Proper Testing

Here is a new piece in 34edo. This uses my new interval similarity score. The first trial of this score used the Bohlen-Pierce scale, which is rather esoteric. 34edo, by contrast... well, it is still not so very conventional, but much more so than Bohlen-Pierce!

The various consonance relationships among pairs and quadruples of notes in the score, these are the foundation of the algorithm I use. At the top level, there is a temperature parameter that controls the bias in choosing low cost vs. high cost pitches at whatever particular location. The temperature parameter is varied over the course of a run of the software. By tracking the total cost of the system as the temperature is varied, a phase transition should emerge, a temperature where the total cost changes abruptly. At the transition, fractal fluctuations should occur, which should create musically interesting patterns.

That's the idea, anyway. It doesn't always work. The fractal fluctuations occur around a second order phase transition; sometimes the transition that occurs looks more like a first order transition, where disorder changes abruptly to order, without pausing in between to make nice patterns. With this new interval similarity score, hmmm. It's more like the system gets stuck. Another consonance score in the system captures vertical harmony. Often I restrict notes played at the same time to be in just a few harmonic relationships. That seems too rigid here. I had to make vertical relationships more flexible to allow a transition to occur.

Lots to explore!