New Toy!
MIDIlocator.com
has something I've wished for for years:
a freeware MIDI sequence editor that provides a way to edit pitch bend data.
Using it this week,
I've finally created some examples of tuning systems used in Georgian songs.
Here are two songs in my best guess at the scales Svan musicians intend to use,
complete with imperfect octaves:
If you play these with
Beatnik,
I particularly like its very coarse so-called "viola" sound on them.
The zari isn't quite done;
I need to make some tempo changes to it
add the falling tail-offs at the major cadences.
Here's the
latest version,
but the falls are kind of stinky and stupid-sounding because they're limited to a whole-step range.
Here are comparative versions of the Kakhetian setting of motsikuli kristesagan (the kontakion to Saint Nino):
-
in sad old
equal temperament
with no pitch bending,
-
one possible realization in
just tuning
(the one we settled on at a recent rehearsal)
-
another somewhat
more consistent
realization,
with the beginning and ending tuned the same as the middle,
but with a couple problematic extra-wide half-steps,
-
a realization with
all small
whole-steps between chord roots
(I often refer to this as "Carl tuning" because, at least at one point,
his preference ran towards tuning everything this way), and
-
in my
Svan
tuning system.
This last one is just provided as an example
of applying the tuning system;
I'm not sure I could be convinced anybody actually sings it this way.
Notice the jump from the widely de-tuned fourths to perfect fifth
at the first cadence,
and the sudden perfectly-tuned (2:3:5) major triad three notes later.
Beatnik isn't quite so friendly to this song,
though I suppose its reverb hints at the sound of the churches it should be sung in,
and its raucous oboe sound is appropriately duduc-like.
The plain old built-in patches in my ESS sound card give it a much more respectful,
apathetic treatment.
All the ratios and logarithms and MIDI event values
that went into these sequences are
here.
The tables at the bottom give the pitch bend values
for each degree of each scale.
If you play these on a real instrument with patches of your own devising,
remember, General MIDI assumes a fixed pitch-bend range of ±2 half-steps.
I won't be held responsible for the tunings if you use some other range!
31 March 2002
Updated 9 April 2002
