Microtonal Compositions, Any suggestions Options

[S.F.Selecta]

I resenlty have become interested in microtonal compositions and i was wondering if anyone else has dived into this area and has any suggestions on some good material (mostly stuff on the theroy behind it) to get started.

[cheese without p...]

hello,

unfortunately i don't have any success stories to share about notating microtones. Worth looking into is sagittal notation, capable of notating an astounding variety of tuning systems. Downloadable font is there, along with some scripts I wrote to facilitate the use of them in Sibelius. I wish I had a completed score to show you but I don't.

in any case I will recommend scala (for free) which will enable you to explore aurally and theoretically as many tunings as you want to. It can retune midi files intelligently and also do live retuning if you have a midi keyboard.

for sequencing, there is the possibility of using csound with blue, which apparently has a microtonal piano-roll capability.

also worth looking into is X.J. Scott's Li'l Miss Scale Oven which can do oh so much.

As far as learning about microtonality in general from the internet, I have found the writings of Ivor Darreg to be extremely informative and inspiring, Kyle Gann's tuning page very helpful in clearing the air on just intonation, and Erv Wilson's writings completely confusing yet at times enlightening.

I hope this is helpful.