Re:Show HN: Tune.js – A microtonal web audio library with 33...
by Zuider on Wednesday August 26, 2015 @05:48PM
(#10126237)
This is nice. I like how the notes continue to ring, so that they interact with each other. There is a similar application called Scala which has the distinction of being written in Ada. It offers a collection of more than 4500 scales to download.
The one quibble I have with the exploration of scales in this way is that the given pallet of notes is fixed, but most music that that is not based on the even tempered scale involves a lot of pitch variation.
I came across a book in a library once called The Handbook of Irish Music by the Rev Fr. Richard Henebry
He was probably the first to make field recordings of Irish music on wax cylinder. Using this early recording technology, and a wheel of 100 pitchpipes graded into cents, he transcribed not only the notes played, but also made note of the precise pitch at which each note was played.
His theory, outlined in A Handbook of Irish Music, 1928, was that the character of a piece of music depended on not just the notes, but also the system of intonation, and furthermore tunes were divided into sections using different temperaments which he called 'melodic cells'. He maintained that these gave an extra depth to the performance in a manner parallel to the use of harmony.
http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/downloads.html
The one quibble I have with the exploration of scales in this way is that the given pallet of notes is fixed, but most music that that is not based on the even tempered scale involves a lot of pitch variation.
I came across a book in a library once called The Handbook of Irish Music by the Rev Fr. Richard Henebry
http://www.itma.ie/digitallibrary/print-collection/henebry-r...
He was probably the first to make field recordings of Irish music on wax cylinder. Using this early recording technology, and a wheel of 100 pitchpipes graded into cents, he transcribed not only the notes played, but also made note of the precise pitch at which each note was played.
His theory, outlined in A Handbook of Irish Music, 1928, was that the character of a piece of music depended on not just the notes, but also the system of intonation, and furthermore tunes were divided into sections using different temperaments which he called 'melodic cells'. He maintained that these gave an extra depth to the performance in a manner parallel to the use of harmony.
http://www.itma.ie/digitallibrary/print-collection/henebry-a...
As far as I know, nobody has tried to recreate his transcriptions.