The Art and Science of Tuning

This lecture presented the rich history of musicians’ engagement with pitch.

From the tuning systems of Babylon, Pythagoras and Hindustani ragas, through the temperaments of the Baroque and Classical eras and arriving at contemporary electronic, blues, jazz and global practices, the lecture explored how musicians have organised, sliced and manipulated the pitch continuum for expressive effect.

In so doing, the lecture reveals the mechanics that determine the 12 notes of the piano keyboard and the beautiful spectrum of pitch colours between them.

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/sites/default/files/transcript/2024-01-18-1800_Mermikides-T.pdf

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1904814/14397746-the-art-and-science-of-tuning?client_source=small_player&iframe=true

References and Further Reading

Bor, J. (1999). The Raga Guide: A survey of 74 Hindustani ragas. Nimbus Records with Rotterdam Conservatory of Music.

Bowan, K. (2012). Living between Worlds Ancient and Modern: The Musical Collaboration of Kathleen Schlesinger and Elsie Hamilton. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 137(2), 197–242. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23321886

Chestnut, J. (1977) “Mozart’s Teaching of Intonation” Journal of the American Musicological Society Vol. 30, No. 2

Cutting, C. B. (2018). “Microtonal Analysis of ‘Blue Notes’ and the Blues Scale.” Empirical Musicology Review, 13(1-2), 84-99. https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v13i1-2.6316

Daniélou, A. (2010). The Rāgas of Northern Indian music. Munshiram Manoharlal.

Duffin RW. How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care). 1st ed. W.W. Norton; 2007.

Ellis, A. (1880) edited Gillin, E. J.(2024). Science and sound in nineteenth-century Britain. Routledge.

Fletcher, P. (2004). World musics in context: A comprehensive survey of the world’s major musical cultures. Oxford University Press.

Heartz, D. (1973). Thomas Attwood’s Lessons in Composition with Mozart. Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 100, 175–183. http://www.jstor.org/stable/766182

Helmholtz, H. von. (2011). On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music (A. J. Ellis, Trans.). Cambridge University Press.

Hughes, C. W., & Partch, H. (1950). Genesis of a Music. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 8(4), 273. https://doi.org/10.2307/426238

Kraus, N. (2021). Of Sound Mind: How our brain constructs a meaningful sonic world. The MIT Press.

Langton, Jo (2020). Systems, Objects and Space in the work of Beatriz Ferreyra, Delia Derbyshire, Éliane Radigue and Teresa Rampazzi. PhD Thesis. University of Surrey.

Ladefoged, P, 1962, Elements of Acoustic Phonetics, University of Chicago Press

Lehman, B. (2005). Bach’s Extraordinary Temperament: Our Rosetta Stone: 1. Early Music, 33(1), 3–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3519512

Rehding, A. (2016) “Instruments of Music Theory.” Music Theory Online 22, no. 4. Available at: https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.4/mto.16.22.4.rehding.html

Schlesinger, K. (1970). The Greek aulos; a study of its mechanism and of its relation to the modal system of ancient Greek music. Followed by a survey of the Greek harmoniai in survival or rebirth in folk-music. Bouma’s Boekhuis.

Titon, J. T., & Cooley, T. J. (Eds.). (2016). Worlds of music: An introduction to the music of the world’s peoples (Sixth edition). Cengage Learning.

Tosi, P.F. (1743) Observations on the Florid Song, English translation. Available at: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26477/26477-h/26477-h.htm

Mermikides, M. (2022) Quiet Virtuosity. Keynote Presentation. International Guitar Research Centre Conference: Surrey, UK

Willis, L. S. (2019). Comprehensibility and Ben Johnston’s String Quartet No. 9. Music Theory Online, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.25.1.6

Web Resources

Ghosh, P. (2023) ‘Perfect’ Solar System found in search of Alien Life. BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67488931

Harry Partch’s Instruments: https://www.harrypartch.com/instruments

Mermikides, M. (2015-2023) Distant Harmony. Available at: https://www.miltonline.com/hm-compositions/distant-harmony/

Mermikides, M. & Tanczos, A. (2012) The Science behind The Arts: The Maths behind Music. Video presentation. https://youtu.be/gbP6h0dtcQw?si=M6Jqe8DaG7Z0-YW2

Xenharmonic wiki

https://www.kylegann.com/BJNotation.html

Professor Milton Mermikides

Gresham Professor of Music (2023 – )

Milton Mermikides is a composer, guitarist, technologist, academic and educator in a wide range of musical styles and has collaborated with artists and scientists as diverse as Evelyn Glennie, Tim Minchin, Pat Martino, Peter Zinovieff, John Williams and Brian Eno. Son of a CERN nuclear physicist, he was raised with an enthusiasm for both the arts and sciences, an eclecticism which has been maintained throughout his teaching, research and creative career.

He is a graduate of the London School of Economics (BSc), Berklee College of Music (BMus) and the University of Surrey (PhD). He has lectured, exhibited and given keynote presentations at organisations like the Royal Academy of Music, TEDx, Royal Musical Association, British Library, Smithsonian Institute and The Science Museum and his work has been featured extensively in the press. His music, research and graphic art are published and featured by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony and more, and he has won awards, scholarships and commendations for writing, teaching, research and his charity work.

Milton is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music, Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre, an Ableton Certified Trainer, and lives in London with his wife, the guitarist Bridget Mermikides and their daughter Chloe. He is also a Vice-Chair of Governors at Addison Primary School, a state school which foregrounds music education, offering free instrumental lessons for all on Pupil Premium.

miltonline.com