Verse:Hmøøh/Rewhd Sgutsis

(Deciding between this and modern!Sgutsitn. This is more of an opportunity to work out the history of Talman music than anything else. Also sorta practice for an undergraduate math club talk I might give.)

Rewhd Avnín Sgutsitn (Eevo: [rɛuht avˈnin ˈskytsitɬ] fT 2036 – fT 2096 (aged 60)) was an Anøvrian music theorist and composer.

Traits

• Languages:
  • (Pretty archaic) Eevo (native speaker)
  • Sfətsiv (knows a little, her grandparents spoke it)
  • Windermere and Tamil (She would have had to be able to read it to read premodern math texts)
• Credit to Mike Battaglia, Gene Ward Smith, and other members of the microtonal community who developed the music theory used here.

Historical backdrop

• Music theory: their scales are based on diamonds, CPS's, constant-structure scales
• Matrix algebra, from earlier work on tempering out small commas in JI.
  • Perhaps Sgutsitn's work consists of relating this regular temperament work to equal temperaments.
    • That's where the zeta function comes in, sorta.

Early life and education

Sgutsitn was born in the city of Flian, Anøvr to a family of Adutsib descent as the second of three children. Her father was the physicist and composer Avnín Salis, who was professor of physics in the University of Flian. Her mother, Fyvað Sgutsitn (adapted from Adutsib xwəbad skwucił), was a classical ŋams player and music teacher. Her mother's brother, Mugiv Ytxuðe, was a sewøðr player.

A child prodigy, Rewhd was taught ðavr and math from a young age. She started auditing music and math classes before she was 5. She was allowed to skip boarding school and to enroll in Flian University in math at age 10 by taking an entrance exam. She was an exceptionally gifted student and graduated in mathematics and music with honors at age 16 (fT 2052). She then studied composition and instrumentation with a number of composers.

In fT 2056 Sgutsitn returned as a doctoral student in mathematics to Flian University, where she specialized in number theory. Under the supervision of Esŋóo rið Mnaŋ, Sgutsitn was awarded a doctorate for her dissertation in fT 2061.

Later life

Shortly after receiving her doctorate, Sgutsitn started corresponding with a number of composers and musicians to exchange ideas about music. These discussions, as well as explorations of various non-Etalocian musical traditions (especially Naquian music), would inspire her to further develop the music theory at that time. These ideas were distilled into a treatise that was published in fT 2070. While Sgutsitn's treatise does not use the language of modern linear algebra, it still gives detailed procedures for building temperaments and other musical constructions.

In fT 2080, an academic took notice of Sgutsitn's work and invited her to serve in the University of ___ as a professor of music. She accepted the offer and would continue to teach there for 20 years. Among her students were several notable Talman composers and popular musicians.

In fT 2090, Sgutsitn retired from her academic post and secluded herself, intending to focus solely on composition. She lived in a house in Sŋooron until she died of a stroke in fT 2096.

Contributions to music theory

Sgutsitn's best known written work is her treatise on equal temperaments, which describes:

• Various regular temperaments and the equal temperaments supporting them. The equal temperaments supporting a regular temperament also characterize that temperament.
  • She describes a temperament as a span of unison vectors/commas (Note: The commas generate the kernel characterizing a regular temperament relative to the JI space. There are multiple valid generating sets that generate the same kernel, thus multiple comma-sets that characterizes a temperament.)
• Scale-wise... images of constant-structure scales; in addition, MOSes like those found in various world musics.
• Equal temperaments with "good" (highly composite) divisions of the fifth.
• The appendix gives proofs that the algorithms she uses work; however she didn't have the modern algebraic language to describe what in effect she was doing, making the treatment mathematically less clean than it could have been. Also in the appendix: Links between the Riemann zeta function and "good" equal temperaments.

Other stuff:

• Should stay "close to" equal temperaments whenever possible. That means no wedge products.
• What gets you from a temperament to a "good" period/generator size?

Compositions

[Outsourcing.]

Sgutsitn’s compositions number about 100 works in total. Sgutsitn often takes inspiration from folk music and world music, as well as older classical music. In particular, they're often influenced by Naquian music and other "temperament traditions" outside Etalocin. Sgutsitn specifies various equal temperaments described in her work, in addition to works that use just intonation as in traditional Etalocian music.

• Winter Solstice "Cantatas"
• Possibly some musical dramas

Bibliography

• Her thesis (fT 2061) + a couple of other math papers
• The treatise: Even Divisions of the Octave and Their Use (fT 2070)

Personal life and views

A lesbian, Sgutsitn never had children. She had a few female lovers throughout her life.

Philosophy-wise, Sgutsitn was an avid Grwidian and this influenced some of her compositions as well.

Family members:

• Osri Sgutsitn (older sister) - music teacher
• Yzich Sgutsitn (younger sister)