I did a master’s program in Music Technology about 15 years ago. One of my big interests going in was trying to understand why our music system is the way it is. Inspired by learning about tuning systems, my first big project was to make a proof-of-concept piece of software, called TuneBender, that would allow me to compose music that has variable tuning over time–if pitch and key can vary, why not tuning itself? From the research behind that project, I followed threads into all sorts of topics. I eventually reached a point of satisfaction with my understanding, and all of this knowledge has sat, disorganized, in my head ever since.
Almost a year ago, I started trying to explain this stuff in a text message convo with a good friend. It all seemed so simple in my head. But once I got started, it became clear that the web of concepts was deep and tangled. Fitting it all into texts was absurd. I shifted to my computer. I also realized that it’s very possible that nobody has ever attempted to make a coherent, accessible justification of our music system. There countless resources on music theory, but every one I’ve ever encountered starts with the assumption that we already have this strange system of twelve notes, of which seven are normal and five are “accidental”. Music history class touches on the history of theory and notation, but it’s not the main emphasis.
I thought, maybe the justification part was where I could make a useful contribution, attempting to synthesize a whole bunch of stuff I’ve learned about classical music theory, music history, acoustics, music perception, and mathematical theories of music into something accessible to an audience with a performer’s understanding of music, but without an academic background in all those subjects. I also felt I could use my skills as a software developer to build demos to illustrate the concepts and allow the reader to play.
As it came together, I ended up revisiting a bunch of material for the first time in years, and many things hit differently after a decade of being much more of a music fan than an academic. I also released that while there are many reasons our system is justified, it is not the only justifiable system. It is fundamentally a compromise between ideals that are often incompatible, and the need to have a system people could practically use an analog world. But each of those compromise points is a place where the doors not taken lead to entirely different possibilities. These can be seen in music from before the advent of tonality, folk and world music, and in avant garde music. Software and sound synthesis open up even more possibilities, where musical conventions can be varied even within a single composition. Ironically, that was the intuition I glimpsed when I came up with that original dynamic tuning project.
The text is under revision, I have more demos to build, and I have big ideas for how to improve upon the ability to explore the content. But, here it is, in all of its imperfection:
Never Down, Always Up 