|
|
© 2004 Tonalsoft Inc. |
|
|
© 2004 Tonalsoft Inc. |
Written November 1998, in San Diego, on one of Ivor Darreg's
19-tone guitars.
(Download the MIDI-file
or mp3.)
This piece is in
19-tET
tuning, and is an example of a
microtonal
piece that does not sound
xenharmonic at all
- to my ears, anyway.
(The two terms are often assumed to be synonymous.)
The notational convention follows that used by
Neil
Haverstick in his book
19 Tones, A New Beginning, but here referenced from 'E'
instead of 'C':
The piece is very
tonal,
centered on 'D', and its tuning implies very basic
Pythagorean
intervals in the bass (it's really almost a drone),
diatonic
melodic intervals in the top voice, and diatonic and
chromatic
intervals in the middle voices.
Part of the reason it does not
have a 'strange' sound is that it uses only a subset of the entire
gamut
of pitches, a 9-out-of-19 scale, which is composed
of the 'D-major' scale and the two chromatic pitches 'C' and 'Bb'.
While the
"4ths" and
"5ths"
in this tuning are characteristic of a
meantone
tuning, the "3rds" and "6ths" imply those of
5-limit
JI very well.
These are two of the main reasons why the piece sounds so 'ordinary'.
19-tET is nearly identical with
1/3-comma
meantone
tuning extended to 19 tones.
This piece is very easy to play on a refretted
19-tET guitar, with the open strings tuned as in
my diagram.
Below is the tablature for 19-tET guitar, for each chord as
it appears in the piece.
(Putting the fingers in the same general places - measured by
distance, not by fret-number! - on a regular
12-tET guitar,
will result in a performance which sounds very similar to this one.
I suppose the same would be true of several other
ETs.)
Here's the score of the guitar part (click on it to reload the mp3):
19-tET
degree Semitones Note
(19 12.00 E )
18 11.37 Eb
17 10.74 D#
16 10.11 D
15 9.47 Db
14 8.84 C#
13 8.21 C
12 7.58 B#
11 6.95 B
10 6.32 Bb
9 5.68 A#
8 5.05 A
7 4.42 Ab
6 3.79 G#
5 3.16 G
4 2.53 Gb
3 1.89 F#
2 1.26 F
1 0.63 E#
0 0.00 E
19-tET
degree Semitones Note
19 12.00 D
17 10.74 C#
16 10.11 C
14 8.84 B
13 8.21 Bb
11 6.95 A
8 5.05 G
6 3.79 F#
3 1.89 E
0 0.00 D
Intro: Main tune:
2 x 3 2 x
---------- ----------
/ \ / \
D9 G A11 Dmaj7 D9 G Gmin Dmaj7 A11
E---8-----5------0---|----3----8----5----5-8-5----3----0----
B---8-----5------0---|----3----8----5----5-5-5----3----0----
G---8-----6------0---|----3----8----6----5-5-5----3----0----
D---0-----0----------|----0----0----0----0-0-0----0---------
A----------------0---|---------------------------------0----
E--------------------|--------------------------------------
For more info on why 19-tET is such a good and practical approximation allowing 5-limit JI-type harmonic structures, by one of its most illustrious advocates, see my summary of Woolhouse's book.
Main tune, 2nd chord -- D:C:E:A
This chord functions as a dominant-7th type of harmony with D as the root, which will lead to a resolution on the following G chord. However, because the "3rd of the chord" is not present, it may be construed as either a regular dominant-9th or as an 11th.
interval analysis:
Updated:
2000.10.22
2001.07.10
2002.09.28 -- reformatted font of diagrams
2004.01.28
2004.07.12 -- started "theoretical musings" section
