Cracking a Centuries-Old Tradition
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Historically Informed Retuning of Polyphonic Vocal Performance
journal of interdisciplinary music studies spring/fall 2008, volume 2, issue 1&2, art. #0821208, pp. 121-139 Historically Informed Retuning of Polyphonic Vocal Performance Jonathan Wild and Peter Schubert Schulich School of Music, McGill University Background in history of music theory. The use of just intonation has generated heated debates ever since the first accounts of the articulation of pitch space in the scientific treatises of Ancient Greece. In the Renaissance, the discussion turned to vocal music as the locus of debate. One of the problems with using just intonation is the incommensurability of pure intervals with one another (e.g., the A four pure fifths above F is not the same pitch as the pure major third above F). Treatises and accounts of tuning systems proliferated, and our present- day understanding of what is at stake is limited by the dearth of sounding examples. Background in performance. On the one hand it is very difficult to verify precisely how modern-day singers tune, and on the other, although recent interest in historical tuning has generated several articles with electronically produced sound examples, the examples do not contribute to a direct understanding of tuning in the vocal context—synthesized sound is simply not “the real thing.” Aims. Our study aims to show how the gap between theories of tuning and the art of vocal performance may be bridged. Main contribution. By producing recordings of precisely tuned audio in rich vocal timbres (with vibrato, consonants and vowels), we make available actual repertoire examples, reliably tuned, in a human-sounding rendition. -
New Head for Hawford, OV Artists, Stephen Cleobury Concert & A
N ew Head for Hawford, OV Artists, Stephen Cleobury concert & a tribute to Cecil Duckworth Announcement of New Head at King’s Hawford The Headmaster and Governors of The King’s School, Worcester are delighted to announce the appointment of Mrs Jennie Phillips as the new Head of King’s Hawford, one of Worcester’s leading 2 – 11 Prep Schools. Jennie will join in April 2021 from Monmouth School Girls’ Prep School where she is currently the Head. She was appointed from a dynamic field of sitting Heads and Deputies, and was the unanimous choice of the Headmaster, Governors and the staff who met her. Jennie was educated at Oxford High School, and read Education at the University of Exeter. A keen hiker and swimmer, Jennie is married to Eddie and they have two daughters, Amelia and Daisy, who are all excited about the move. Reflecting on her appointment, Mrs Phillips said, “I am absolutely delighted to be joining the team at King’s Hawford. The school has a wonderful warmth and a sense of community which is clearly held dear by parents, staff and pupils alike. I very much look forward to getting to know the school community and building on the excellent work of Mr Jim Turner, whilst working closely with Mr Richard Chapman, Head of King’s St Albans, under the Head of our Foundation, Mr Gareth Doodes. We will work together to provide parents with the choice of two outstanding, vibrant Prep school learning environments with high aspirations, that prepare our pupils well for the next step in their journey as they move on to King’s Worcester at the age 11.” The Headmaster of the King’s Foundation, Gareth Doodes, celebrated Jennie’s appointment. -
The Lost Harmonic Law of the Bible
The Lost Harmonic Law of the Bible Jay Kappraff New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ 07102 Email: [email protected] Abstract The ethnomusicologist Ernest McClain has shown that metaphors based on the musical scale appear throughout the great sacred and philosophical works of the ancient world. This paper will present an introduction to McClain’s harmonic system and how it sheds light on the Old Testament. 1. Introduction Forty years ago the ethnomusicologist Ernest McClain began to study musical metaphors that appeared in the great sacred and philosophical works of the ancient world. These included the Rg Veda, the dialogues of Plato, and most recently, the Old and New Testaments. I have described his harmonic system and referred to many of his papers and books in my book, Beyond Measure (World Scientific; 2001). Apart from its value in providing new meaning to ancient texts, McClain’s harmonic analysis provides valuable insight into musical theory and mathematics both ancient and modern. 2. Musical Fundamentals Figure 1. Tone circle as a Single-wheeled Chariot of the Sun (Rg Veda) Figure 2. The piano has 88 keys spanning seven octaves and twelve musical fifths. The chromatic musical scale has twelve tones, or semitone intervals, which may be pictured on the face of a clock or along the zodiac referred to in the Rg Veda as the “Single-wheeled Chariot of the Sun.” shown in Fig. 1, with the fundamental tone placed atop the tone circle and associated in ancient sacred texts with “Deity.” The tones are denoted by the first seven letters of the alphabet augmented and diminished by and sharps ( ) and flats (b). -
Trinity Choral Services:Choral Services 2
Trinity College Chapel Choral Services & Anthem Texts Lent Term 2010 Sundays COLLEGE COMMUNION 10.00 a.m. COLLEGE EVENSONG WITH ADDRESS 6.15 p.m. Tuesdays EVENSONG 6.15 p.m. Thursdays EVENSONG 6.15 p.m. Tuesday 2nd February: Sung Eucharist for Candlemas 10.55 a.m. Ash Wednesday 17th February: Holy Communion & Imposition of Ashes 6.15 p.m. Holy Communion is celebrated each Wednesday lunchtime 12.30 p.m. Morning Prayer is said each weekday (except Friday) and Saturday morning 8.45 a.m. Holy Communion is celebrated each Friday morning during term 8.00 a.m. Evening Prayer is said on Monday and Wednesday evenings 6.15 p.m. The Reverend Dr Michael Banner Dean of Chapel Stephen Layton Director of Music The Reverend Alice Goodman Chaplain The Reverend Christopher Stoltz Chaplain Michael Waldron, Simon Bland Organ Scholars JANUARY 17 The Second Sunday after Epiphany 10:00 am College Communion Hymn 377: St Denio (Welsh melody / Roberts) Mass (MacMillan) 1st Lesson Isaiah 62: 1-5 Hymn 367 (i): Capetown (Filitz) Gospel John 2: 1-11 Preacher The Dean of Chapel Hymn 141: Salisbury (Howells) Hymn 484, omitting *: Aurelia (Wesley) Voluntary March (Choveaux) 5:40 pm Organ Music Before Evensong Stephen Cleobury (King’s College) Prelude and Fugue in c, BWV 546 (Bach) Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig, BWV 768 (Bach) 6:15 pm College Evensong Responses (McWilliam) Psalm 89: 1-8 Magnificat Primi toni (Victoria) Nunc Dimittis Double Choir (Holst) Anthem This worldes joie (Bax) Hymn 47: Dix (Kocher / Monk) Preacher Professor Amartya Sen, formerly Master of Trinity Hymn 49 (i): Wessex (Surplice) Voluntary Fantasia and Fugue in c, BWV 537 (Bach) 19 Tuesday 6:15 pm Choral Evensong Joint Service with the Choir of King’s School Ely Voluntary Postlude in G (Stanford) Introit Justorum animæ (Stanford) Responses (Rose) Psalm 150 1st Lesson Amos 7: 1-17 Canticles Service in C (Stanford) 2nd Lesson 1 Corinthians 6: 12-end Anthem Te lucis ante terminum (Balfour Gardiner) Hymn 413: Nun danket (Crüger / Mendelssohn) Final Responses (Rose) Voluntary Symphony No. -
Microtonality As an Expressive Device: an Approach for the Contemporary Saxophonist
Technological University Dublin ARROW@TU Dublin Dissertations Conservatory of Music and Drama 2009 Microtonality as an Expressive Device: an Approach for the Contemporary Saxophonist Seán Mac Erlaine Technological University Dublin, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/aaconmusdiss Part of the Composition Commons, Musicology Commons, Music Pedagogy Commons, Music Performance Commons, and the Music Theory Commons Recommended Citation Mac Erlaine, S.: Microtonality as an Expressive Device: an Approach for the Contemporary Saxophonist. Masters Dissertation. Technological University Dublin, 2009. This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Conservatory of Music and Drama at ARROW@TU Dublin. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ARROW@TU Dublin. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License Microtonality as an expressive device: An approach for the contemporary saxophonist September 2009 Seán Mac Erlaine www.sean-og.com Table of Contents Abstract i Introduction ii CHAPTER ONE 1 1.1 Tuning Theory 1 1.1.1 Tuning Discrepancies 1 1.2 Temperament for Keyboard Instruments 2 1.3 Non‐fixed Intonation Instruments 5 1.4 Dominance of Equal Temperament 7 1.5 The Evolution of Equal Temperament: Microtonality 9 CHAPTER TWO 11 2.1 Twentieth Century Tradition of Microtonality 11 2.2 Use of Microtonality -
Lute Tuning and Temperament in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
LUTE TUNING AND TEMPERAMENT IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES BY ADAM WEAD Submitted to the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree, Doctor of Music, Indiana University August, 2014 Accepted by the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Music. Nigel North, Research Director & Chair Stanley Ritchie Ayana Smith Elisabeth Wright ii Contents Acknowledgments . v Introduction . 1 1 Tuning and Temperament 5 1.1 The Greeks’ Debate . 7 1.2 Temperament . 14 1.2.1 Regular Meantone and Irregular Temperaments . 16 1.2.2 Equal Division . 19 1.2.3 Equal Temperament . 25 1.3 Describing Temperaments . 29 2 Lute Fretting Systems 32 2.1 Pythagorean Tunings for Lute . 33 2.2 Gerle’s Fretting Instructions . 37 2.3 John Dowland’s Fretting Instructions . 46 2.4 Ganassi’s Regola Rubertina .......................... 53 2.4.1 Ganassi’s Non-Pythagorean Frets . 55 2.5 Spanish Vihuela Sources . 61 iii 2.6 Sources of Equal Fretting . 67 2.7 Summary . 71 3 Modern Lute Fretting 74 3.1 The Lute in Ensembles . 76 3.2 The Theorbo . 83 3.2.1 Solutions Utilizing Re-entrant Tuning . 86 3.2.2 Tastini . 89 3.2.3 Other Solutions . 95 3.3 Meantone Fretting in Tablature Sources . 98 4 Summary of Solutions 105 4.1 Frets with Fixed Semitones . 106 4.2 Enharmonic Fretting . 110 4.3 Playing with Ensembles . 113 4.4 Conclusion . 118 A Complete Fretting Diagrams 121 B Fret Placement Guide 124 C Calculations 127 C.1 Hans Gerle . -
Flexible Tuning Software: Beyond Equal Temperament
Syracuse University SURFACE Syracuse University Honors Program Capstone Syracuse University Honors Program Capstone Projects Projects Spring 5-1-2011 Flexible Tuning Software: Beyond Equal Temperament Erica Sponsler Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone Part of the Computer and Systems Architecture Commons, and the Other Computer Engineering Commons Recommended Citation Sponsler, Erica, "Flexible Tuning Software: Beyond Equal Temperament" (2011). Syracuse University Honors Program Capstone Projects. 239. https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/239 This Honors Capstone Project is brought to you for free and open access by the Syracuse University Honors Program Capstone Projects at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Syracuse University Honors Program Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Flexible Tuning Software: Beyond Equal Temperament A Capstone Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Renée Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse University Erica Sponsler Candidate for B.S. Degree and Renée Crown University Honors May/2011 Honors Capstone Project in _____Computer Science___ Capstone Project Advisor: __________________________ Dr. Shiu-Kai Chin Honors Reader: __________________________________ Dr. James Royer Honors Director: __________________________________ James Spencer, Interim Director Date:___________________________________________ Flexible Tuning Software: Beyond Equal -
Services and Music List
Services and Music List January and February 2017 WELCOME And so it continued both day and night It is for many, a source of regret that as soon as the angels sing, ‘Glory to God in the highest’, the choir term ends and with it, Christmas. In fact the Christmas season ends on February 2, with the celebration of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, or Candlemas, and the themes of light from darkness, of God with us and the joy of sharing in the life of God are reflected in the liturgy and music of the season, together with a new understanding of what humanity’s new dignity means for all of us. We hope very much that you will join us when you can. The Reverend Canon Nicholas Jepson-Biddle, Precentor Communicant members of other churches in good standing are welcome to receive the Sacrament in this church if they so desire. CANONS IN RESIDENCE Month January 1 – 7: The Reverend Canon Nicholas Jepson-Biddle, Precentor Month January 8 – 14: The Reverend Canon Dr Graham Dodds, Treasurer Month January 15 – 28: The Reverend Canon Andrew Featherstone, Chancellor Month January 29 – February 4: The Very Reverend Dr John Davies, Dean Month February 5 – 11: The Reverend Canon Nicholas Jepson-Biddle, Precentor Month February 12 – 18: The Very Reverend Dr John Davies, Dean Month February 19 – 25: The Reverend Canon Nicholas Jepson-Biddle, Precentor Month February 26 – March 4: The Very Reverend Dr John Davies, Dean WELLS CATHEDRAL CHOIR The Cathedral’s Organist and Master of the Choristers, Matthew Owens, is always pleased to hear from parents of prospective choristers. -
On the Notation and Performance Practice of Extended Just Intonation
On Ben Johnston’s Notation and the Performance Practice of Extended Just Intonation by Marc Sabat 1. Introduction: Two Different E’s Like the metric system, the modern tempered tuning which divides an octave into 12 equal but irrational proportions was a product of a time obsessed with industrial standardization and mass production. In Schönberg’s words: a reduction of natural relations to manageable ones. Its ubiquity in Western musical thinking, epitomized by the pianos which were once present in every home, and transferred by default to fixed-pitch percussion, modern organs and synthesizers, belies its own history as well as everyday musical experience. As a young musician, I studied composition, piano and violin. Early on, I began to learn about musical intervals, the sound of two tones in relation to each other. Without any technical intervention other than a pitch-pipe, I learned to tune my open strings to the notes G - D - A - E by playing two notes at once, listening carefully to eliminate beating between overtone-unisons and seeking a stable, resonant sound-pattern called a “perfect fifth”. At the time, I did not know or need to know that this consonance was the result of a simple mathematical relationship, that the lower string was vibrating twice for every three vibrations of the upper one. However, when I began to learn about placing my fingers on the strings to tune other pitches, the difficulties began. To find the lower E which lies one whole step above the D string, I needed to place my first finger down. -
Bruckner Mass in E Minor Motets
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge Final Logo Brand Extension Logo 06.27.12 BRUCKNER MASS IN E MINOR MOTETS Academy of St Martin in the Fields Sir Stephen Cleobury THE CHOIR OF KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE For more than half a millennium, King’s College Chapel has been the home to one of the world’s most loved and renowned choirs. Since its foundation in 1441 by the 19-year-old King Henry VI, choral services in the Chapel, sung by this choir, have been a fundamental part of life in the College. Through the centuries, people from across Cambridge, the UK and, more recently, the world have listened to the Choir at these services. Today, even people who aren’t able to attend services in the Chapel have heard King’s Choir, thanks to its many recordings and broadcasts, and the tours that have taken it to leading international concert venues around the world. Despite its deep roots in musical history, the Choir has always been at the forefront of technological innovation, and records exclusively on its ‘impeccable’ own label. 2 BRUCKNER MASS IN E MINOR MOTETS The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge Academy of St Martin in the Fields Henry Websdale & Dónal McCann Organ Scholars Sir Stephen Cleobury conductor 3 CD 57:06 ANTON BRUCKNER (1824–1896) 1 ECCE SACERDOS MAGNUS | WAB 13 (1885) 6:04 MASS NO. 2 IN E MINOR | WAB 27 (1882) 2 I Kyrie 5:43 3 II Gloria 6:50 4 III Credo 7:58 5 IV Sanctus 2:42 6 V Benedictus 4:48 7 VI Agnus Dei 3:55 8 TOTA PULCHRA ES | WAB 46 (1878) 4:48 9 VIRGA JESSE | WAB 52 (1885) 3:17 10 LOCUS ISTE | WAB 23 (1869) 2:38 11 AVE MARIA | WAB 6 (1861) 3:05 12 CHRISTUS FACTUS EST | WAB 11 (1884) 5:18 4 SHADES OF THE PAST IN played out against a revival of interest in early music. -
Shadings in the Chromatic Field: Intonations After Morton Feldman
Shadings in the Chromatic Field: Intonations after Morton Feldman Marc Sabat ... this could be an element of the aural plane, where I'm trying to balance, a kind of coexistence between the chromatic field and those notes selected from the chromatic field that are not in the chromatic series.1 Harmony, or how pitched sounds combine, implies microtonality, enharmonic variations of tuning. Historically, these came to be reflected in written music by having various ways of spelling pitches. A harmonic series over E leads to the notes B and G#, forming a just major triad. Writing Ab instead of G# implies a different structure, but in what way? How may such differences of notation be realized as differences of sound? The notion of enharmonic "equivalence," which smooths away such shadings, belongs to a 20th century atonal model: twelve-tone equal temperament. This system rasters the frequency glissando by constructing equal steps in the irrational proportion of vibration 1:12√2. Twelve successive steps divide an octave, at which interval the "pitch- classes" repeat their names. Their vertical combinations have been exhaustively demonstrated, most notably in Tom Johnson's Chord Catalogue. However, the actual sounding of pitches, tempered or not, always reveals a microtonally articulated sound continuum. Hearing out the complex tonal relations within it suggests a new exploration of harmony: composing intonations in writing, playing and hearing music. Morton Feldman recognized that this opening for composition is fundamentally a question of rethinking the notational image. In works composed for the most part between 1977 and 1985, inspired by his collaboration with violinist Paul Zukofsky, Feldman chose to distinguish between enharmonically spelled pitches. -
100 Years of Nine Lessons & Carols
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge Final Logo Brand Extension Logo 06.27.12 100 YEARS OF NINE LESSONS & CAROLS David Willcocks Philip Ledger Stephen Cleobury THE CHOIR OF KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE For more than half a millennium, King’s College Chapel has been the home to one of the world’s most loved and renowned choirs. Since its foundation in 1441 by the 19-year-old King Henry VI, choral services in the Chapel, sung by this choir, have been a fundamental part of life in the College. Through the centuries, people from across Cambridge, the UK and, more recently, the world have listened to the Choir at these services. Today, even people who aren’t able to attend services in the Chapel have heard King’s Choir, thanks to its many recordings and broadcasts, and the tours that have taken it to leading international concert venues around the world. Despite its deep roots in musical history, the Choir has always been at the forefront of technological innovation, and records exclusively on its “impeccable” own label. 2 100 YEARS OF NINE LESSONS & CAROLS The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge David Willcocks conductor | Director of Music, 1957–1974 Philip Ledger conductor | Director of Music, 1974–1982 Stephen Cleobury conductor | Director of Music, 1982–2019 3 VOL 1 | New recordings 48:30 Conductor, Stephen Cleobury 1 O Holy Night | Adolphe Adam, arr. John Rutter 5:38 2 The Linden Tree Carol | Traditional, arr. Stephen Cleobury 3:04 3 The Lamb | John Tavener 3:39 4 God rest you merry, gentlemen | English traditional, arr.