Name: Basse Danze
Channel: Prent Rodgers
Description: Free MP3 download! Licensing options are available for this track. Basse Danze, a 15th-century Italian dance form. It literally means low dance, where the dancers stay low to the ground and do not leap into the air.

Basse Danze

Prent Rodgers

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Basse Danze, a 15th-century Italian dance form. It literally means low dance, where the dancers stay low to the ground and do not leap into the air.

microtonal csound prent r

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Prent Rodgers

Microtonal Music by Prent Rodgers. Made with Csound.

I am a composer of music using Microtonal intonation systems, including the Harry Partch Tonality Diamond. These systems draw on Just Intonation, which is different from the normal 12-tone equal temperment that western music has been based on for the last 300+ years. Some of the tuning may sound "off" to modern ears, but if you listen, you will hear sounds that are unique in the world, with a whole world between the 1:1 and the 2:1 octave. The music is created using the tool Csound, which is a publicly available, freely distributed digital signal processing tool with the ability to specify exact tone, timbre, and other characteristics of individual tones with greater specificity than the MIDI standard. All the pieces on this site are built using sample-based instruments from the McGill University Master Sample Library.

Song Info

Genre

Classical • Contemporary

Charts

Peak #74

Peak in subgenre #19

Author

Prent Rodgers

Rights

2001

Uploaded

December 11, 2003

Track Files

MP3

MP3 3.4 MB • 128 kbps • 0:00

Story behind the song

This is a song based on six notes derived from the otonality, taken mostly three at a time. The ratios of the primary triad are 6:7:9. This triad has a minor feel to it, but the minor third is very flat compared to the minor key derived from the utonality. It gives the triad a sharp edge to it. To derive additional triads from the six note scale, I walk up the scale through five other triads: 7:8:10; 8:9:11; 9:10:12; 10:11:14; 11:12:16. Triads that include the 11 ratio are especially challenging. These six chords make up the harmonic material of the piece.

The piece was made using a sampling orchestra written using Csound, with samples taken from the McGill University Master Samples CD-ROM. Instruments include the vibraphone, guitar, marimba, bassoon, flute, cello, violin, percussion, contra bassoon and archlute. The feel of the song is kind of like a medieval dance song, hence the title: Basse Danze, a 15th-century Italian dance form. It literally means low dance, where the dancers stay low to the ground and do not leap into the air. It is typically in 6/4 meter.