Played entirely with the Semantic Danielou-53 (pedagogical microtonal software conceived by the composer), this piece was originally meant as a demonstration of the Ragisma (4375 / 4374), a magistral bridge between 5 and 7 harmonic limits, but revealed unexpected microtonal musical properties. The notes are following the outer triangle of the scale lattice, being used here as a score. One of its surprises is that it contains the Indian Raga Marva (sympathetic strings-like arpeggios towards the end of the piece), with its tonic in the note “1” (A) of the scale, and how Raga Marva here accomodates itself with the close-to-7-limit intervals to the right side of the lattice.
! ragisma.scl ! Ragisma (4375/4374) demonstration scale 12 ! 128/125 ! = 5 648/625 ! = 81 729/625 ! 768/625 ! = 3 800/625 ! (= 32/25) = 25 864/625 ! = 27 972/625 ! = 243 1000/625 ! (= 8/5) = 125 1024/625 ! = 1 2187/1250 ! 1152/625 ! = 9 2/1 ! ! Based on Dudon scale of [4375/4374] divisors : ! 1 3 5 (7) 9 25 27 (35) 81 125 (175) 243 625 729 (875) 2187 ! Seven pure fifths over A gives 2187 (= Bb key), ! while 4 pure major thirds over A gives 625 (= C key), ! and 7th harmonic over C gives 4375 (~ Bb key). ! Difference with 2*2187 is one Ragisma 7*(5^4) / 2*(3^7) = 4375/4374 ! Jacques Dudon 2012 for the Semantic Danielou-53
Jacques Dudon is a Just Intonation composer, creator of more than 500 new musical instruments, and scientific director of the Atelier d'Exploration Harmonique (Saint-Affrique, France). He is the inventor of the "photosonic disk" an optical JI instrument that inspired him to create thousands of what he calls "differentially coherent" scales. His CD "Lumières Audibles", performed with the photosonic disk, has been remarked by many composers, musical critics and musicians. He teaches Just Intonation, vocal training, microtonal composition, polyrhythms, musical pedagogy through a variety of workshops. He has been the Director of the EMMT (Ensemble de Musique Microtonale du Thoronet) between 1994 and 2010 and practiced the Semantic system in a series of compositions entitled "Semantic Works" that were performed by the EMMT in 2007 in Le Thoronet, Venise, Rome and Paris, then devised the musical, instrumental and pedagogic aspects of the latest Semantic instrument, the Semantic Danielou-53, presented in february