Jon Wild: "New Approaches to the Tuning of Vocal Music"

ABSTRACT:
This talk presents an investigation and interpretation of aspects of the historical debate about the tuning of vocal music, culminating in several retuned recordings. I demonstrate a means of “reenacting” 16th-century tuning debates: after obtaining isolated audio from members of a vocal quartet, we use post-production software to unobtrusively adjust the pitch of each performed note; we then reassemble the voices to give a convincing, accurate performance in the desired alternative tuning system. Examples will include a madrigal from Vicentino’s 1555 treatise, L'antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica, composed in his tuning system that divides the octave into 31 tones. We believe it is the first opportunity to hear such an example of Renaissance microtonality performed as originally intended by the composer.