Emergent Structure

Here's a new piece: 270edo scale 16 emergent.

This piece is in a 16 note scale of the tuning system 270edo. The scale is designed to support traversal of the comma 2401:2400.

Lately I have been playing hide-and-seek with comma traversals. The highly randomized algorithm I use is targeted to creating fractal fluctations, in hopes of making interesting music. These fluctuations can conflict with the neat topological structure of a comma traversal. I initialize the system with the traversal, and then apply the thermodynamic randomization. The challenge is to randomize enough to create interesting fluctuations, but not so much as to erase the traversal. Lately most of my attempts have failed to preserve the traversals!

One method that seemed to be working: I would run a long similation, starting with a moderately high temperature and then gradually reducing the temperature and watching for the phase transition which creates the fractal fluctuations. I would record the temperature of the transition, and then run a second simulation, starting again with the traversal as the initialization, but simply running the simulation at the single temperature that I had recorded for the phase transition.

My plan had been to repeat this method with this 2401:2400 traversal. There are 343 measures in the piece, arranged in a 7x7x7 cube. Traversing 2401:2400 involves seven basic steps. I initialized the system to traverse the comma 49 times over the course of the piece. I examined the score after the thermodynamic simulation at moderately high temperature, and did not see any evidence of the traversal having survived. Sure enough, at a much lower temperature, I observed a huge spike in the heat capacity, i.e. a rapid drop in energy, characterizing a phase transition. I expected to see a corresponding spike in the histogram of the pitches in the piece, to see some single pitch coming to dominate. But no dominant pitch emerged! So I checked the score... there is a clear staircase pattern, but it only repeats seven times over the course of the piece! The system at the phase transition has a comma traversal, but it is oriented differently from the one I had planted!

A plot of energy vs. temperature for this simulation run, showing the sudden steepness at the phase transition:

Simplicity

Here's a new piece in 31edo: 31edo scale 9.

This nine note scale is intended to channel the composition algorithm into producing a traversal of the comma 126:125. I can't find any structure like that in the score, or in any of the scores I generated in my various trials. Something is not working as anticipated! One possibility is that this traversal is just too simple, i.e. too easy to jostle away. Another detail I suspect might be causing trouble is the new interval scoring formula I have been using. It scores 7:6 as more consonant than 8:7. This may be providing a downhill pathway to breaking apart the traversal.

Traversal or no, this piece sounds nice, so I thought I should share it. Plus, there is almost always something to be learned from failure!

It's Called Blackjack!

Here is a new diagram for the 21 note scale I posted this morning. I learned a lot about the scale from the effort to untangle the graph!

And here is a new piece... less austere! 41edo blackjack

The kind folks in the facebook microtonal community let me know: this scale is known as blackjack!

21 out of 41

Here is a new piece in 41edo: 41edo scale 21.

The diagram above shows the scale used here. Green arrows are perfect fifths, blue arrows are major thirds, and red arrows are 7:4. The scale is generate by the 4 step interval, which corresponds to a semitone 16:15. A curious feature of this tuning is that six semitones make a perfect fifth, instead of the usual seven.