Scale of the Day: E Flat Dorian diminished 4 mapped to the Triative

The E Flat Dorian diminished 4 mapped to the Triative Scale.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Pythagorean Dorian mapped to the Square-root-of-2

The E Flat Pythagorean Dorian mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale.

Untold Treasures from Saturn Needing to be Unearthed

Today's New York Times has an article about 81-year-old Marshall Allen's struggle to keep the Sun Ra Arkestra intact and active a full 12 years after Ra departed this world and 10 years after the passing of Arkestra tenor saxophonist John Gilmore. (Gilmore is often cited as a major influence for John Coltrane).

Deep appreciation is due for Marshall Allen's efforts to keep this incredible ensemble going. He has been living in the same Philadelphia townhouse that Sun Ra lived in (communally, with the Arkestra back in their prime) and it sounds like a museum of this living body of music. The world is simply a richer place for his efforts. At the same time, it seems like a cruel injustice that this labor of love should be such a struggle at this point in his life. This is the music and legacy of Sun Ra that he is an important part of. It is a substantive and important part of American music history. This music is a valuable cultural contribution.

Here's a line from the article that really got my attention: "In another corner was a tall wardrobe cabinet containing hundreds of Sun Ra's original music scores, much of them never recorded." There remains a body of Sun Ra compositions that have never been recorded?????? How can this be???? The mind reels at the prospect of such an untapped, unknown wealth of new music yet to be heard from this outstanding creative mind. This wardrobe of scores sounds like the musical equivalent of a chest of unknown Shakespeare manuscripts. How is it that there's no army of Sun Ra scholars pouring over these scores, preserving them and actively promoting performances and recordings of them? How can Marshall Allen be facing such financial struggles with this kind of treasure around? There really needs to be an initiative to correct this injustice. If money can be raised to build presidential libraries then surely something could be done to properly honor the legacy of Sun Ra.

Something else I learned from this article is that Marshall Allen has also written music and at 81 he continues to compose prolifically. I'd love to hear his music. This man has experienced the beauty of Arkestra life since 1958 and he's still carrying on.

I fear that it will take far too long before the real value of Sun Ra is understood. And by that time Marshall Allen will no longer be with us and too many of these unrecorded scores will be lost. Sun Ra is an outsider in death much as he was in life. He was a master of writing a great melodic line. He was a fantastic orchestrator, leader and composer who oversaw a tremendous period of advancement in jazz as it became an art music over the course of the 20th century. His persona is a poignant commentary and empowering gesture to define his own identity outside the narrow confines of a culture and planet that could not absorb, appreciate or contain his imagination. His fleeting terrestrial presence will have reverberations for generations to come.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Dorian augmented 4

The E Flat Dorian augmented 4 Scale as you would find it on any conventionally tuned equal tempered instrument.

Scale of the Day: A 3, Square-root-of 2, Construct #1, Lydian Mode

The A 3, Square-root-of-2, Construct #1, Lydian Mode Scale.

Scale of the Day: G Sharp Aeolian 1% wide

The G Sharp Aeolian 1% wide Scale.

Suppressed Octaves

Tickling my auditory processing system....

In much 12-tone music composition a great deal is made about suppressing octaves. The extreme 'consonance' of this interval class (the unison sharing the same interval class identification) is widely regarded as (a) being devoid of any new harmonic information as the mere duplication of the same pitch class adds color without harmony and (b) runs the risk of sounding like a reference to tonality as a cognitive "center" by placing additional weight/gravity on a single pitch class. This isn't necessarily unique to 12-tone music. Many jazz pianists learn that avoiding octaves when voicing harmonic changes makes for a more "sophisticated" sound.

Recently I've become interested in tuning systems that naturally suppress octaves. Most scales repeat an ordered set at each octave (i.e., the "major scale" is the ordered sequence of [Major 2nd, Major 2nd, Minor 2nd, Major 2nd, Major 2nd, Major 2nd, Minor 2nd] repeating every octave between tonic pitch classes). I've been experimenting with scales that repeat at the triative (an interval 1901.96 cents wide, approximately the size of a perfect 12th) or the just perfect fifth (a 3/2, which is 701.96 cents).

I currently have my main keyboard tuned to a 3/2-based scale that sounds promising. There are a few 2/1 octaves here and there, but most of them are "off" and sound deliciously 'dissonant.' But every perfect fifth is exactly 3/2 and things resolve to that interval nicely. "Inversions" take on an interesting sonic quality as they invert relative to the perfect fifth. The major third inverts to a minor third, the inversion of a major second is the perfect fourth, etc. It's disorienting at first, but sonically logical and pleasantly other-worldly. Chromatic runs are a blast.

One of the things that makes this system intriguing is that there are many "familiar" sonic reference points. There are several 5-limit major triads (1/1, 5/4, 3/2) and 5-limit minor triads (1/1, 6/5, 3/2) mixed in with some less familiar harmonic revelations. In particular, the root position A minor triad above middle C is intoxicating (the A is tuned to an 11/8 relative to E flat, but treating the A as 1/1 the sounding triad is: 1/1, 96/77, 3/2).

So far I've been improvising with some spare, Feldman-esque textures. This is unfamiliar harmonic territory marked with several familiar-sounding landmarks so it seems natural to slowly unfold the harmonic palette over time so one can perceive the peculiarities of this other-worldly sound. The objective is to compose something that "fits" the system. Otherwise it ends up sounding "out of tune."

Having these intervals replicated at every 3/2 perfect fifth makes this system easily adaptable to non-fretted string instruments within a comfortable range of scordatura options. I could easily imagine tuning the open strings of a cello to match the notes on the re-tuned keyboard and improvising over a texture of natural glissande. Natural harmonics at 1/2, 1/4 or 3/4 of the string length would need to be "suppressed" as those are natural octaves. But the nodes at 1/3 and 2/3 would sound great.