Help needed with “Tintinnabulation” script (for Arvo Pärt fans)

[wearetemporary]

Hey all,

 

I’m a huge Arvo Pärt fan and would love a script that could draw on some of his basic tininnabulation techniques. Would something like the below be possible?

 

1) when a note is played, a second pitch is generated (both original and second pitch sound)

 

2) this second pitch must be selected from a pitch class that can be specified in the interface (any number of the 12 chromatic pitches), similar to how auto tune custom note selections work. This pitch class can have anywhere from 1 to 12 pitches selected). This pitch class restricts only the added polyphonic notes and does not filter the input pitches. All input pitches sound “as is”.

 

3) now for the juicy part… is there a way the script can be set to choose the nearest pitch (or second nearest, or third nearest, etc) out of the selected pitch class and then specify whether that pitch is the next nearest “up” from the inputted note or “down”? And also exclude unisons?

 

Let me give you three examples:

 

Example A:

 

- I select the pitches C, E, G in the pitch class

- I select “next nearest” and “up”

- I play C4 and hear C4 and E4 (since we’re not allowing unisons the next nearest is E4, and not a second C4); I play E5 and hear E5 and G5, I play G#3 and hear G#3 and C4.

 

Example B:

 

- I select C, E, G

- I select “second nearest” and “down”

- I play A4 and hear A4 and E4 (the next nearest down is G4 but it is skipped, as we’ve selected “second nearest” down), I play D3 and hear D3 and G2,

 

Example C:

 

- I select D#, F, F#, G, G#

- I select “third nearest” and “up”

- I play C3 and hear C3 and F#3; I play G#4 and hear G#4 and F#5

 

Does this make sense? Is this possible?

 

Bonus ideas:

- more than two voice polyphony, or in Pärt‘s language: more than one “tintinnabuli voice”… ie. T1, T2, T3 etc. and every voice can have it’s own “nearest” and “up/down” settings

- a switch to toggle on or off if input note is sounded or not

- a third “up/down” mode: “alternate” (a common feature in Pärt’s music)—ie. with C,E,G and “next nearest” and “alternate” selected, I hit C3 and hear C3/E3 then hit C3 again and hear C3/G2). Or “second nearest” and “alternate” etc.

 

Any help with this would be AMAZING!

 

Something similar exists in Max for Live (it’s called the “Tintinnabulator”), but I don’t use Ableton and would love to have this for Logic. Kind of an automatic Arvo Pärt generator, at least if you keep pitch class selections triadic and note inputs diatonic (which in my case I don’t want to… hence why a custom pitch class and not scales would be ideal to allow for a non-diatonic “tintinnabuli voice” and greater pitch flexibility). That way one can stay closer to Pärt’s style, but also take this technique into a more atonal or “set theory” territory, if so inclined.

[Atlas007]

I think that part of what you described could be achieved using the Chord trigger MIDI fx...

[wearetemporary]

I appreciate the response, and you might be right that Chord Trigger FXs can do some small aspect of what I’m describing, but unfortunately, the devil is in the details when it comes to making this musical technique special.

[Mattin Zeberio]

What a great idea.

I don't have any idea on how to do it but I'd love to know more if you do get to program it! I'm an electronic music producer and a big Pärt fan too.