Dodecaphonic passacaglia – not quite ready.

The driver is a .bat file, not perl:

perl pregrbas.pl %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
type PARM.txt
perl grbas.pl | find ";" > one.txt  
sort /R one.txt /O resul.txt
perl pastbl.pl > ucu
perl totable.pl < tbl.txt > cucu
copy headerpas.txt+scoraaa.txt+scorbbb.txt papa
midi papa

• grbas.pl

  This constructs the ground bass. The ground matches the rhythmic formula:

  1/4 1/2 1/4 1/2 1/4 3/4 2/4

  i.e. 4 measures in 3/4 rhythm, 7 notes. The last three notes must form a melodic cadence:

  DO SI DO,  SI RE DO,  RE SI DO,  DO RE DO,  MI(♭) RE DO,  or LA SI DO

  It takes all the cyclic joins, finds possible grounds in them, and grades the result. The output is a list of joins, each followed by a list of:

  grade; cycle;  matches head to tail;  indices1; notes; indices2

  with:

  grade

  the overall quality of the ground, as determined by gradeg.

  cycle

  the notes in the cyclic join, aka cycle, aka join.

  matches head to tail

  how many notes to add beside repetitions of cycle, to obtain several complete ( overlapping ) series.

  indices1:

  the indices where the ground bass first appears. Always 7 indices.

  notes:

  the notes, or tones in the ground. Always 7 notes.

  indices2:

  the following indices in the join where the ground appears. There may be 7 or a multiple of 7.

  For example:

  
  SERIES	2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 7 10	10 9 8 7 3 6 0 11 1 4 5 2	10 7 8 11 1 0 6 9 5 4 3 2	2 5 4 1 11 0 6 3 7 8 9 10	
  CLOSED:	matches 3 head to tail
  ====================================================================================================
  
  
      analysis for cyc = 
  2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 7 10 11 0 1 5 2 8 9 7 4 3 6 3 4 7 9 8 2 5 1 0 11 10 1 0 9 7 8 2 11 3 4 5 6 10 7 1 2 0 9 8 11 10 7 5 6 0 9 1
  60 notes in cycle
  ====================================================================================================
  1060;	2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 ... 10 7 5 6 0 9 1;	 3;	3 7 11 14 18 22 25;	5 1 10 1 9 6 7;		29 30 33 34 36 44 46
  1060;	2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 ... 10 7 5 6 0 9 1;	 3;	4 7 11 14 18 22 25;	9 1 10 1 9 6 7;		26 30 33 34 36 44 46
  1060;	2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 ... 10 7 5 6 0 9 1;	 3;	4 8 11 14 18 22 25;	9 11 10 1 9 6 7;	26 32 33 34 36 44 46
  1029;	2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 ... 10 7 5 6 0 9 1;	 3;	2 4 6 9 12 14 16;	4 9 0 8 11 1 2;		20 26 31 38 40 47 48
  1029;	2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 ... 10 7 5 6 0 9 1;	 3;	2 4 6 10 12 14 16;	4 9 0 7 11 1 2;		20 26 31 37 40 47 48
  
  
  CLOSED:;	matches 1 head to tail
  ====================================================================================================
  
  
      analysis for cyc = 
  2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 7 10 9 8 7 3 6 0 11 1 4 5 2 5 4 1 11 0 6 3 7 8 9 10 7 8 11 1 0 6 9 5 4 3;
  44 notes in cycle
  ====================================================================================================
  1825;	2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 7 ...10 7 8 11 1 0 6 9 5 4 3;	1;	0 2 5 9 13 16 20;	2 4 6 8 8 6 4;	 	22 24 28 31 35 39 42
  1825;	2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 7 ...10 7 8 11 1 0 6 9 5 4 3;	1;	0 2 6 9 13 16 20;	2 4 0 8 8 6 4;	 	22 24 27 31 35 39 42
  1825;	2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 7 ...10 7 8 11 1 0 6 9 5 4 3;	1;	2 5 9 11 13 16 20;	4 6 8 10 8 6 4;		24 28 31 33 35 39 42
  1825;	22 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 7 ...10 7 8 11 1 0 6 9 5 4 3;	1;	2 6 9 11 13 16 20;	4 0 8 10 8 6 4;		24 27 31 33 35 39 42
  1534;	2 3 4 5 9 6 0 1 11 8 7 ...10 7 8 11 1 0 6 9 5 4 3;	1;	0 2 6 10 14 16 20;	2 4 0 7 7 6 4;		22 24 27 30 34 39 42
      .
      .
  

  • uses an input file PARM.txt ( not  @ARGV ).

    SRAND 123
    SER 9 4 6 8 10 0 7 3 11 1 2 5 5 2 1 11 3 7 0 10 8 6 4 9 3 8 6 4 2 0 5 9 1 11 10 7 7 10 11 1 9 5 0 2 4 6 8 3
    NOISE PASAC
    GROUND6 1
    ALL 48
    0 3 4 6 2 10 5 7 9 11 1 8
    0 5 3 1 11 9 2 6 10 8 7 4
    0 7 9 11 1 3 10 6 2 4 5 8
    0 9 8 6 10 2 7 5 3 1 11 4
        .
        .
    

    This is created by pregrbas.pl .

  • uses its own subroutine makecyc to make cyclical joins

  • makecyc calls analycyc to hunt for repeating sets of 7 notes (ground bass) and assign a grade to them

  • the grade is computed by the routine gradeg. A ground is better (gradeg higher) if its notes are evenly spaced in the join, and if it almost reaches the end of the join.

  The DOS instructions find ";"  and  sort   are just a kludgy way to extract the needed information, an ordered list of :

  grade; cycle;  matches head to tail;  indices1; notes; indices2

  from the row output of grbas.

  ---

• pastbl.pl

  Combines the cycles and some random linear aspects to generate an harmonic ground. That is, notes are added atop the passacaglia ground, from two sources:

  1. the notes in the cycle between the bass ground notes. The cycle gets repeated a few times, then a new cycle starts.
  2. notes from a random linear aspect. When that aspect ends, a new one is picked at random

  Notes left over between cycles, before the first cycle, or after the last cycle, appear between rests as "free" chords, not subject to the regular harmony specified by NOISE.

  • uses the file PARM.txt to define the basic environment: random seed, series, harmony (via NOISE).

  • uses as input the file resul.txt

  • outputs the file tbl.txt. This file contains a table notes[index][voice] organized as follows:

    notes[index][0]	=	bass, i.e. passacaglia ground bass
    notes[index][1..8]	=	voices (except bass and appoggiatura)
    notes[index][9]	=	duration, e.g. 3/8
    notes[index][10]	=	appoggiatura, for some high voice e.g. piccolo
    notes[index][11]	=	comments, instructions, etc

    The file format is, basically, chord, duration, etc separated by blanks:

    				.
    				.
    			3,-2 	1/8 	
    			3,4 	1/8 	
    			x,x 	0/1 	xya99
    			4, 0,0,9 11,11 	1/8 	app
    			4,-6 	1/8 	
    			4,8 	1/8 	
    			4,-10 	1/8 	
    			x,x 	1/4 	GP`rest
    			x,6,7,1,10 	3/4 	non`grbas`chord
    			x,2,3,4 	3/4 	non`grbas`chord
    			x,4,5 	3/4 	non`grbas`chord
    			x,x 	1/2 	GP`rest
    				.
    				.			
    

    
    Here the x stand for rests, app shows an appoggiatura, and the numbers are tones. The comma joins these tones into chords; obviously, an appoggiatura has one duration, but two chords (in addition to the bass). The 1st note in each line is the passacaglia ground bass. Notes dissonant with the bass are marked as negatives. The zero duration (0/1) lines are instructions (no notes), and will not result in sound, although the program might respond in various ways, depending on etc. In this example, xya99 shows the end of one of the ground basses, identified as xya.

  ---

• totable.pl

  Creates a score from the file tbl.txt.

  But before the score, some elaboration should be done on the data in that file,

  • adding voices,
  • spreading notes from index to index+1          – DONE –,
  • and especially making audible variations when the ground repeats.

  Besides, the piece should end with some cadence.

  Currently:

  • uses the file PARM.txt to define the basic environment: random seed, series, harmony (via NOISE).

  • uses as input the file tbl.txt

  • outputs the file papa, which is a score, ready for my midi.bat