EIVIND GROVEN
5 years ago when I first stepped into the world of Just Intonation it was La Tienda cigars, Tambura Motown drummer recommending Harry Partch. Now the culmination of the journey through TONE has led me to Eivind Groven.
2 men who's lives parralel not only in the years they lived 1900 to 1975 (or so) but they both worked through the Just Intonation problem but from very different angles. Harry with his "throw off the shackles" plunge into it complete with the image of him "splashing around in the ocean" view, creating his own world of musical instruments . To Eivind with a view of maintaining the standard keyboard and having a machine select just intervals from a choice of 36!
My journey of course led to the idea of a practical system to "Add Just" to "regular" music. A system that would use 36 tones. offset by +14 and -14. I found Eivind Groven's work by googling "36 tone" "just intonation" or something and was amazed at what I discovered. Someone who spent years developing and perfecting such a system. Now that I have been using Groven Max software and understand how it works I am aware of how crude my system was in lacking the detail. I (as I have written before) was not worried about the 2 cent falisities in the 4th and 5th where as Groven's system covers that with an ingenius system of offsets. Truth be told I'm not really "worried" at all about tempering the 5ths. the 3rds 6ths and 7ths however being adjusted is a BIG STEP away from the confines of ET. I do concede however that there is an even greater depth that comes with the more complex off sets of Eivind Groven.
I am thankful for this man and the courage he had to act upon his intuition and ear. Groven, (like Partch) created new ways for Just Intonation to be heard. You could say Partch put it out of reach whereas Groven quite literally put in in one's hands.
2 men who's lives parralel not only in the years they lived 1900 to 1975 (or so) but they both worked through the Just Intonation problem but from very different angles. Harry with his "throw off the shackles" plunge into it complete with the image of him "splashing around in the ocean" view, creating his own world of musical instruments . To Eivind with a view of maintaining the standard keyboard and having a machine select just intervals from a choice of 36!
My journey of course led to the idea of a practical system to "Add Just" to "regular" music. A system that would use 36 tones. offset by +14 and -14. I found Eivind Groven's work by googling "36 tone" "just intonation" or something and was amazed at what I discovered. Someone who spent years developing and perfecting such a system. Now that I have been using Groven Max software and understand how it works I am aware of how crude my system was in lacking the detail. I (as I have written before) was not worried about the 2 cent falisities in the 4th and 5th where as Groven's system covers that with an ingenius system of offsets. Truth be told I'm not really "worried" at all about tempering the 5ths. the 3rds 6ths and 7ths however being adjusted is a BIG STEP away from the confines of ET. I do concede however that there is an even greater depth that comes with the more complex off sets of Eivind Groven.
I am thankful for this man and the courage he had to act upon his intuition and ear. Groven, (like Partch) created new ways for Just Intonation to be heard. You could say Partch put it out of reach whereas Groven quite literally put in in one's hands.
posted by Paul Seburn at Friday, March 30, 2012
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