Spark

Pitch-shifting the Renaissance

How one man used auto-tune to create music that hasn't been heard in almost 500 years.
A diagram of Nicola Vicentino's Archicembalo, a harpsichord he built specifically for his 31-tone system. (Lunlunta99/Wikimedia)

Jonathan Wild is a McGill prof who used auto-tune software to create music that hasn't been heard in almost 500 years. Taking inspiration from Renaissance composer Nicola Vicentino's pitch system -- who divided the octave into 31-tones as opposed to the standard 12-tone system we use today -- Jonathan's project explores the many other ways that music can be heard and experimented with, and also how Vicentino imaged music to be.

Check out the companion piece to this story from our friends at cbcmusic.ca