Superchromatic Fantasy

A composition for harpsichord using 19-tone equal temperament, made with MIDI sequencing. Pictured is a 19-note harpsichord built by Denzil Wraight, supposedly based on an actual historical model from 1631.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• microtonal
• microtonality
• quarter
• tone
• 19tet
• 19-et
• 19-equal

[hydrael1]

i have perfect pitch, i find this mesmerizing but its driving me crazy.i started messing with scala and i have a question if you can answer it. is there a way to send the scala output to another program?i mean to be able to make a tuning and to use it without much hustle to any program that uses midi input

[MatsOljare]

I'm not sure what you mean here, but the freeware Midi Yoke does various routings between Midi devices. Have you joined the Tuning list on Yahoo Groups?

[DogSeal0]

Cool sequencing, what programme did you do it with if you don't mind me asking. I'm interested in trying out some alternate temperaments but I don't really know where to start to sequence it. I have Cubase etc but every time I've looked up how to approach it seems rather a minefield of complications. Cheers.

[MatsOljare]

I used the regular piano roll sequencing functions of Cakewalk, with the program Midi Relay to convert the pitches to 19-TET. The current version of Scala allows you to do the same, with no other hardware or software needed. I'll be uploading "videos" of a few more compositions i made in a similar manner soon...

[RoboticusMusic]

Derpsichord.

[vibratingstring]

@dante4d

No.

[MrJohmart]

my god who wrote this? i must have it.

[squandermania]

If it's in 19-tone equal temperament, what intervals and chords are you considering consonant for the counterpoint?

[pbalwaysinformed]

this sounds pretty good. Why hasn't the 19-tone system become prevalent?

[siyahambe]

Interesting! Though I doubt that music written for this tuning system was quite so modulatory. I studied historic temperaments and tune harpsichords professionally.

[vibratingstring]

Modulations through neighboring keys sounds incredibly cool. It is like turning a VFO while playing an electric organ.

[Jswalden86]

Parts in the first minute or so evince Rhapsody in Blue to my ear (untrained as it is).

[NavidK0]

It makes sense to me. I love it.

[dante4d]

@hydrael1 Does perfect pitch fork for this kind of tuning? From all I've read about it, westerners will just have their 12 tones and everything else is "out of tune". Is that right?