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This is a work in progress. Today’s version is mostly complete. I’ve generated four and will pick one as the final version.

This version is another of my Transformed Hymns, which take a familiar hymn tune and stretch it out a bit. Each chord of the hymn becomes a measure or several measures of the transformation. Now Thank We All Our God is a Felix Mendelssohn harmonization of a 17th century tune. There are many unusual chord voicings in the arrangement I have, from the Center for Church Music. There are sevenths in the bass and other unusual arrangements. There are also some challenging comma issues, which I work through by switching from one note to another to preserve the harmony. My goal is to make a good just chord, and so I sacrificed melodic consistency sometimes. If a note starts out as a 16/9 to go with a 4/3, then drifts down to a 7/4 as the 7th in a major chord, it does it. No questions asked. Listen at around 1:45 in this version for the gradual 2 step in 72EDO fall in the Bb. Here it is in score form:

Here is a chart of the notes that I used in the piece. Notice how often the C, F, G, A, Bb are used, and that lonely G# passing tone as a major third to the E natural.

The piece is scored for flutes, clarinets, french horns, trombone, tuba, finger pianos, regular pianos, harp, marimba, and vibraphone.

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Nosing around further, I noticed that there was no requirement to use the Bb at ratio 16/9 in chord number 38. 7/4 is much nicer, and gets more exposure to the true 7th. I keep the G at 40/27 glides to 3/2. To clarify the tones, I switched out the horns for sine waves.

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I’m still working my way through this one. I’ve found a few errors in my note choices today. At one point the score calls for a D and a G, and I used the D at ratio of 10/9 instead of the 9/8 to go with the G at 3/2. Not so nice.

At one point in chords 35 – 39 I need a G to go with the D at 10/9 and the Bb at 16/9, and with a C 1/1 E 5/4. So I chose a G 40/27 that drifts up by a step in 72 EDO to a G at 3/2 when it needs to match the C1/1. See the chart for the details. This section is heard at the end of today’s excerpt. Find those commas to solve the wolf problems.

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This is a work in progress. Tonight, as I was enjoying my evening alone in the Salt Lake City Hilton near the airport, Omar showed up with his spinet, a blind guy who played the vibes, and a one armed marimba player. Next thing you know, the guy in the room down the hall knocked on the door. He said he could play four clarinets at once. In 72 EDO! I have never seen that before. So I had to record one more take of the first seven chords of Now Thank We All Our God. Heavenly. Fake but accurate…

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This is a work in progress. I used the FF piano samples this time. I need to figure out a way to chose the samples based on the volume.

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This is a work in progress. I’m just starting up this one, for piano, harp, finger piano, brass, and flutes.

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I retuned the instrument samples using a much more accurate tool (my ears). The high flute samples were out of tune before. Now they sound much better. I also fixed a bug in the hold values for the flute part in the last section, so that they don’t get chopped off early. This version should be the last one posted.

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This version is much tighter now, and I think it’s finished. The hymn tune was written by Martin Luther in 1529, and harmonized by Bach in 1740 or so. This version stretches each chord in a variety of ways. Each chord can be 2, 3, 4, or 5 times longer than normal, and is repeated 1, 2, or 3 times before moving on to the next chord. There is a variable repetition scheme that includes stepping through the choices of arpeggios in sequence, forward and backward, and staying put for a while. The tempo shifts constantly, as does the volume.

The intonation system is chosen from the 72 EDO scale. The notes include the following:

Notice how many more times C, E, G, and A are played. The two D’s are less than half as common, and that lonely 7/4 is only played 7 times. See if you can hear it, towards the end.

This version is scored for vibraphone, marimba, finger piano, tuba, trombone, French horn, and flutes.

Here is a link to a nice PDF of the file on the Center for Church Music site. It’s not the one I used, but it’s close.

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This is a work in progress. It’s a bit long now. I’ll have to figure out a way to shorten it up a bit.

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This is a work in progress.

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Martin Luther is credited with this hymn in 1529. Today i present a simple statement of the opening few notes. Familiar? I can’t decide if the penultimate chord, on the word “Our” should be
D 10/9 - F# 25/18 - A 5/3
or
D 9/8 - F# 45/32 - A 27/16.
Decisions, decisions. Here it is as the latter.

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