Hexany phrase - scordatura method to compose in any tuning with Sibelius, Finale, NWC, etc

For scordatura see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scordatura and for use of Tune Smithy to retune any note of the score see http://robertinventor.com/software/tunesmithy/composing.htm

Most microtonalists are probably familiar with the idea of retuning a midi keyboard in various ways. For instance you might want to use several octaves of the keyboard to play a single octave of a scale with many notes to an octave. Or you might retune it so that the usual octave on the keyboard instead plays a 3/1 (octave and fifth) . Or you might set it so the black keys play a slendro tuning and the white keys play a pelog tuning, and there are many other possibilities

One way to do this is with Tune Smithy which lets you retune any note of a midi keyboard any pitch you like. See http://robertinventor.com/software/tunesmithy/composing.htm (I'm the programmer for tune smithy)

So anyway the idea is just to apply the same retuning to a score, so the score shows which keys to press on a retuned midi keyboard, rather than the actual pitch played.

This lets you use your standard notation software such as Sibelius, Finale, or in this video, Note Worthy Composer, to compose in any tuning you like. It is ideal for tunings with no dedicated software capable of playing it. It is also ideal if you want to create a score that can be read by a player of a retuned keyboard.

You can use all the dynamics and tempo variation capabilities of your software. Also, since the notes are retuned in real time you can even hear the notes as you place them on the score just as you do with normal composition.

I wanted to write a piece in the hexany - a tuning with irregularly spaced steps which is pretty hard to notate even with microtonal accidentals. But with this method you don't need to bother about that at all.

For small scales like the hexany, I find the easiest method is to set the lines and spaces of the score to play successive notes of the scale.

Here I've retuned the notes C D E F G A B on the score so that the C is the 1/1 and the other notes are successive intervals of the hexany 8/7 6/5 48/35 8/5 12/7 2/1 with the octave at B on the score. Two octaves above the 1/1 takes you to A on the score, and so on - basically means three lines and three spaces of the score correspond to an octave in the tuning.

You soon get used to it when you start composing in the tuning.

I call it the "scordatura score" method because a similar technique is used for scordatura scores e.g. for the fifth of the Bach 'cello suites where the A string is tuned down a whole tone to G to make it possible to play some of the chords. The score shows the player how to place their fingers on the strings (using their familiar hand eye coordination) rather than the pitches to play.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scordatura

Category:

Music

Tags:

• hexany
• scordatura
• compose
• microtonally
• finale
• sibelius
• nwc
• note worthy composer