Santa Fe Institute
2 Talks
polansky
june, 2006
EXAMPLES (audio, quotes, charts)
(updated, 6/14/06)
Talk 1: Introduction; Form;
Distance; Morphology; Non-contextual analysis
Intro
- 4 Examples of "music", in
completely different musical "styles"
- Formosan millet chant
("Ritual song for millet sowing: "Passipot-pot". Men's Choir, Bounoun
tribe)
- Cecil Taylor, soloist, "Communications 8,"
by Michael Mantler, Jazz Composer's Orchestra, excerpt
- "Go
Down 'Ol Hannah," Iron Head, Clear Rock, et. al. 1933, Central
State Farm, Sugar Land, Tx.
- "The
Race is On," George Jones
- Quote from
Xenakis' Arts/Sciences: Alloys,
on math and music
- Two pages from The Sacred Harp, showing some
strange explanations of music and sound
Form
- Tenney Meta + Hodos (Frog
Peak Music), Tenney and Polansky "Hierarchical
Temporal Gestalt Perception in Music: A Metric Space Model" (Journal of Music Theory)
- several pages of
examples of HTGM
- Rock and Palmer (Scientific
American): pictures of gestalt formation
- Tenney and Polansky (JMT),
definition of a TG boundary
- simple examples of TG boundaries in Beethoven's Fifth
melody (Meta + Hodos)
- first page and cover of Varése Density
21.5
- TG segmentation of Density
(JMT)
- First page of Ruggles' Portals
(Polansky paper on Ruggles)
- TG segmentation of Portals
- Comparison of computer analysis with Thomas Peterson's
"hand"
analysis of Portals (from
Peterson's early PhD Dissertation on Ruggles' music).
- Sound and analysis examples: Varese Density
21.5, recording and charts; Ruggles' Portals
(recording).
Morphology and distance
- Shapes and ordered values, contour, examples
- Adams: "Melodic contour typology..."
- Seeger: "moods" (Kolinski not shown)
- Number of possible contours (Polansky and Bassein, JMT)
- Possible and impossible contour descriptors (numerical)
- Thirteen possible ternary contours
- Fourteen impossible ternary contours
- Equation for number of
possible contours
- Teitelbaum's Similarity Index
(early example of an L2 norm in music)
- Several morphological metrics examples
- Melodic transformation by mathematically defineable
functions ("Eighth of January")
- OCD, UCD, OCM (from draft of metrics article)
- Two-dimensional metric space of melodies (melodies not
shown)
- Morphing examples
- General morphing equation
- Some pictures of spectral morphs (from Erbe, Polansky, Computer Music Journal article)
- Example of distance, statistics, use of multi-dimensional
scaling: The Casten Variation (Polansky)
- Ruth Crawford Seeger: Piano
Study in Mixed Accents
- The Casten Variation
for solo piano
Non-contextual analysis
- McKay, some
features used in style analysis
- Maneris et al,
- Recent work with Dan Rockmore and Danny Shapira (at
Dartmouth College)
- Pareto graphs of PCR and PNR 3 single piano pieces, Mozart,
Bach,
Bartok
- Bartok: Allegro Barbaro (1911), Bach:
Well-tempered Clavier, Book II, (ca. 1738-42), Prelude in C major; Piano Sonata no. 13 in B-flat major, KV
333 (E 315c) (1778) 3. Allegretto grazioso
- averages, PNR, PCR. Linear and log scales
- scatter plots, 2D, of composers by feature (R2, slope: PNR, PCR)
Talk 2: Experimental Intonation, Optimal
Well-temperament
Introduction to Tuning Theory
- Harmony primer
- A few basic principles: cents, ratios, the concept of pitch
vs.
frequency, just scales
- The fundamentals: the historical tuning problem
- Harmonic complexity and distance: Tenney, Euler (two
different measures)
- Example of complex intonational experiment/usage: Colluricincla Harmonica by Ron
Nagorcka (samplers, bird sounds, fretless electric guitar). Recording
(off his book/cd: Rhythms of the
Tarkine)
- Score
examples showing notation of more-than-ET intonation (Nagorcka): example 1, example 2
- Problem of slendro as a tuning system: recording of
Lokananta CD of Ld. Pankgkur,
Laras slendro ("key") pathet manyura ("mode").
Optimal Well Temperament
