ICMC 2015 – Sept. 25 - Oct. 1, 2015 – CEMI, University of North Texas The Just Intonation Automat – a Musically Adaptive Interface Jøran Rudi Norwegian center for Technology in Music and the Arts (NOTAM) [email protected] ABSTRACT promises needed for performance in different keys on a pi- ano without retuning for each key change destroyed the pu- The first known dedicated music technology that was devel- rity and clarity of the intervals. He compared the difference oped in Norway was an adaptive automat for just intonation between tempered and natural tuning as the difference be- made by Eivind Groven (1901-1977). In his work as radio tween looking through a muddy or a clean window. Nota- pioneer, composer, musician and developer, Groven was bly, the natural scale where intervals are described by whole mainly interested in folk music and its inclusion in the numbers sounds quite different from tempered tuning, emerging modern society, and his inventions aimed at mak- where compromises have been made to achieve better play- ing just intonation commonplace in radio transmissions and ability across the different keys. church services, as well as in orchestral music. Groven’s Given his background in folk music, Groven knew that technology development had a musical rather than technical the natural scale with variations was the preferred tuning basis, and this article aims at explaining his motivations system in Norwegian folk music. Therefore, he viewed this and aims while presenting the technical achievements in tuning system a necessity in his larger project of bringing their contemporary context of the development of broadcast- folk music into the musical weave of modern Norway, ing and early electronic instruments. Paradoxically per- which in the early 1930s was in the process of becoming haps, Groven was uninterested in the possibilities for an electrified. With electrification followed the new media technology of radio broadcasting, and bringing folk music entirely new music that electronic means allowed for, and into radio programming was important in fulfilling one of which occupied composers working with electro-acoustic broadcasting’s promises – increased understanding of na- genres. Instead he wanted to promote the inclusion of a tional culture and identity, and letting the nation hear itself. much older music paradigm in contemporary music – an interesting perspective for a music technologist. 2. EXPOSURE TO TECHNOLOGY The adaptive automat has since its first functioning Groven’s first treatise [1] from 1927 discussed the natural version in 1947 been modernized twice, and currently exists scale and its predominance in a large sample of Norwegian in a digital and portable version. Thus, Groven’s vision of folk music. His main argument was that the natural scale is making just intonation available to large groups of users a better foundation for deep aesthetic experience than the has finally been realized, putting new composers in contact tempered scale, and that the notation of folk music should with this part of the world musical heritage. be brought back to the original tonality. His demonstrated knowledge about folk music secured him a post in the 1. BACKGROUND emerging broadcasting system in Norway, where he from 1931 edited a weekly program about folk music that still Groven’s background was folk music, and he developed exists today. Before recording became possible, the program musical skills early in life, particularly on the Hardanger was broadcasted real-time for several years, and Groven was fiddle, a Norwegian folk instrument with four resonating one of the first to use the portable recording technology pur- strings in addition to the four strings also found on conven- chased by the public broadcaster NRK. First, recordings tional violins. His experiences with the natural scale from were made on lacquer disks, then came optical recording, playing the willow flute, and his frustrations when trying to and finally recording used magnetic tape. These recordings tune a zither to the perfect intervals found in the natural would later form the basis for the national archive of folk scale, made him aware of the difference between the natural music. NRK was at the time a hothouse for audio technolo- scale and the tempered tuning that is used throughout the gy, and developed much of the technology we today take for Western world. Groven experienced the tempered system as granted, such as for example the sliding fader (1932). deeply problematic, and found, for example, that the com- In his task of collecting folk music heritage and bring- ing it to the general public, Groven depended on the new Copyright: © 2015 Jøran Rudi. This is an open-access article distributed technologies and was an active proponent of NRK’s steady under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 Unported, stream of investments. When a new radio building was to be which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, erected in 1938, for example, one of the studios was built provided the original author and source are credited. with acoustics similar to that of rural log cabins, with the – 42 – ICMC 2015 – Sept. 25 - Oct. 1, 2015 – CEMI, University of North Texas intention of providing optimal conditions for folk music. He cess to a much larger number of pitches to play with just found that when folk music met with the controlled acous- intonation in all keys. There are different opinions on exact- tics of the recently invented ‘dry’ radio studio, the loss of ly how many pitches are needed, but several researchers, natural acoustics changed the music’s character and its blus- among them Groven, arrived at the conclusion that 36 pitch- ter was lost. The fact that this consideration was given es/octave is sufficient. There are still small inaccuracies enough weight to dedicate an entire studio to folk music in with this number of pitches, but they have been found to be an era when modern media technology reigned, says some- below the threshold of perception, and have consequently thing about the significance of folk music’s role at the time. been ignored. The challenge for Groven was to provide a This positive response must have been an important motiva- user interface that was practical for performance of his 36- tor for Groven’s development of technologies for just into- division. nation. 4.1 Pianos 3. INTERNATIONAL ORIENTATION Groven’s first attempt at making a practical instrument was The interest in just intonation and other alternatives to tem- by way of modifying a concert piano, so that levers and pered tuning was not limited to Norway, and Groven was electromagnets would retune the piano by changing the ten- familiar with discourse on the topic. In Germany, for exam- sion of the strings to preset values. The selection of key was ple, several researchers were working on the problem of made with a separate keyboard, and upon selection, the making just intonation available through instrument design. strings would be tightened or loosened. Although the system Groven traveled to Germany in 1936, shortly after having was realized as proof-of-concept, the solution was plagued constructed a reed organ with 36 keys/octave. In Germany, by loud creaking noises and electrical problems during re- he encountered systems made by Johannes Kewitsch, Karl 1 tuning, and the piano was not stable. A piano needs time to Eitz, Federico Busoni, and Puhlmann that used manual stabilize after tuning, and the string tension is not at first switching and/or several or extended keyboards for playing, equally distributed throughout the string- it is only after rendering them unusable for practical use. Groven returned having been played a bit that the string tension becomes to Norway without a practical solution to the interface- evenly distributed, and the string changes pitch during this problem. [2] He had nonetheless become familiar with mod- process. Given these problems, the piano project was aban- ern oscillographs for measuring frequency accurately, useful doned shortly after having been presented in 1934. Howev- tools in his later research. er, sketches and written descriptions of another mechanism Notably, well-known early electronic instruments have been found in Groven’s archive material, involving also emerged around this time, such as the Theremin (1919- step-motors and pegged rollers, much like those found in 1928), the Trautonium (1928), the Sphärophon (1921-1926) music boxes, to adjust the string tension. However, financ- and the Ondes Martenot (1928). Groven must have been ing attempts failed, and there’s no evidence that this piano familiar with some of these from presentations that had been was ever built. made to the Norwegian engineering and arts communities. Maurice Martenot, for example, visited Oslo for the first 4.2 Acoustic organs time in 1928 to present his new instrument. [3] Moreover, the responses Groven received on his Groven moved on to the reed organ, and in 1936, a reed technological inventions and their musical application organ was built with electrical switching between keys, con- makes it clear that he maintained contact with a wide group trolled by a separate manual. The necessary calculations and of researchers and musicians, and that he viewed his own analyses of the pitch requirements for the different scales work in light of other accomplishments in the field of alter- had been made [3], and Groven had independently arrived at native tuning systems. the same pitch structures Puhlmann had employed as early as 1926. The reed organ was completed just before Groven 4. THE JUST INTONATION INTERFACES traveled to Germany to research the status of the field The reed organ was used for several radio broadcasts, but the The principle of just intonation is that intervals are de- mechanical switching was impractical – a design flaw scribed by integer ratios.