diff --git a/latex/seeds_and_ledgers_1_to_3.tex b/latex/seeds_and_ledgers_1_to_3.tex index 1650b82..1147526 100644 --- a/latex/seeds_and_ledgers_1_to_3.tex +++ b/latex/seeds_and_ledgers_1_to_3.tex @@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ michael winter\\ The musical processes realized in \textit{seeds and ledgers} explore a reexamination of the traditional concept of `voice leading': how individual melodic lines create and maintain harmonies in aggregate while sometimes modulating. However, this musical question is recontextualized in a phenomenological framework called \textit{just-intonation} in \textit{harmonic space}. In just-intonation, whole number ratios express the frequency relationship between pitches. The resulting musical scales are untempered. They do not favor the purity of one interval over another such as with different well- and equal-temperaments, which prioritize and sacrifice the purity of different intervals for key cyclicness. -Traditionally, distance between pitches is typically measured in terms of subjective height expressed in units of semitones or cents (100th of a tempered semitone). This particular concept of a musical space can be referred to as pitch (or melodic) space. However, in harmonic space, distance is measured as a complexity function on the frequency ratio between two tones: the smaller the quantity and size of the prime factors needed to express the numbers in the frequency ratio, the closer they are in harmonic space and relatively easier to tune. For example, the perfect 5th (a frequency ratio of 3/2) is one of the closest intervals in harmonic space but relatively far (7 semitones) in pitch space. On the contrary, smaller melodic and chromatic differences/movements in pitch space are often distant in harmonic space. This gives rise to several vexing musical questions. How is it possible to reconcile these two very different, well-defined measures of distance? How can one tune stepwise movement in pitch space when the relationship between two tones may actually be distant in harmonic space? How can one modulate in harmonic space since as the space is by definition acyclic? +Traditionally, distance between pitches is typically measured in terms of subjective height expressed in units of semitones or cents (100th of a tempered semitone). This particular concept of a musical space can be referred to as pitch (or melodic) space. However, in harmonic space, distance is measured as a complexity function on the frequency ratio between two tones: the smaller the quantity and size of the prime factors needed to express the numbers in the frequency ratio, the closer they are in harmonic space and relatively easier to tune. For example, the perfect 5th (a frequency ratio of 3/2) is one of the closest intervals in harmonic space but relatively far (7 semitones) in pitch space. On the contrary, smaller melodic and chromatic differences/movements in pitch space are often distant in harmonic space. This gives rise to several vexing musical questions. How is it possible to reconcile these two very different, well-defined measures of distance? How can one tune stepwise movement in pitch space when the relationship between two tones may actually be distant in harmonic space? How can one modulate in harmonic space as the space is by definition acyclic? In \textit{seeds and ledgers}, these problems are explored using a custom software program that maintains `compact sets' (consonant groups of tones) in harmonic space among any simultaneously sounding tones, but favors smaller steps in pitch space when one voice moves melodically. A compact set is defined as a group of notes such that each note in the group is close in harmonic space to some other note in the group, but not necessarily all of them. When one voice moves melodically, the program will favor notes that move by a smaller step in pitch space within a voice while modulating/transitioning to another compact set among all the voices. @@ -105,15 +105,19 @@ Any individual part would be near impossible to play by itself. However, because \bigskip \textbf{Tuning} -%These pieces explore an extended just-intonation with no fixed fundamental. Within a part, from note-to-note, the melodic movement may be very complex. However, each note is always a relatively simple interval from a note that has recently terminated or is currently sounding in one of the other parts. +%These pieces explore an extended just-intonation with no fixed fundamental. Each written note indicates the closest pitch in twelve-tone equal temperament with a cents-deviation (100th of a tempered semitone) provided above. -A Roman numeral with an Arabic superscript followed by an up or down arrow is most often provided below each note. The Roman numeral indicates the reference part against which the current note (which will be called the \textit{referencing note} from here on) can be tuned by a relatively simple interval from a recently or currently sounding pitch in the reference part (which will be called the \textit{reference pitch} from here on). The Arabic superscript and the corresponding arrow indicate the exact interval, up or down, of the referencing note from the reference pitch. Generally, the reference pitch is initiated prior and continues to sound when it is referenced. Occasionally, the reference pitch terminates in the beat prior to the initiation of the referencing note. As a courtesy, this is indicated by a `\verb!