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MusonicX Week 1

1 - 16 Harmonics

Short work for string quartet in just intonation. This work uses 17-limit just intonation (although no 13s are present) and the ratios are annotated in the score.

The sounds are from Note Performer (an orchestral instrument library available for use with Sibelius Software) and the microtonal adjustments were made using the pitch bend feature inside of Sibelius.

View the score on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DgKdx3kjBw

Etude for String Quartet in Just Intonation No. 1

A sustained tone from one of the Casio Sk-1's built-in selections, fed through a homemade 9V guitar amp based on the LM386 audio amplifier. Recording slightly tweaked in Audacity for equalization and a bit of Left/Right channel panning.

Recorded on a Nokia 600 series Windows Phone

Casio Sk-1 Organ Tone

A tone from one of the Casio Sk-1's built-in selections, fed through a homemade 9V guitar amp based on the LM386 audio amplifier. Recording slightly tweaked in Audacity for equalization and a bit of Left/Right channel panning.

Recorded on a Nokia 600 series Windows Phone

Casio Sk-1 Tone

Casio Sk-1's built-in "synth drums" selection, fed through a homemade 9V guitar amp based on the LM386 audio amplifier. Recorded on a Nokia 600 series Windows Phone

Casio SK-1 Synth Drums

This track is an example of a simple twelve bar backing track accompanying a solo melody written in free Just Intonation (JI).

JI allows access to all the frequencies, not just the ones on the piano keyboard or guitar frets. Often musicians when playing the blues, jazz, or guitar solos, bend the string to produce a higher pitch. In this track, there are no 'bent' notes, only precisely specified notes which are often noticeably different to the standard notes from 12-EDO.

Some devices used include:
- No scale - only addressing frequencies (in Hz) directly via whole numbers. E.g. 4, 5, 6 multiplied by 60 Hz would give 240Hz, 300Hz, 360Hz directly.
- Descending harmonic series, e.g. 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16
- What sounds like vibrato, but is actually a combination of holding and sliding pitches several times a beat
- Rapid switching of frequency several times a beat, this is a common chip tune device.
- Descending shifting triads, e.g. 61, 54, 47, 56, 49, 42, 51, 44, 37, 46, 39, 32...

Just Intonation is the future for those of us who like both maths and music! I understand that not everyone wants numbers in their music composition. However, that's fundamentally what frequencies are, thats what harmony is, a combination of whole numbers. And you get more interesting results when using the numbers for what they are, which is unique chords well outside of traditional harmony. I am particularly enjoying the sound of the prime numbers 11, 13, 23, 29, 31, 41, 43 and 61 in this composition.

May the prime numbers be with you! Enjoy - Dave

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See also:
- https://arxiv.org/a/ryan_d_1 (arXiv) for a list of my academic paper pre-prints, including my writing on music theory and Just Intonation
- http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4785-9766 (ORC ID) for my academic profile
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidryan59 for my LinkedIn profile

Example of the Twelve Bar Blues with crazy Solo in Just Intonation

Air on the G String generated with pythogoras using 3 different tuning systems

Instrument synthesis used information from SHARC db

Air on the G String - Just Intonation

Musical possibilities to ignite your imagination.  What will you do with the freedom of pitch?  Composed, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Subhraag Singh using Infinitone DMT software (Greensleeves mastered by Gerhard Westphalen)

"Morphology"  --- morphed Just Intonation chords

Artist and Engineer traversing the kingdom of the Research Triangle

Casio SK-1 Synth Drums

Space Electron