Tuning Playfully: Composed and Adaptive Tunings in bitKlavier

Trueman, Dan; Bhatia, Aatish; Mulshine, Michael; Trevisan, Theo

doi:10.1162/comj_a_00519

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Findings from additionally support SPCS as a predictor of fit for inharmonic spectra (such as are produced by bells and bars) in microtonal tunings. Given the generalizability of SPCS (and several of the other musical covariates) to non-standard tunings and spectra, related models may be useful for analysing tonalities induced by music for prepared pianos (digital or physical: Trueman et al (2020); Sethares and Hobby ( 2018)) or, with the application of additional time-windowing, dynamic tonal hierarchies that may emerge from continuous pitch systems (Sethares et al, 2009;Dean, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustical and cultural explanations for contextual tonal stability

Hearne,

Dean,

Milne

2023

Preprint

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A defining aspect of tonality in Western music is that different musical pitches are perceived to have different stabilities: listeners expect unstable pitches to resolve to stable pitches such as the tonic, which is the most stable. To investigate possible explanations for these hierarchies of tonal stability, we conducted three experiments where participants rated the ‘fit’ and ‘stability’ of probe tones contextualized by a variety of musical scales including familiar and unfamiliar scales in 12-tone equal temperament, and the ‘stability’ of probe tones contextualized by unfamiliar scales in 22-tone equal temperament. Context scale pitches were presented in random order to minimize tonal cues beyond scale structure. Using Bayesian multilevel regression, we modelled the ratings with an acoustical feature (spectral pitch class similarity) and a culture-dependent feature (scale-degree prevalence in a culturally appropriate corpus), along with several covariates. Across all scales, spectral pitch class similarity is strongly predictive of the responses and, for the familiar scales where corpus data are obtainable, prevalence makes an additional independent contribution. Furthermore, spectral pitch class similarity is a better predictor of stability than is a simple binary indicator of whether the probe’s pitch is in the context. These findings show that, for Western enculturated listeners, spectral pitch class similarity approximates the perceived stability of non-simultaneous pitches analogously to how spectral features, such as roughness and harmonicity, approximate the perceived stability of simultaneous pitches.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustical and cultural explanations for contextual tonal stability

Hearne,

Dean,

Milne

2023

Preprint

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“…These are beyond the scope of this article but are described elsewhere (cf. the companion article in this issue of CMJ, Trueman et al 2020).…”

Section: The Tempo and Tuning Preparationsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…5: "Wallumrød" from Nostalgic Synchronic illustrates many of the core bitKlavier behaviors (see Figure 17). The opening chord launches a regular fading pulse (triangular noteheads in the bottommost staff of the Trueman et al 2020).…”

Section: An Examplementioning

confidence: 99%

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Preparing the Digital Piano: Introducing bitKlavier

Trueman

Mulshine

2019

Computer Music Journal

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This article describes a new kind of digital musical instrument, a novel assemblage of the familiar MIDI keyboard with custom interactive software. Inspired by John Cage's prepared piano, our instrument both takes advantage of and subverts the pianist's hard-earned, embodied training, while also inviting an extended configuration stage that “prepares” the instrument to behave in composition-specific, idiosyncratic ways. Through its flexible—though constrained—design, the instrument aims to inspire a playful approach to instrument building, composition, and performance. We outline the development history of our instrument, called bitKlavier, its current design, and some of its musical possibilities.

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Tuning Playfully: Composed and Adaptive Tunings in bitKlavier

Cited by 2 publications

References 10 publications

Acoustical and cultural explanations for contextual tonal stability

Acoustical and cultural explanations for contextual tonal stability

Preparing the Digital Piano: Introducing bitKlavier

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