AXIS for Bohlen-Pierce Scale (Part 2)

[MackTuesday]

Haha kitty's gettin in your business.

[heeerro]

lol at not shutting the cat out while rearranging the keys xDD very cute!

[jaymz168]

@heeerro I'm sure her friend she borrowed the Axis from is real happy about all the cat hair in their $2000 midi controller.

[miselaineeous]

@jaymz168 - Oh they're not happy about the hair (there was no hair in it, btw, I was very careful) but they're happy I'm promoting the instrument. :)

[RyanLoveheart]

First, thanks for taking the time to lay these things out for everyone. I myself lack the depth of knowledge that i imagine one would need to fully appreciate this series, but upon learning of the bp scale i was struck with an intense curiosity as to what it must sound like. I really enjoyed your music for its inherent aesthetic quality, and i was cracking up when spiloni started "helping" you with what looked like a fairly meticulous job. If only you could know how happy this video made me.

[TrustyShellback]

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As a music minor at SCSU (1972-1976) in New Haven CT, I took a course called "experimental" music. The content was very similar to your discussion.

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[raw420x]

independently six years apart? what are the odds? truly amazing...

[clumma]

Odds are very good, since BP is a special temperament.

[firstritestelevision]

i'm working on a new book about special new theory of microtonality. it has to do with light, color relativity and total serialism. its what i compose with i want to share it with the world. thank you

[randyhelzerman]

I've got a (possibly dumb) question for you: It seems like the BP scale doesn't have any notes which are exactly 2x the frequency of other notes. So how does this work when men and women are singing together in unison? When they naively just start singing together, they tend to sing one octave apart, but this would seem to cause some problems: if, for example, the women are "on point" this would mean that the men would be clashing with some notes from the accompaniment, no?

[miselaineeous]

That is a GOOD question. I'm still trying to reconcile this.. It seems to me that our brains recognize the harmonic purity a particular interval to be equal if you were to move one of the notes by an octave, or two octaves, etc.. So as long as it is a frequency that falls in the BP Scale, you could multiply it x 2 or 4, etc. If you are playing on a keyboard, you would be constrained to the BP scale with no octaves, and it would probably be considered more "purist" BP music if you avoid octaves.

[nonoctave]

This is a rarely discussed topic of nonoctave tunings, that one may use in a piece various patches which are in octave relation due to the oscillator tuning, a bass patch may use a 16' oscillator, a string 8' and using the same tuning table for each, you end up with this octave relation between instruments, but never within a single instrument part. Discussing this with another composer, we call this an orchestration octave rather than a harmonic or melodic octave.

[miselaineeous]

Interesting.. I think I've avoided doing this so far, mainly because I'm using keyboards, and have avoided transposing them by an octave up down. But it is definitely more difficult to think of "bass lines" that aren't just octave equivalents of a note in some other chord being used. I've personally tried to stay as "pure" to the tuning as I can. But that said.. certainly "PURE" can be thrown out the window in the mind of an artist making music. It just depends how geeky you want to be. :)

[randyhelzerman]

hi nonoctave,  does this work? It seems as if you have two instruments one orchestration octave appart, they might clash with some other notes which are being played by another instrument which is on-pitch vis-a-vis the melodic octave, no?

[miselaineeous]

This is part of the reason I compose by ear, and don't think of all the technicalities (besides that it's the way my brain works). If you compose by "ear" then nothing will clash (unless you want it to). It's the rest of my brain that does this techie stuff.. I have to go back and forth and do both or I go nutty.

[bidul37]

Women must sing a fith above men : a fith + 1 octave transposition = a TRITAVE.

But if you want a real unisson women must sing 1 octave below...

[randyhelzerman]

Hi bidul37, or men must sing falsetto :-)

[bidul37]

Even to emulate Tracy CHAPWOMAN ?

[touchingstoves]

whoa. i totally want your weird keyboard.

'Love Song' reminds me of Bjork. I've heard she is into exploring harmonic combinations outside of conventional western tunings?

[randyhelzerman]

that's funny, touchingstoves, I would have bet good money that it would have reminded you of "chiquitita"......

[touchingstoves]

ah yes, of course! my favourite palindrome.

[bitbutter]

Love song is excellent, really fresh sounding. A squirt of lemon juice in the ear (saved to itunes).

(ps. The direct link to the BP scale song link is giving a 404)

[naphra2]

That's unbelievably neat :) I was familiar with an alternative scale with 16 notes per regular octave, but the BP-scale seems even more cool. Sounds awesome, too :)

[miselaineeous]

Thanks naphra2! I never tried 16 notes per octave except briefly years ago. I'll check that out again!

[jogayot]

sounds frippish... but i know nothing /shrug.

[randyhelzerman]

Is that you on the vocals in "Love Song?" When I was listening to some of the progressions, I had my doubts, but wow, it really works.

[miselaineeous]

Yeah, that's my singin. I was listening to a string sound play the melody in my ear while I was singing to make sure I hit the right pitches. I really think that most (repeat... most) people get used to different tunings, just after 10 or 20 seconds of listening to a piece, if it is done in a harmonic sort of way - ie. not just random notes.

[randyhelzerman]

Ok.....this is hands down the coolest musical thing I've seen on YouTube. (Sorry Nate and Boucrate! You guys are cool too but this hits both sides of my brain....) I'm going to feature this vid on my homepage...

[miselaineeous]

Wow. Thank you so much. It feels so good to exercise both brain hemispheres, doesn't it? :D

[d4dan]

Great work you're doing.

[miselaineeous]

Thank you so kindly. :)