Beccatelli, Giovanfrancesco
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The 17-Tone Puzzle — and the Neo-Medieval Key That Unlocks It
The 17-tone Puzzle — And the Neo-medieval Key That Unlocks It by George Secor A Grave Misunderstanding The 17 division of the octave has to be one of the most misunderstood alternative tuning systems available to the microtonal experimenter. In comparison with divisions such as 19, 22, and 31, it has two major advantages: not only are its fifths better in tune, but it is also more manageable, considering its very reasonable number of tones per octave. A third advantage becomes apparent immediately upon hearing diatonic melodies played in it, one note at a time: 17 is wonderful for melody, outshining both the twelve-tone equal temperament (12-ET) and the Pythagorean tuning in this respect. The most serious problem becomes apparent when we discover that diatonic harmony in this system sounds highly dissonant, considerably more so than is the case with either 12-ET or the Pythagorean tuning, on which we were hoping to improve. Without any further thought, most experimenters thus consign the 17-tone system to the discard pile, confident in the knowledge that there are, after all, much better alternatives available. My own thinking about 17 started in exactly this way. In 1976, having been a microtonal experimenter for thirteen years, I went on record, dismissing 17-ET in only a couple of sentences: The 17-tone equal temperament is of questionable harmonic utility. If you try it, I doubt you’ll stay with it for long.1 Since that time I have become aware of some things which have caused me to change my opinion completely. -
The Sonata, Its Form and Meaning As Exemplified in the Piano Sonatas by Mozart
THE SONATA, ITS FORM AND MEANING AS EXEMPLIFIED IN THE PIANO SONATAS BY MOZART. MOZART. Portrait drawn by Dora Stock when Mozart visited Dresden in 1789. Original now in the possession of the Bibliothek Peters. THE SONATA ITS FORM AND MEANING AS EXEMPLIFIED IN THE PIANO SONATAS BY MOZART A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS BY F. HELENA MARKS WITH MCSICAL EXAMPLES LONDON WILLIAM REEVES, 83 CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.2. Publisher of Works on Music. BROUDE BROS. Music NEW YORK Presented to the LIBRARY of the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO from the Library of DR. ARTHUR PLETTNER AND ISA MCILWRAITH PLETTNER Crescent, London, S.W.16. Printed by The New Temple Press, Norbury PREFACE. undertaking the present work, the writer's intention originally was IN to offer to the student of musical form an analysis of the whole of Mozart's Pianoforte Sonatas, and to deal with the subject on lines some- what similar to those followed by Dr. Harding in his volume on Beet- hoven. A very little thought, however, convinced her that, though students would doubtless welcome such a book of reference, still, were the scope of the treatise thus limited, its sphere of usefulness would be somewhat circumscribed. " Mozart was gifted with an extraordinary and hitherto unsurpassed instinct for formal perfection, and his highest achievements lie not more in the tunes which have so captivated the world, than in the perfect sym- metry of his best works In his time these formal outlines were fresh enough to bear a great deal of use without losing their sweetness; arid Mozart used them with remarkable regularity."* The author quotes the above as an explanation of certain broad similarities of treatment which are to be found throughout Mozart's sonatas. -
MTO 20.2: Wild, Vicentino's 31-Tone Compositional Theory
Volume 20, Number 2, June 2014 Copyright © 2014 Society for Music Theory Genus, Species and Mode in Vicentino’s 31-tone Compositional Theory Jonathan Wild NOTE: The examples for the (text-only) PDF version of this item are available online at: http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.14.20.2/mto.14.20.2.wild.php KEYWORDS: Vicentino, enharmonicism, chromaticism, sixteenth century, tuning, genus, species, mode ABSTRACT: This article explores the pitch structures developed by Nicola Vicentino in his 1555 treatise L’Antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica . I examine the rationale for his background gamut of 31 pitch classes, and document the relationships among his accounts of the genera, species, and modes, and between his and earlier accounts. Specially recorded and retuned audio examples illustrate some of the surviving enharmonic and chromatic musical passages. Received February 2014 Table of Contents Introduction [1] Tuning [4] The Archicembalo [8] Genus [10] Enharmonic division of the whole tone [13] Species [15] Mode [28] Composing in the genera [32] Conclusion [35] Introduction [1] In his treatise of 1555, L’Antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica (henceforth L’Antica musica ), the theorist and composer Nicola Vicentino describes a tuning system comprising thirty-one tones to the octave, and presents several excerpts from compositions intended to be sung in that tuning. (1) The rich compositional theory he develops in the treatise, in concert with the few surviving musical passages, offers a tantalizing glimpse of an alternative pathway for musical development, one whose radically augmented pitch materials make possible a vast range of novel melodic gestures and harmonic successions. -
Andrián Pertout
Andrián Pertout Three Microtonal Compositions: The Utilization of Tuning Systems in Modern Composition Volume 1 Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Produced on acid-free paper Faculty of Music The University of Melbourne March, 2007 Abstract Three Microtonal Compositions: The Utilization of Tuning Systems in Modern Composition encompasses the work undertaken by Lou Harrison (widely regarded as one of America’s most influential and original composers) with regards to just intonation, and tuning and scale systems from around the globe – also taking into account the influential work of Alain Daniélou (Introduction to the Study of Musical Scales), Harry Partch (Genesis of a Music), and Ben Johnston (Scalar Order as a Compositional Resource). The essence of the project being to reveal the compositional applications of a selection of Persian, Indonesian, and Japanese musical scales utilized in three very distinct systems: theory versus performance practice and the ‘Scale of Fifths’, or cyclic division of the octave; the equally-tempered division of the octave; and the ‘Scale of Proportions’, or harmonic division of the octave championed by Harrison, among others – outlining their theoretical and aesthetic rationale, as well as their historical foundations. The project begins with the creation of three new microtonal works tailored to address some of the compositional issues of each system, and ending with an articulated exposition; obtained via the investigation of written sources, disclosure -
Glossary of Musical Terms
GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMS A absolute music: instrumental music with no intended story (non-programmatic music) a cappella: choral music with no instrumental accompaniment accelerando: gradually speeding up the speed of the rhythmic beat accent: momentarily emphasizing a note with a dynamic attack accessible: music that is easy to listen to and understand adagio: a slow tempo alla breve / cut time: a meter with two half-note beats per measure. It’s often symbolized by the cut-time symbol allegro: a fast tempo; music should be played cheerfully / upbeat brisk alto: a low-ranged female voice; the second highest instrumental range alto instrument examples: alto flute, viola, French horn, natural horn, alto horn, alto saxophone, English horn andante: moderate tempo (a walking speed; "Andare" means to walk) aria: a beautiful manner of solo singing, accompanied by orchestra, with a steady metrical beat articulation marks: Normal: 100% Staccato: 50% > Accent: 75% ^ Marcato: 50% with more weight on the front - Tenuto: 100% art-music: a general term used to describe the "formal concert music" traditions of the West, as opposed to "popular" and "commercial music" styles art song: a musical setting of artistic poetry for solo voice accompanied by piano (or orchestra) atonal: music that is written and performed without regard to any specific key atonality: modern harmony that intentionally avoids a tonal center (has no apparent home key) augmentation: lengthening the rhythmic values of a fugal subject avant-garde: ("at the forefront") a French term that describes highly experimental modern musical styles B ballad: a work in dance form imitative of a folk song, with a narrative structure ballet: a programmatic theatrical work for dancers and orchestra bar: a common term for a musical measure barcarolle: a boating song, generally describing the songs sung by gondoliers in Venice. -
Consistent Pitch Height Forms: a Commentary on Daniel Muzzulini's Contribution Isaac Newton's Microtonal Approach To
Consistent Pitch Height Forms: A commentary on Daniel Muzzulini’s contribution Isaac Newton’s Microtonal Approach to Just Intonation THOMAS NOLL[1] Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, Departament de Teoria, Composició i Direcció ABSTRACT: This text revisits selected aspects of Muzzulini’s article and reformulates them on the basis of a three-dimensional interval space E and its dual E*. The pitch height of just intonation is conceived as an element h of the dual space. From octave-fifth-third coordinates it becomes transformed into chromatic coordinates. The dual chromatic basis is spanned by the duals a* of a minor second a and the duals b* and c* of two kinds of augmented primes b and c. Then for every natural number n a modified pitch height form hn is derived from h by augmenting its coordinates with the factor n, followed by rounding to nearest integers. Of particular interest are the octave-consitent forms hn mapping the octave to the value n. The three forms hn for n = 612, 118, 53 (yielding smallest deviations from the respective values of n h) form the Muzzulini basis of E*. The respective transformation matrix T* between the coordinate representations of linear forms in the Muzzulini basis and the dual chromatic basis is unimodular and a Pisot matrix with the dominant eigen-co-vector very close to h. Certain selections of the linear forms hn are displayed in Muzzuli coordinates as ball-like point clouds within a suitable cuboid containing the origin. As an open problem remains the estimation of the musical relevance of Newton’s chromatic mode, and chromatic modes in general. -
Pietro Aaron on Musica Plana: a Translation and Commentary on Book I of the Libri Tres De Institutione Harmonica (1516)
Pietro Aaron on musica plana: A Translation and Commentary on Book I of the Libri tres de institutione harmonica (1516) Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Matthew Joseph Bester, B.A., M.A. Graduate Program in Music The Ohio State University 2013 Dissertation Committee: Graeme M. Boone, Advisor Charles Atkinson Burdette Green Copyright by Matthew Joseph Bester 2013 Abstract Historians of music theory long have recognized the importance of the sixteenth- century Florentine theorist Pietro Aaron for his influential vernacular treatises on practical matters concerning polyphony, most notably his Toscanello in musica (Venice, 1523) and his Trattato della natura et cognitione de tutti gli tuoni di canto figurato (Venice, 1525). Less often discussed is Aaron’s treatment of plainsong, the most complete statement of which occurs in the opening book of his first published treatise, the Libri tres de institutione harmonica (Bologna, 1516). The present dissertation aims to assess and contextualize Aaron’s perspective on the subject with a translation and commentary on the first book of the De institutione harmonica. The extensive commentary endeavors to situate Aaron’s treatment of plainsong more concretely within the history of music theory, with particular focus on some of the most prominent treatises that were circulating in the decades prior to the publication of the De institutione harmonica. This includes works by such well-known theorists as Marchetto da Padova, Johannes Tinctoris, and Franchinus Gaffurius, but equally significant are certain lesser-known practical works on the topic of plainsong from around the turn of the century, some of which are in the vernacular Italian, including Bonaventura da Brescia’s Breviloquium musicale (1497), the anonymous Compendium musices (1499), and the anonymous Quaestiones et solutiones (c.1500). -
Computational Invention of Cadences and Chord Progressions by Conceptual Chord-Blending
Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2015) Computational Invention of Cadences and Chord Progressions by Conceptual Chord-Blending Manfred Eppe16, Roberto Confalonieri1, Ewen Maclean2, Maximos Kaliakatsos3, Emilios Cambouropoulos3, Marco Schorlemmer1, Mihai Codescu4, Kai-Uwe Kuhnberger¨ 5 1IIIA-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain 2University of Edinburgh, UK 3University of Thessaloniki, Greece fmeppe,confalonieri,[email protected] [email protected] femilios,[email protected] 4University of Magdeburg, Germany 5 University of Osnabruck,¨ Germany 6 ICSI, Berkeley, USA [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract chord and moves to the tonic, and the seventh resolves down- wards by stepwise motion, whereas the fifth may be omitted. We present a computational framework for chord inven- In the Phrygian cadence, the bass note (third of the chord) is tion based on a cognitive-theoretic perspective on con- ceptual blending. The framework builds on algebraic the most important note as it plays the role of a downward specifications, and solves two musicological problems. leading note, and the second most important note is the root. It automatically finds transitions between chord progres- In such a setup, we propose two applications of chord blend- sions of different keys or idioms, and it substitutes chords ing, to give rise to new cadences and chord progressions. in a chord progression by other chords of a similar func- The first application is to generate a novel cadence as a ‘fu- tion, as a means to create novel variations. The approach sion’ of existing cadences by blending chords with a similar is demonstrated with several examples where jazz ca- function. -
Notation Through History
Notation through History Neume Names 9th to 10th Centuries 11th to 13th Centuries Modern Notation Virga Punctum Podatus (Pes) Clivis Scandicus Climacus Torculus Porrectus Scandicus flexus Porrectus flexus Torculus Respinus Pes subpunctis Notation Symbols through History Greek Acutus Gravis Accents Neumes 6th to 13th Virga Virga centuries Jacans Punctum Mensur Maxim Longa Brevis Semibrevi Minim Semimini Fusa Semifus al a (Long) (Breve) s a ma a Notatio (Duple (Semibrev (Mini x e) m) n Long) th 13 century 14th century 15th to 17th centuri es Modern 17th to Double Whole Half Quarter Eighth Sixteent th Notatio 20 Whole- Note Note Note Note h Note centuri Note n es The Anatomy of a Note Notation English French German Italian Spanish Note note Note nota nota testa or Head tête de la note Notenkopf testina or oval capocchia Hals or asta, or Stem queue plica Notenhals gamba coda Fahne or Flag crochet uncinata or corchete Fähnchen bandiera Beam barre Balken barra barra Dot point Punkt punto puntillo punktierte nota con Dotted note pointée nota puntata Note puntillo Note Notation American British French German Italian Spanish Double Cuadrada or Double- Doppelganze or whole Breve Breve Doble ronde Doppelganzenote note Redonda Whole Ganze or Semibreve Ronde Semibreve Redonda note Ganzenote Halbe or Minima or Half note Minim Blanche Blanca Halbenote Bianca Quarter Viertel or Semiminima or Crotchet Noire Negra note Viertelnote Nera Eighth Quaver Croche Achtel or Achtelnote Croma Corchea note Sechzehntel or Sixteenth Double- Sechzehntelnote Semiquaver -
Musical Techniques
Musical Techniques Musical Techniques Frequencies and Harmony Dominique Paret Serge Sibony First published 2017 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address: ISTE Ltd John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 27-37 St George’s Road 111 River Street London SW19 4EU Hoboken, NJ 07030 UK USA www.iste.co.uk www.wiley.com © ISTE Ltd 2017 The rights of Dominique Paret and Serge Sibony to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Library of Congress Control Number: 2016960997 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78630-058-4 Contents Preface ........................................... xiii Introduction ........................................ xv Part 1. Laying the Foundations ............................ 1 Introduction to Part 1 .................................. 3 Chapter 1. Sounds, Creation and Generation of Notes ................................... 5 1.1. Physical and physiological notions of a sound .................. 5 1.1.1. Auditory apparatus ............................... 5 1.1.2. Physical concepts of a sound .......................... 7 1.1.3. -
A LIGHTWEIGHT NOTATION for PLAYING PIANO for FUN by R.J.A
A LIGHTWEIGHT NOTATION FOR PLAYING PIANO FOR FUN by R.J.A. Buhr 1. INTRODUCTION Music notation gets in the way of the joy of making music on the piano that can be had without first spending thousands of hours at the keyboard to develop piano “wizardry,” meaning a combination of keyboard skill and mastery of music notation. The message of this document is the joy can be had, without any loss of musical substance, with no more wizardry than is required to read and play single melody lines. The vehicle is a lightweight notation I call PKP (for Picturing Keyboard Patterns) for annotating the core flow of harmony in interval terms above the staff. I developed the notation as an adult beginner with no training in music theory after becoming frustrated with the way music notation obscures the keyboard simplicity of harmony. That the notation has substance in spite of this humble origin is indicated by the following opinion of PKP provided by a music theorist specializing in improvisational music (see supplementary pages): “The hook ... , at least in my opinion, is that it's possible to attain a deep understanding of chords (and their constituent intervals) without recourse to Western notation. This has direct consequences for physical patterning, fingerings, etc. Essentially, your method combines the utility of a play-by-ear approach with the depth of a mathematically-informed theory of music.” PKP follows from two observations that anyone can make. One is the piano keyboard supplies only 12 piano keys to play all the notes of an octave that music notation describes in many more than 12 ways by key signatures and accidentals (sharps, flats, naturals). -
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 .