
Show HN: Tune.js – A microtonal web audio library with 3300 historical tunings - suncanon
http://abbernie.github.io/tune/
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abbernie
@Zuider, I am very familiar with Scala! In fact, the scales contained in the
Tune.js archive come from the Max Magic Microtuner .mtx archive, which was
compiled from the Scala .scl archive. It seems the .scl archive has surpassed
the .mtx one, which I think was last updated by Victor Cerullo in 2010. I'll
have to try to integrate the new additions to Scala into the tune.js library.
I'd also like to add functionality where you can define your own scale. Maybe
for version 2.0!

As to your point about pitch variation in microtonal music, that is often the
case in a lot of traditional musics that make use of microtones, for sure. It
is part of the character of a lot of that music, and some of the Irish music
that you mention, to have a lot of subtle variation and microtonal
embellishments. I read somewhere that non-fixed pitch instruments, such as
violins or the voice, tend toward pure intervals naturally.

But there is a lot of music on fixed pitch microtonal instruments, such as the
music and instruments of Harry Partch, La Monte Young's Well Tuned Piano, and
refretted guitars.

Lastly, you could definitely program the kind of variation and fluidity into
the web audio instruments that you use with tune.js. The demo just uses a
piano sample for demonstration, and to have long sustain to hear the
microtonal harmonies. I would love to hear this used with more portamento or
with a pitch bend function, to get more natural variation.

Thanks for sharing the Irish music links, I'll definitely take a look!

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coroxout
Thank you for using the standard tracker note keys on the demo page! I look
forward to exploring the library in more depth.

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Zuider
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.

[http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/downloads.html](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...](http://www.itma.ie/digitallibrary/print-
collection/henebry-richard-irish-music)

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...](http://www.itma.ie/digitallibrary/print-
collection/henebry-a-handbook-of-irish-music-1928)

As far as I know, nobody has tried to recreate his transcriptions.

~~~
abbernie
Thanks for the note! I replied above (new to HN, still getting my bearings!)

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yellowapple
When set to xenakis_chrom, "D1 E1 B0 C1 D1 C1 B0 C1 B0 A0 B0 C0" on that piano
ends up sounding very familiar :)

Very interesting little library. I'll definitely have to take a look at it.

