Microtones (a poll)

[quote=robinjessome;57827]Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd expect most to approach it as an out-of-tune 'normal' pitch, rather than a new pitch altogether.QUOTE]

That of course true for occidental musicians that are trainned since childhood to produce these pitches - except maybe for a few just intonation oriented schools in the states I heard... anyone got informations about that ? - but for a number of cultures around the world our 'normal' pitches are completly out of tune... and they do sing very precise and 'normal' quarter tones or 'one or two comma(s) higer or lower' pitches perfectly accuratly ! So that's of course a question of culture... but culture can be molded slowly... and musicians are learning to find 'new just' pitches that they weren't knowing before.

Originally Posted by Dunael

That of course true for occidental musicians that are trainned since childhood to produce these pitches - except maybe for a few just intonation oriented schools in the states I heard... anyone got informations about that ? - but for a number of cultures around the world our 'normal' pitches are completly out of tune... and they do sing very precise and 'normal' quarter tones or 'one or two comma(s) higer or lower' pitches perfectly accuratly ! So that's of course a question of culture... but culture can be molded slowly... and musicians are learning to find 'new just' pitches that they weren't knowing before.

It's like the old keyboard instruments that only had the white notes, or the diatonic notes in C major. Eventually, people added in the pitches in between the diatonic notes.

Yeah, but even at the end of the renaissance in Italia they made harpsichord with 17 notes with flats and sharps on different black notes (well... I think they were white at the time... eheh).

How can you get your microtonal music played? Obviously Finale doesn't support this.. or does it?

Finale no, but in any sequencer you can use the pitch bend and produce any cent of the tone really... But then again is it worth it?

I do not use microtonal music, but I have no doubt that you can produce nice music using this system. It's a very cultural question. I know that for me, it would take a LOT of time to "learn" to appreciate it in a other way than by small doses.

Microtonal music should start by being an "effect" (i.e.: being used by a solo instrument, with normal 12 tones in background) rather than being used as a new system.

I think microtonal stuff is rather interesting, but I haven't really heard any interesting music written with it without it sounding like 12-tone music "detuned" (both nature and nuture has enforced this perception upon us) - probably because it's not really intuitive to extend the theory behind equal temperment 12-tone music to other scales (or rather, a successful and consistent method in writing music regardless of the tuning). The only thing I can think of is serialization, but then again, even 12-tone serial music can be somewhat of a hit-and-miss.

I haven' really had much chance to experiment with microtones, but so far I've only used for "color". I've be really interested in a MIDI sequencer/notator with user-friendly microtonal support, but haven't seen any yet (closest thing to it would be Scala, but it's a rather complex program, and you can't directly sequence with it).

wow !! Replies to old topics


Well, if you wanna listen to some of my music go to http://www.vogagnon.com

;-)

But be prepared for microtones !!

Microtones are pretty cool, I think it's more of a experimental thingy rather than for listenning.

How can you get your microtonal music played? Electronically? Any easy way to write it?