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RESEARCH PRODUCT

New tonalities with the Thummer and The Viking

subject

description

In this paper we explain the theoretical background of Dynamic Tonality using the Thummer, a new musical interface, and The Viking, a software synthesizer written especially for it. Dynamic Tonality is a musical audio routine that allows for novel tunings and enables the user to relate – to an arbitrary degree – these tunings with the partials of their notes. The Viking features Dynamic Tonality and works with any MIDI instrument, but when paired with the Thummer (or another two-dimensional interface) it creates a system of fingering invariance across chords and tunings. Thus, the Thummer and The Viking render non-standard tunings more physically, pedagogically, and aesthetically accessible.