Nicolas Guerrero - Sparks (Microtuning JI Zhea Erose Novemdecimal)

Hi guys,

I made my first microtonal piece using Zheana Erose novemdecimal microtuning and combining it with minimalism, in the style of artists such as Philp Glass, Max Richter or Steve Reich. I've been fascinated by microtonality and minimalism and have been convinced that doing both at the same time would turn out great.
I have a minimalistic album in the making by the way.

Hi Nicolas!

Interesting piece, although I didn't notice anything microtonal, at least not relative to the other pitches in the work. Nice buildup throughout, catchy rhythms. A tad long, I would say. Lots of good ideas and variations there, perhaps truncate in the future and shave down to the very best.

Just my thoughts. Fine job, thanks for sharing!

11 minutes ago, Tónskáld said:

Hi Nicolas!

Interesting piece, although I didn't notice anything microtonal, at least not relative to the other pitches in the work. Nice buildup throughout, catchy rhythms. A tad long, I would say. Lots of good ideas and variations there, perhaps truncate in the future and shave down to the very best.

Just my thoughts. Fine job, thanks for sharing!

 

Hi Tonskald,

Cheers for taking the time to listen. The microtonality of the tuning consists of small deviations hence why its very subtle. This being my first microtonal piece I didn't want to venture to far from equal temperament 12 tones. The biggest deviation is the minor third.
Here is the detailed tuning:

note:    ratio:       cents:

0:         1/1           0.0

1:         20/19      88

2:         43/38      214

3:         23/19      330

4:         24/19      404

5:         51/38      509

6:         27/19      608

7:         3/2          701.9

8:         61/38      819.3

9:         32/19      902.4

10:      34/19      1007.4

11:      36/19      1106.3

12:      2/1          1200.0

I did hesitate to cut short some parts indeed. I'll keep that in mind in my future endeavours.
Thank you for the feedback
 

Oh, now I fear I've just proclaimed my ignorance. None of that makes any sense to me. I was hoping my ears could pick up the microtones... 😬

I'll leave you to your microtonality and let those with more experience in such matters critique that.

1 minute ago, Tónskáld said:

Oh, now I fear I've just proclaimed my ignorance. None of that makes any sense to me. I was hoping my ears could pick up the microtones... 😬

I'll leave you to your microtonality and let those with more experience in such matters critique that.

 

Let me explain what I can explain. To me the easiest thing to understand is cents. In our western system, each semi-tones equal +100 cents in comparison to the semi-tone before. So it goes like :

0        (tonic)
100   (minor second)
200   (major second)
300   (minor third)
and so on until the octave that is 1200

So for example, the minor thrid in the tuning I used is 330 cents. That means that, in a 12tone equal temperament system, if you were to bend upward from the minor third to the major third, you would have to stop at 30% of the way to hear that minor third.

I hope that has been a bit informative and helped you understand that.

I'll consider myself educated. 👍 Thanks for the explanation!

9 hours ago, nguerrero said:

note:    ratio:       cents:

0:         1/1           0.0

1:         20/19      88

2:         43/38      214

3:         23/19      330

4:         24/19      404

5:         51/38      509

6:         27/19      608

7:         3/2          701.9

8:         61/38      819.3

9:         32/19      902.4

10:      34/19      1007.4

11:      36/19      1106.3

12:      2/1          1200.0

Hey! I was experimenting with microtuning a bit also some time ago, so I'm quite interested in the subject. Is there any method you used to create this chart, or you just tweaked the tuning of the notes a bit into a way that pleased your ear?

I think this particular microtuning system worked incredibly well on this piece, it compliments the music a lot. And this is one of the first things in minimalism I trully enjoyed.

Great job!

On 3/19/2020 at 3:00 AM, Jean Szulc said:

Hey! I was experimenting with microtuning a bit also some time ago, so I'm quite interested in the subject. Is there any method you used to create this chart, or you just tweaked the tuning of the notes a bit into a way that pleased your ear?

I think this particular microtuning system worked incredibly well on this piece, it compliments the music a lot. And this is one of the first things in minimalism I trully enjoyed.

Great job!

 

 

Hey Jean. Sorry for the late reply. I did not establish this particular tuning. It was made by a wonderful microtonal artist called Zhea Erose. I'm gonna link her piece using this tuning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIn6uis5duw

i've jumped pretty recently into microtonality. If you want to learn more about it there are a few ways to do so. Join the facebook group called The Xenharmonic Alliance ( https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=the%20xenharmonic%20alliance&epa=SEARCH_BOX ).

There's also a wiki about microtonality with a lot of ressources to draw from: https://en.xen.wiki/w/Main_Page . You can use that wiki to make your tunings and use the great number of ratios and tunings that exist in the world (for example the indian or turkish ones).

And finally there is a discord server about microtonality. The guys there are really helpful and welcoming. Here is an invite to the server if you wish to join us:: https://discord.gg/saJSPm

Thank you for the nice words.
Best,
Nicolas