Inharmonic Fantasy No. 19
Inharmonic Fantasy No. 19
Fixed Media
Composer's Note:
As I approached writing my nineteenth Inharmonic Fantasy, I thought it would be the right moment to go back to something I have done before, but not for a long time: 19-tone equal temperament. This is an old idea, going back to the middle ages, but people have not done it because there are not musical instruments that can play it accurately. The computer, however, has no such restrictions, and it can play whatever you tell it to.
I have studied the harmonic resources of 19-tone temperament, and they are daunting. While there are only 19 3-note chords in the 12-tone scale, there are 51 in 19-tone. There are 43 4-note chords and 66 5-note chords in the 12-tone scale, but there are 204 and 612 in 19-tone. After my research, I found a number of coherent ways of exploiting these sounds, which is what I have used. The inharmonic partials are created by frequency shifting by a ratio of, naturally, 19/24.
The work was composed in the August, 2024, and the sounds were generated by the1 Csound program.
Authored (or revised): 2024
Published: 2024
Duration (minutes): 8
Book format: Performance license and fixed media files: contact sales@composers.com.
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This is an archival item from ACA's catalog, and not currently available for purchase.
Description
Composer's Note:
As I approached writing my nineteenth Inharmonic Fantasy, I thought it would be the right moment to go back to something I have done before, but not for a long time: 19-tone equal temperament. This is an old idea, going back to the middle ages, but people have not done it because there are not musical instruments that can play it accurately. The computer, however, has no such restrictions, and it can play whatever you tell it to.
I have studied the harmonic resources of 19-tone temperament, and they are daunting. While there are only 19 3-note chords in the 12-tone scale, there are 51 in 19-tone. There are 43 4-note chords and 66 5-note chords in the 12-tone scale, but there are 204 and 612 in 19-tone. After my research, I found a number of coherent ways of exploiting these sounds, which is what I have used. The inharmonic partials are created by frequency shifting by a ratio of, naturally, 19/24.
The work was composed in the August, 2024, and the sounds were generated by the1 Csound program.