MIDI notes and enharmonic equivalence – towards unequal temperaments in Clojure by Tim Regan.
From the post:
“Positiv Division, Manila Cathedral Pipe Organ” by Cealwyn on flickr
One current ‘when-I-get-spare-time-in-the-evening’ project is to explore how different keys sounded before the advent of equal temperament. Partly out of interest and partly because whenever I hear/read discussions of how keys got their distinctive characteristics (for example in answers to this question on the Musical Practise and Performance Stack Exchange) temperament is raised as an issue or explanation.
Having recently enjoyed Karsten Schmidt‘s Clojure workshop at Resonate 2014 Clojure and Overtone seem a good place to start. My first steps are with the easiest non-equal temperament to get my head around, the Pythagorean Temperament. My (albeit limited) understanding of temperaments has been helped enormously by the amazing chapters on the subject in David Benson’s book Music, a mathematical offering.
The pipes in the image caught my attention and reminded me of Jim Mason and his long association with pipe organs. Incredibly complex instruments, Jim was working on a topic map that mapped the relationships between a pipe organ’s many parts.
Well, that and enharmonic equivalence. 😉
Wikipedia avers (sans the hyperlinks):
In modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note, interval, or key signature that is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature but “spelled”, or named differently.
Use that definition with caution as the Wikipedia articles goes on to state that the meaning of enharmonic equivalent has changed several times in history and across tuning systems.
Tim’s post will give you a start towards exploring enharmonic equivalence for yourself.
Clojure is not a substitute for a musician but you can explore music while waiting for a musician to arrive.