What It Is

Harken Dice is a harmony generator played with dice. The table holds the tonic, 0. Every roll builds a phrase out from 0 along the cycle, and the table plays it the moment the dice land.

Roll

Tap the Roll button or the table top. On a keyboard, the spacebar rolls too.

The Dice

• The Major die steps up the cycle: 7, 2, 9, 4, 11, 6.
• The Minor die steps down the cycle: 5, 10, 3, 8, 1, 6.

The pips say how many steps each die takes. Pip 1 is the first step, pip 2 the second, and so on. So 0, 7 and 5 sound on every roll. When the dice settle, the top face lights up, each pip in the colour of the pitch it carries.

The die showing more pips leads: it has the greater say in the sound of the roll. On a tie, Major goes first.

The Readout

Under the table, one chip for each note, in playing order. Each chip shows the Harken number, the letter name (a bridge to traditional names) and the Harken solfège. The line above tells you the pips rolled, which die leads, and how many pitches sound.

Tap any chip to hear its note. The chip and the pip that carries it flash together, so you can see where every number comes from. For 0, the felt glows: 0 belongs to the table.

Play, Mirror, Stop

• Play hears the roll again, as often as you like.
• Mirror plays the roll reflected over the 0/6 axis: 7 and 5 trade places, as do 2 and 10, 9 and 3, 4 and 8, 11 and 1; 0 and 6 stay. The chips, the pips and the dice colours all change to the mirror. Play brings the roll back.
• While anything is sounding, Play reads Stop. Stop silences everything, Loop and Auto Roll included.

Settings

• Mode: 12 TET, or 24 TET, which adds the tweens (+), the quarter tones between. Choosing a Mode also sets its Tempo: 90 for 12 TET, 120 for 24 TET.
• Dice (24 TET only): 4 Cubes (the default) adds a tween pair to the plain pair. Tween Major steps 3+, 10+, 5+, 0+, 7+, 2+; Tween Minor steps 8+, 1+, 6+, 11+, 4+, 9+. Or 2 Dodecahedrons, 1 to 12 pips each, stepping the whole 24 TET cycle (Major 3+, 7, 10+, 2 …; Minor 8+, 5, 1+, 10 …). Or 3 Octahedrons, 1 to 8 pips each: Major steps 3+, 7, 10+, 2, 5+, 9, 0+, 4; Minor steps 8+, 5, 1+, 10, 6+, 3, 11+, 8; and the Neutral die carries the far side of both cycles in turn: 7+, 4+, 11, 1, 2+, 9+, 6, 6. Each Neutral pitch joins the side whose cycle reaches it first (7+, 11, 2+ come up the Major cycle; 4+, 1, 9+ come down the Minor cycle; 6 is reached both ways and sounds once).
• Tonic: the pitch the table holds as 0. Every number stays the same; only the key moves.
• Instrument: the sound of the phrase. The tonic bass under it is always Upright Bass.
• Interpolate: the order the notes play in. Ascending climbs up the cycle through 0; Descending is its mirror; Balanced (the default) steps out one each way in turn, the leading die first.
• Tempo: how fast the phrase plays.
• Tonic Cycling (on at start): each roll moves the table's tonic one cycle step, in the Interpolate order.
• Loop: the current playback (the roll or its mirror) repeats until you stop it.
• Auto Roll: when a phrase ends, the dice roll again by themselves. Loop and Auto Roll cannot both be on.
• Mute Rolling Dice: the dice roll in silence; the music is untouched.