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[Nyxalinth]

Holy shit.  I'm no musician, but this looks so damn impressive.  Any musicians here who can explain in layman's terms?  My hat is off to Toady!

[Eagleon]

Sure! Qualifications: I am bored, and a musician.

24 notes in an octave is pretty intense. It sounds like this: https://instaud.io/fyf
From there it talks about quartertones. That's 4 tones per note, or 96 tones in total. It sounds approximately like this, though a qualified Plays of Style musician will cringe at the uneven temperment of my playing: https://instaud.io/fyd
Or if you prefer: https://instaud.io/fyc

This may as well be a slide. There's almost an unlimited amount of variation here.

I have no idea what a zur or an oslak sounds like, but since they each have both melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic elements, I can guess a stringed instrument or maybe percussive woodwind playing. I'll just keep using synths if you please.

A tonic note is whatever begins a chord. We can take any one of the 96 tones in an octave as our tonic so long as it satisfies the requirements of the scale. The degrees of the quartertone scale is simply 1-96
For the ekxox chord, 1-7-17 is the progression - first the tonic, then the 7th quartertone above the tonic, and the 17th. There are 79 ekxox chords available within an octave, and the last 7 extend into the next.  Both of the non-tonic notes are prime numbers, which is absolutely miserable to translate into our usual 12 note scale. Fortunately, I'm a genius when it comes to automation in FL Studio Here's every ekxox chord from a4 to a5: https://instaud.io/fya
Beautiful. A charming yet evocative chord that brings to mind the harmonics of bees. I had to pitch-shift the last 17 chords because of limitations in the way FL handles its mapping formulas, and because simply pitch-shifting each channel would be too imprecise - 1200 cents in an octave means each note is 12.5 cents apart, and Harmor can't handle fractional pitch changes as easily.
Here it is paulstretched: https://instaud.io/fyb
The ozse is somewhat more pedestrian, but more harmonically pleasing - it only contains one prime number, which is shared with ekxox. The chords sound like this: https://instaud.io/fy7
Again, I pitch-shifted the last 24 chords to cover the ones that rise into the next octave. Here it is paulstretched: https://instaud.io/fy9

The stylistic components are more complicated, and where the virtuosity of a player comes in to conquer such an amazing musical system. I can only imagine the utterly mind-bending ways that instrumentalists in this form overcome its intrinsic harmonic limitations, but I could guess that the instruments involve eliminate some of the dissonance. In any case, here's some random full chord noodling and a sick Taiko beat: https://instaud.io/fy6

Disclaimer: I am not a musician. I've also had 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Edit: Moved to instaudio, because I don't think my dropbox will be too happy about this

[Ysyua]

-snip-

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sure! Qualifications: I am bored, and a musician.

24 notes in an octave is pretty intense. It sounds like this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46645289/PlaysOfStyleOctave.mp3
From there it talks about quartertones. That's 4 tones per note, or 96 tones in total. It sounds approximately like this, though a qualified Plays of Style musician will cringe at the uneven temperment of my playing: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46645289/quarternotesfast.mp3
Or if you prefer: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46645289/quarternotesslow.mp3

This may as well be a slide. There's almost an unlimited amount of variation here.

I have no idea what a zur or an oslak sounds like, but since they each have both melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic elements, I can guess a stringed instrument or maybe percussive woodwind playing. I'll just keep using synths if you please.

A tonic note is whatever begins a chord. We can take any one of the 96 tones in an octave as our tonic so long as it satisfies the requirements of the scale. The degrees of the quartertone scale is simply 1-96
For the ekxox pentatonic chord, 1-7-17 is the progression - first the tonic, then the 7th quartertone above the tonic, and the 17th. There are 79 ekxox chords available within an octave, and the last 7 extend into the next.  Both of the non-tonic notes are prime numbers, which is absolutely miserable to translate into our usual 12 note scale. Fortunately, I'm a genius when it comes to automation in FL Studio Here's every ekxox chord from a4 to a5: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46645289/ekxox%20chords.mp3
Beautiful. A charming yet evocative chord that brings to mind the harmonics of bees. I had to pitch-shift the last 17 chords because of limitations in the way FL handles its mapping formulas, and because simply pitch-shifting each channel would be too imprecise - 1200 cents in an octave means each note is 12.5 cents apart, and Harmor can't handle fractional pitch changes as easily.
Here it is paulstretched: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46645289/ekxox%20chords%20slow.mp3
The ozse is somewhat more pedestrian, but more harmonically pleasing - it only contains one prime number, which is shared with ekxox. The chords sound like this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46645289/ozse%20chords.mp3
Again, I pitch-shifted the last 24 chords to cover the ones that rise into the next octave. Here it is paulstretched: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46645289/ozse%20chords%20slow.mp3

The stylistic components are more complicated, and where the virtuosity of a player comes in to conquer such an amazing musical system. I can only imagine the utterly mind-bending ways that instrumentalists in this form overcome its intrinsic harmonic limitations, but I could guess that the instruments involve eliminate some of the dissonance. In any case, here's some random full chord noodling and a sick Taiko beat: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46645289/The%20Lonesome%20Wires%20and%20Shame.mp3

Disclaimer: I am not a musician. I've also had 3 1/2 hours of sleep.

Wow! Awesome stuff. Looking forward to more people composing music, writing poems, etc for the styles that the game spits out. Particularly excited for people writing poems in the native languages of the game.

[Larix]

I think you've erroneously quartered the intended tonal steps. The text talks of "notes" and of "quarter-tones". Those are the same, there aren't four quarter-tones to a note. When the 25th quartertone "finishes the octave", there's really no other interpretation i find credible.

The structure shows that at least in this kind of music, the zur is used as a standalone instrument, while the oslak is used more to accompany the singer - the two themes are first presented melodically by the zur, the melody of the exposition and synthesis is carried by the singer. The performance goes from loud and fast at the first theme to "fading away" with the second theme before picking up again.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the notice that the singer should "recite" the poetry, while further performance notes state that in some passages, the melody is voiced by the singer. Is this supposed to be melodic recitation, like in a recitative? Or is the reciting over past the first theme and the singer then vocalises, using her voice as an instrument?

The uto pentatonic consists of what we call the minor chord (tonic, minor third and perfect fifth) as "ekxox" and minor sixth, "deep blue" major seventh and octave as "ozse". The middle note of the ozse is the only one that absolutely requires a quartertone scale, it sits halfway between minor and major seventh. Staying close to standard notation with an arbitrarily-chosen tonic of A, the notes would be

A - c - e   f  - +g - a
1.  7. 15. 17. 22. 25.
|ekxox  | | ozse     |

(+g - g-half-sharp, i.e. one quartertone above g)

Qualifications: hobby musician with some education in music theory

[Isngrim]

Beautiful. A charming yet evocative chord that brings to mind the harmonics of bees.

or music to play when sneaking up on somebody...

Wow! Awesome stuff. Looking forward to more people composing music, writing poems, etc for the styles that the game spits out. Particularly excited for people writing poems in the native languages of the game.

it would be cool to see some of the music put into a soundsense sound pack.

[Eagleon]

I overlooked the section about uto somehow. It's amusing to me to think of a microtone scale like this, but I suppose 12 is semitones, so 24 being quartertones makes sense. Also, lack of sleep. Edit: this may be call for a rather esoteric improvement to grammar in case one of the chords in a musical style doesn't complete the octave. Talking about notes as tones, I assumed they were the full tonal steps of the quartertones mentioned, so 24*4.

[cochramd]

You know, if we could get a description of the instruments used, I bet someone(s) could create a pretty good recreation of the song.

[Eagleon]

You know, if we could get a description of the instruments used, I bet someone(s) could create a pretty good recreation of the song.

This is why I suggested this: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=153250.0, because it's a sort of modding that ties with my interests in synthesis. I want to hear weird little randomly generated tunes from my tavern plucked from the instrument, music style, and song descriptions, and share settings I make for physical modelling such as from Xoxos. At the very least I want to hear a little bit of how an instrument sounds according to the descriptions, because it's hard to just imagine a new instrument. Then maybe you'd get people actually making the instruments in real life if something good happens out of it.

It'd be a bit more work to actually get music going, but you could start either by generating the music in MIDI form or generating the instrument sounds, played when viewing their descriptions. Also, randomly generated poetry can be hilarious.

[Baffler]

-wrong thread-

[Nyxalinth]

Thank you, everyone.  I was not disappointed!

[tjg92]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sure! Qualifications: I am bored, and a musician.

24 notes in an octave is pretty intense. It sounds like this: https://instaud.io/fyf
From there it talks about quartertones. That's 4 tones per note, or 96 tones in total. It sounds approximately like this, though a qualified Plays of Style musician will cringe at the uneven temperment of my playing: https://instaud.io/fyd
Or if you prefer: https://instaud.io/fyc

This may as well be a slide. There's almost an unlimited amount of variation here.

I have no idea what a zur or an oslak sounds like, but since they each have both melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic elements, I can guess a stringed instrument or maybe percussive woodwind playing. I'll just keep using synths if you please.

A tonic note is whatever begins a chord. We can take any one of the 96 tones in an octave as our tonic so long as it satisfies the requirements of the scale. The degrees of the quartertone scale is simply 1-96
For the ekxox chord, 1-7-17 is the progression - first the tonic, then the 7th quartertone above the tonic, and the 17th. There are 79 ekxox chords available within an octave, and the last 7 extend into the next.  Both of the non-tonic notes are prime numbers, which is absolutely miserable to translate into our usual 12 note scale. Fortunately, I'm a genius when it comes to automation in FL Studio Here's every ekxox chord from a4 to a5: https://instaud.io/fya
Beautiful. A charming yet evocative chord that brings to mind the harmonics of bees. I had to pitch-shift the last 17 chords because of limitations in the way FL handles its mapping formulas, and because simply pitch-shifting each channel would be too imprecise - 1200 cents in an octave means each note is 12.5 cents apart, and Harmor can't handle fractional pitch changes as easily.
Here it is paulstretched: https://instaud.io/fyb
The ozse is somewhat more pedestrian, but more harmonically pleasing - it only contains one prime number, which is shared with ekxox. The chords sound like this: https://instaud.io/fy7
Again, I pitch-shifted the last 24 chords to cover the ones that rise into the next octave. Here it is paulstretched: https://instaud.io/fy9

The stylistic components are more complicated, and where the virtuosity of a player comes in to conquer such an amazing musical system. I can only imagine the utterly mind-bending ways that instrumentalists in this form overcome its intrinsic harmonic limitations, but I could guess that the instruments involve eliminate some of the dissonance. In any case, here's some random full chord noodling and a sick Taiko beat: https://instaud.io/fy6

Disclaimer: I am not a musician. I've also had 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Edit: Moved to instaudio, because I don't think my dropbox will be too happy about this

Somewhat off topic, but are you manually automating pitch? Is there a non-pain-in-the-ass way to do that?

[Eagleon]

Somewhat off topic, but are you manually automating pitch? Is there a non-pain-in-the-ass way to do that?

You don't want to know the way I did it originally. It's the definition of pain-in-the-ass non-manual pitch automation - I literally just chopped up the chords from a complex automation of pitch that couldn't even reach a full octave of articulation.

Instead, I probably should have just used a keyboard controller and mapped 8 octaves (96 keys total), used those as the note values, and assigned the pitch wheel of an actual instrument to the controller. Then compose in the controller channel, copy it over to the instrument by dropping the notes down to a few keys, and play the whole pattern. That's a pain in the ass in a different way, but at least it lets you actually write music, vs randomly changing the length of a sample of a sequence of chords haha.
I know it's not the correct interpretation of the description, but for the lulz: https://instaud.io/fEX

[Dozebôm Lolumzalěs]

This is so cool:

My Friend Sadness is an example of The Sienna Glitter. The work has no particular subject. Overall, the composition is masterful.

The Sienna Glitter is a form of music used for entertainment originating in the Pregnant Kingdom. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce invididual pieces of music which can be performed. The music is played on one to four kajeth, an onec, and one to five cadep. The musical voices join in melody, counterpoint, and harmony. The entire performance should feel mysterious. The melody has long phrases throughout the form. Chords, seldom-used, are sparse -- intervals and single pitches are favored. It is performed using the ramet scale and in the zomuth rhythm.

The onec always plays legato. The voice stays in the resonant low register.

The Sienna Glitter has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a verse and a chorus possibly all repeated and a coda.

The verse is voiced by the melody of the onec, the melody of the cadap, and the harmony of the kajeth. The passage accelerates as it proceeds, and it is to be moderately loud. The onec ranges from the middle register to the high register, each of the cadap stays in the resonant low register, and each of the kajeth stays in the raucous high register.

The chorus is voiced by the melody of the onec, the counterpoint of the kajeth, and the counterpoint of the cadap. The passage is consistently slowing, and it is to be moderately loud. The onec ranges from the low register to the middle register, each of the kajeth stays in the raucous high register, and each of the cadap stays in the resonant low registe. The passage has mid-length phrases in the counterpoint melody.

The coda is voiced by the melody of the cadap, the counterpoint of the kajeth, and the counterpoint of the onec. The passage is moderately paced, and it is to be moderately soft. Each of the cadap stays in the resonant low register, each of the kajeth covers its entire range from the wispy low register to the raucous high register, and the onec ranges from the low register to the middle register. The passage has short phrases in the counterpoint melody.

Scales are conceived of as two chords built using a division of the perfect fourth interval into eight notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance. After a scale is constructed, notes are named according to degree. The names are stalcon (spoken sta), nek (ne), lástta (lá), cish (ci), ani (an), shato (sha), and almef (al).

As always, the ramet heptatonic scale is though of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named ilpi and idla.

The ilpi tetrachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 5th, and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.

The idla tetrachord is the 1st, the 4th, the 6th, and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.

The zomuth rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into four bars in a 4-4-4-4 pattern. The beats are named bepa (spoken be), noloc (no), kes (ke), and suku (su). The beat is stressed as follows:

| x - x -| x x x x | x' - - - | x' x x x|

where ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat, - is silent, and | indicates a bar.