Pocket Gamelan: Developing the instrumentarium for an extended harmonic universe

This paper describes a 3-year project that seeks to explore tuning systems and to develop instruments appropriate for the audition and performance of music composed in just intonation tunings. The project is a response to the transformation in computer music that has been enabled through the introduction of wireless technologies and is also motivated by a desire to enable performance by large numbers of non-expert performers playing music based on just intonation using hand-held or wearable instruments. Possible scenarios together with musical algorithms are presented and illustrated with examples from creative works written to clarify the parameters of musical instrument design.