Same Old

Same Old is a drum and bass track by Sevish that uses just intonation (harmonic series and subharmonic series) tunings. It was released on his album Harmony Hacker in 2017.

Audio

• Bandcamp page
• YouTube video

Tuning

The piece uses:

• the 8-16 harmonic series segment (9/8, 5/4, 11/8, 3/2, 13/8, 7/4, 15/8, 2/1);
• and the 10-5 subharmonic series segment (10/9, 5/4, 10/7, 5/3, 2/1).

Lyrics

Twelve tones, the same old twelve tones, the same old twelve tones, the same old twelve twelve twelve twelve

The twelve tones may be non-universal and even arbitrary (yeah, xenharmonic music)

Could anyone ever escape the yearning for the deep structures implied by division of the octave space into something other than the same old twelve tones

Let’s say twelve equidistant intervals, or twelve, or twelve, but not 313!

Re-Tuned

Sevish released a version of this track retuned in 12edo on ­YouTube in 2021, and later the same year on his album Re-Tuned.

• Bandcamp page
• YouTube video

The lyrics were slightly modified in this version (changes in italics):

Twelve tones, the same old twelve tones, the same old twelve tones, the same old twelve twelve twelve twelve

The twelve tones may be universal and even arbitrary (yeah, twelve tone music)

Could anyone ever escape the yearning for the deep structures implied by these notes, the same old twelve tones, twelve!

Let’s say twelve equidistant intervals, or twelve, or twelve, but not 313!