmonic intervals, and it is possible to write things in it that sound great. I've liked a lot of things I've heard in this system, but here's one of my own I like a lot. It is a scherzo and it uses both Lemba and Flattone (and is therefore designed to be played in 26 EDO and nothing else.)

[[File:Scherzo_in_26_EDO_for_Oboe,_Horn_and_Organ.mp3|thumb|none|Scherzo in 26 EDO for Oboe, Horn, and Organ]]

@@ Line 55: / Line 55: @@
 The 12 EDO version is pleasant enough to listen to, but I find it less interesting, and at times, less harmonious than some of the nonstandard tunings. (I especially like 26 and 48 EDO here.)
+<H1> Non-12EDO world music </H1>
+There are a number of living musical traditions that simply do not work in 12EDO, such as Indonesian Gamelan music, and Middle Eastern Maqam/Makam/Dagstah music. Indian music is also decidedly non-12-EDO (using 5-limit JI), but is at least somewhat recognizable if forced into 12EDO, although I suspect it loses more in translation than Baroque or renaissance music written for Meantone.
+Of these, I've looked the most into Maqam music, probably because I really like the sound of neutral thirds -- they really smack one over the head with the fact that a piece is not in the tuning we in the West are used to. Unfortunately, or fascinatingly, depending on how one looks at it, there appears to be a lot of dispute about the proper tuning for Maqam music. Arabic theory uses a notation based on 24 EDO (or at the very least some sort of circle of 5ths where sharps and flats can be split exactly in half.) Turkish music uses a notation with several different accidentals analyzed in terms of 53 EDO. In both cases, multiple sources claim that actual intonation differs systematically from theory, but give only vague hints about how. It's also pretty clear that, while Turkish Makams and Arabic Maqams are related systems, with similar names for similar scales, the notational differences do reflect real differences in intonation, some of which are large enough that the Turkish and Arabic versions of a scale should often be considered completely different scales. Iranian music also has a related tradition called Dagstah, which has its own idiosyncratic notation and intonation. Even within these three traditions, there is a lot of variation from what I can tell.
+As an outsider to these traditions, I suspect I have no hope of passing for an insider in using these systems. Nonetheless I aspire to take them as a source of inspiration which I can use to write music that sounds good to me personally (which is frankly what I do with traditions I know better as well.) Here's an example of a piece I wrote using 34 EDO (a system that has been occasionally proposed for approximating Turkish music) to approximate Arabic scales, and push them in a slightly more contrapuntal direction than I believe to be standard. I could probably write pages about my idiosyncratic reasoning for why I think this is a good tuning for Arabic music, but I have not yet. (A little more detail is given in the file description.) All I can really say with authority is that it is a good tuning for my little song:
+[[File:A stroll through some retuned maqams.mp3|thumb|none|A Stroll Through some Retuned Maqams]]
+<H1>Xenharmony Proper</H1>
+Using alternate tunings can also open the door to new sounds and scale structures that are not part of any prior musical tradition. Here the xenharmonic community has the greatest freedom and the greatest responsibility to create its own traditions.
+One of the examples where I see the Xenharmonic community as being furthest along in creating such a new tradition is the family of Porcupine temperaments, that temper out the porcupine comma, 250/243, and usually also the 11 limit commas 55/54, 100/99, and 121/120, dividing the perfect fourth into 3 equal parts. 7 and 8 note scales are very common, and I like to think of the former as a sort of weird version of the diatonic scale, where there's one extra minor third. Many people from the xenharmonic community have worked with this system. My example of this tuning is a little lullaby in 37EDO I wrote around 2010 and subsequently transcribed into Musescore to create an mp3.
+[[File:Porcupine_Lullaby.mp3|thumb|none|Porcupine Lullaby]]
+Another system which has been explored some by the xenharmonic community, but needs to be explored much much more in my opinion is 26EDO. I cannot emphasize enough how much I love this little rank 1 temperament. There are a number of ways to approach 26-edo via higher rank temperaments. It's a near optimal tuning for Flattone, Lemba, and Orgone temperaments, and it works nicely for the partially detempered Octatonic scale I discuss above. But 26-edo is much more than that. It is the smallest equal temperament that can consistently render all 13-limit harmonic intervals, and it is possible to write things in it that sound great. I've liked a lot of things I've heard in this system, but here's one of my own I like a lot. It is a scherzo and it uses both Lemba and Flattone (and is therefore designed to be played in 26 EDO and nothing else.)
+[[File:Scherzo_in_26_EDO_for_Oboe,_Horn_and_Organ.mp3|thumb|none|Scherzo in 26 EDO for Oboe, Horn, and Organ]]