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Andrián Pertout
Andrián Pertout Three Microtonal Compositions: The Utilization of Tuning Systems in Modern Composition Volume 1 Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Produced on acid-free paper Faculty of Music The University of Melbourne March, 2007 Abstract Three Microtonal Compositions: The Utilization of Tuning Systems in Modern Composition encompasses the work undertaken by Lou Harrison (widely regarded as one of America’s most influential and original composers) with regards to just intonation, and tuning and scale systems from around the globe – also taking into account the influential work of Alain Daniélou (Introduction to the Study of Musical Scales), Harry Partch (Genesis of a Music), and Ben Johnston (Scalar Order as a Compositional Resource). The essence of the project being to reveal the compositional applications of a selection of Persian, Indonesian, and Japanese musical scales utilized in three very distinct systems: theory versus performance practice and the ‘Scale of Fifths’, or cyclic division of the octave; the equally-tempered division of the octave; and the ‘Scale of Proportions’, or harmonic division of the octave championed by Harrison, among others – outlining their theoretical and aesthetic rationale, as well as their historical foundations. The project begins with the creation of three new microtonal works tailored to address some of the compositional issues of each system, and ending with an articulated exposition; obtained via the investigation of written sources, disclosure -
Notes on the Tunings We Microtonalists Inhabit a Very Different Musical Universe from That of Most "Normal" Musicians
Notes on the Tunings We microtonalists inhabit a very different musical universe from that of most "normal" musicians. To a normal musician, the line between dissonance and consonance is clear-cut, and all of the chords in his/her musical vocabulary unambiguously fit into one category or another, as dictated by common practice music theory. But when we abandon the grid of 12-tone equal temperament, our ideas about consonance and dissonance become a lot more complex—we encounter chords that don't sound anything like those of the common practice, and thus don't obviously fit into either category. We are also forced to find new ways of organizing pitches, which lead to new forms of harmonic "functionality" that are quite unexplored. Since these new harmonic structures are so unlike those of the common practice, we might feel as though we are lost in a strange world, with neither map nor compass—save for our trusty ears, that is. To date, there exists nothing that I would call "microtonal music theory"—no one has yet written anything meant to guide composition in microtonal tuning systems. However, there is a great abundance, a plethora even, of what I'll call "tuning theory"—theory describing how to select tunings for the making of music. It is all based, to a greater or lesser degree, on the practice of Just intonation, which involves tuning intervals to exact simple-integer frequency ratios, for the purpose of producing harmony that is smooth, fused, and beatless. This sort of tuning theory has in many ways remained unchanged since the ancient Greeks, who discovered the "special" properties of simple-integer rational intervals by playing with string lengths on their monochords (and other instruments). -
Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Summer, 1970
ISM /, *w*s M •*r:;*. KUCJCW n;. ,-1. * Tanglewood 1970° Seiji Ozawa, Gunther Schuller, Artistic Directors Leonard Bernstein, Advisor FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC August 16 — August 20, 1970 Sponsored by the BERKSHIRE MUSIC CENTER In Cooperation with the FROMM MUSIC FOUNDATION PERSPECTIVES NEWOF MUSIC PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC Participants in this year's Festival are invited to subscribe to the American journal devoted to im- portant issues of contemporary music and the problems of the composer. Published for the Fromm Music Foundation by Princeton University Press. Editor: Benjamin Boretz Advisory Board: Aaron Copland, Ernst Krenek, Darius Milhaud, Walter Piston, Roger Sessions, Igor Stravinsky. Semi-annual. $6.00 a year. $15.00 three years. Foreign Postage is 25 cents additional per year. Single or back issues are $5.00. Princeton University Press Princeton, New Jersey I 5fta 'V. B , '*•. .-.-'--! HffiHHMEffl SiSsi M^lll Epppi ^EwK^^bJbe^h 1 * - ' :- HMK^HRj^EI! 9HKS&k 7?. BCJB1I MQ50 TANGLEWOOD SEIJI OZAWA, GUNTHER SCHULLER, Artistic Directors/LEONARD BERNSTEIN, Adviser THE BERKSHIRE MUSIC CENTER Joseph Silverstein, Chairman of the Faculty Harry J. Kraut, Administrator Aaron Copland, Chairman of the Faculty Emeritus Daniel R. Gustin, Assistant Administrator Leon Barzin, Head, Orchestral Activities James Whitaker, Chief Coordinator ,vvv /ss. Festival of Contemporary Music presented in cooperation with The Fromm Music Foundation Paul Fromm, President Fellowship Program Contemporary Music Activities Gunther Schuller, Head George Crumb, Charles Wuorinen, and Chou Wen-Chung, Guest Teachers Paul Zukofsky, Assistant The Berkshire Music Center is maintained for advanced study in music Sponsored by the Boston Symphony Orchestra William Steinberg, Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, Associate Conductor Thomas D. -
An Honors Thesis (HONR 499)
Weigel 1 HONR499 · Ail-ScalarSet Hierarchy: the future of music theory An Honors Thesis (HONR 499) by S iephen Weigel Thesis Advisors Dr. Jot!J Nagel and Dr. John Emert Ball State University Muncie, IN Apri/2016 Expected Date of Graduation May 2016 Signed 1/ ,"!ira c/ Weigel 2 HONR499 Abstract Music theory has been a part of culture ever since music was invented. In 20th century academic circles, theorists came up with a way to explain the growing trend of atonal music using their own version of set theory, where conventional diatonic and triadic harmony (older Western tradition) was not needed. Unfortunately, this set theory, which is now taught in school to music students, is only maximally useful in the most used tuning system of the last 100 years, 12-tone equal temperament. Microtonal · music theory, which nowadays implies music that is not tuned in 12-tone equal, is more intriguing than ever before in the 21st century, just as atonality was in the 20th century. This thesis aims to describe a hew set theory that I propose, that unites the worlds of microtonality and set theory into one discipline. My theory brings an intelligible microtonal framework to the set theorist, and it brings more useful information about scale categorization to 12-equal than the current set theory alone provides. It is, to sum up, a more thorough and universal method of categorizing scales, because it utilizes their intervallic relationships instead of their pitch classes. In order to apply useful mathematical principles, I have mainly drawn upon the disciplines of permutations and partitions; other citations to mathematics are also included as well. -
Harrison, Lou (1917-2003) by John Louis Digaetani
Harrison, Lou (1917-2003) by John Louis DiGaetani Encyclopedia Copyright © 2015, glbtq, Inc. Entry Copyright © 2002, glbtq, Inc. Reprinted from http://www.glbtq.com American composer Lou Harrison enjoyed a long and distinguished career. He is particularly well known for his use of instruments from the East, especially the Javanese gamelan, and for his melodic and lyrical musical style, despite the fact that he studied composition in the atonal musical style of Arnold Schoenberg. One of America's most original and articulate composers, Harrison explored a number of interests, including puppetry, Esperanto, tuning systems, the construction of musical instruments, and dance. He was also actively involved in political causes, especially pacifism and gay rights. He was born Lou Silver Harrison in Portland, Oregon, on May 14, 1917, but his family moved to the San Francisco Bay area when he was a child, and he lived most of his life on the West Coast of the United States. As a child he was exposed to a wide range of music, including Cantonese operas, Gregorian chants, and Spanish and Mexican music. Harrison attended San Francisco State University, where he decided on music as his major and his life's work. He studied there with Henry Cowell and quickly became fascinated with melody and its powers, particularly in the music of the Orient. He also developed an interest in the works of American composer Charles Ives, some of whose musical manuscripts he later edited. Among Harrison's early compostions is a large body of percussion music that reveals Western, Asian, African, and Latin American rhythmic influences. -
Surprising Connections in Extended Just Intonation Investigations and Reflections on Tonal Change
Universität der Künste Berlin Studio für Intonationsforschung und mikrotonale Komposition MA Komposition Wintersemester 2020–21 Masterarbeit Gutachter: Marc Sabat Zweitgutachterin: Ariane Jeßulat Surprising Connections in Extended Just Intonation Investigations and reflections on tonal change vorgelegt von Thomas Nicholson 369595 Zähringerstraße 29 10707 Berlin [email protected] www.thomasnicholson.ca 0172-9219-501 Berlin, den 24.1.2021 Surprising Connections in Extended Just Intonation Investigations and reflections on tonal change Thomas Nicholson Bachelor of Music in Composition and Theory, University of Victoria, 2017 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF MUSIC in the Department of Composition January 24, 2021 First Supervisor: Marc Sabat Second Supervisor: Prof Dr Ariane Jeßulat © 2021 Thomas Nicholson Universität der Künste Berlin 1 Abstract This essay documents some initial speculations regarding how harmonies (might) evolve in extended just intonation, connecting back to various practices from two perspectives that have been influential to my work. The first perspective, which is the primary investigation, concerns itself with an intervallic conception of just intonation, centring around Harry Partch’s technique of Otonalities and Utonalities interacting through Tonality Flux: close contrapuntal proximities bridging microtonal chordal structures. An analysis of Partch’s 1943 composition Dark Brother, one of his earliest compositions to use this technique extensively, is proposed, contextualised within his 43-tone “Monophonic” system and greater aesthetic interests. This is followed by further approaches to just intonation composition from the perspective of the extended harmonic series and spectral interaction in acoustic sounds. Recent works and practices from composers La Monte Young, Éliane Radigue, Ellen Fullman, and Catherine Lamb are considered, with a focus on the shifting modalities and neighbouring partials in Lamb’s string quartet divisio spiralis (2019). -
Divisions of the Tetrachord Are Potentially Infinite in Number
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION ''''HEN I WAS A young student in California, Lou Harrison suggested that I send one of my first pieces, Piano Study #5 (forJPR) to a Dr. Chalmers, who might publish it in his journal Xenbarmonikon. Flattered and fascinated, I did, and John did, and thus began what is now my twenty year friendship with this polyglot fungus researcher tuning guru science fiction devotee and general everything expert. Lou first showed me the box of papers, already called Divisions ofthe Tetracbord, in 1975. I liked the idea of this grand, obsessive project, and felt that it needed to be availablein a way that was, likeJohn himself, out of the ordinary. When Jody Diamond, Alexis Alrich, and I founded Frog Peak Music (A Composers' Collective) in the early 80S, Divisions (along with Tenney's then unpublished Meta + Hodos) was in my mind as one of the publishing collective's main reasons for existing, and for calling itself a publisher of"speculative theory." The publication of this book has been a long and arduous process. Re vised manuscripts traveled with me from California to Java and Sumatra (John requested we bring him a sample of the local fungi), and finally to our new home in New Hampshire. The process of writing, editing, and pub lishing it has taken nearly fifteen years, and spanned various writing tech nologies. (When John first started using a word processor, and for the first time his many correspondents could actually read his long complicated letters, my wife and I were a bit sad-we had enjoyed reading his com pletely illegible writing aloud as a kind of sound poetry). -
Just Guitars 2010
JUST GUITARS John Schneider, adapted guitars Suite for National Steel (1952/2002)………………………………………. Lou Harrison Jahla • Solo • Palace Music • Threnody • Serenado por Gitaro Men are Men & Mountains are Mountains (2007) ..................John Schneider In Memoriam James Tenney electric guitar Tombeau for Lou Harrison (2006).........................................................John Schneider Plaint • Passacaglia • Valse Triste • Jahla • intermission • Quando Cosas Malas Caen del Cielo (2003). .................................Terry Riley • National Broadstreet March • Quando Cosas Malas Caen del Cielo The Tavern (1998) .................................................................................................... Ben Johnston (1926) 1. Prelude 2. Who Says Words With My Mouth 3. A Community of the Spirit 4. A Children’s Game 5. The Many Wines 6. Special Plates 7. Burnt Kabob 8. The New Rule Lou Harrison was one of the most extraordinary musical minds of the 20th century. Poet, dancer, calligrapher, maker & player of many instruments, fluent in Esperanto & American Sign Language, ardent Pacifist, voracious reader, his music is as bold, expansive, and elegantly singular as his personality. Having worked closely with such luminaries as Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, Charles Ives, Harry Partch & John Cage, Harrison went on to embrace non-Western traditions, integrating the music of other cultures into his robust musical output. I had been playing the music found in the Suite for National Steel Guitar for many years on various refretted just intonation guitars, but the creation of an 11-limit just National Steel guitar for Lou’s Scenes from Nek Chand (2002) inspired a new set of arrangements that put familiar works in new modes. Theses new interpretations delighted the composer so much that he requested charts for the tunings for his personal records. -
In 1953 (The Year John Luther Adams Was Born), Lou Harrison, Then A
In 1953 (the year John Luther Adams was born), Lou Harrison, then a young composer still in his thirties, came home to California after a decade on the East Coast—first in New York City and then at Black Mountain College in rural North Carolina. Back on the West Coast he eventually settled in Aptos, a small coastal community near Santa Cruz. Lou’s “Chinese poet” hermitage was up on the hill, just a short distance from the Pacific Ocean. He and Bill Colvig were still in that tiny house when John and I and others—two generations now after Lou—first met him in the 1970s. By then he was an “elder” (a status we are rapidly approaching!) and an iconic figure in Western American culture. As such, his life and work represented an alternative to the career and reputation machine of New York, and his example was a profound inspiration to several of us younger composers. We were all products of the social and cultural upheavals of the 1960s— too young to have been original participants, but old enough to be thoroughly influenced and enthused by the incredible cultural-imaginative expansion which that era represented. By the time we came of age in the early seventies, much of that original energy had become diffused (and already commercialized and exploited), and the dominant ethos of those years was the idea of “going back to the land.” What that represented was a dropping out of the “rat race” of mainstream society and its values and the development of a personal and cultural self-sufficiency. -
Lou Harrison Centennial EVA SOLTES EVA
Please turn off all electronic Photography and audio/video recording devices before entering the in the performance hall are prohibited. performance hall. Lou Harrison Centennial EVA SOLTES EVA DEPARTMENT OF These performances are made possible in part by: PERFORMING ARTS, MUSIC, The P. J. McMyler Musical Endowment Fund AND FILM The Ernest L. and Louise M. Gartner Fund The Cleveland Museum of Art The Anton and Rose Zverina Music Fund 11150 East Boulevard The Frank and Margaret Hyncik Memorial Fund Cleveland, Ohio 44106–1797 The Adolph Benedict and Ila Roberts Schneider Fund The Arthur, Asenath, and Walter H. Blodgett Memorial Fund [email protected] The Dorothy Humel Hovorka Endowment Fund cma.org/performingarts The Albertha T. Jennings Musical Arts Fund #CMAperformingarts Programs are subject to change. Series sponsors: Friday, October 20, 2017 TICKETS 1–888–CMA–0033 cma.org/performingarts Welcome to the PerformingLou Harrison Arts 2017–18 Centennial Cleveland Museum of Art Friday, October 20, 2017, 7:30 p.m. cma.org/performingartsGartner Auditorium, the Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art’s performing arts series #CMAperformingarts offers a fascinating concert calendar notable for its boundless multiplicity. This year, visits from old friends Chamber Music in the Galleries CIM Organ Studio Wednesday, October 4, 6:00 Sunday, March 11, 2:00 and new bring century-spanning music from around the Mr. Harrison’s Gamelans globe, exploring cultural connections that link the human Butler, Bernstein & the Hot 9 Wu Man & heart and spirit. Wednesday, October 11, 7:30 Huayin Shadow Puppet Band Suite for Violin and Wednesday,Lou Harrison March 21, (1917–2003) 7:30 Lou Harrison Centennial American Gamelan (1973) & Richard Dee In the Galleries Friday, October 20, 7:30 Chamber Music in the Galleries 1. -
Microfest 2000
MICROFEST 2000 NEW MUSIC AND VIDEO MAY 5, 2000 8:00 PM Lyman Hall, Pomona College, Claremont — P R O G R A M — Part I: Live performances "Palace Music" from Young Caesar Lou Harrison John Schneider — guitar Three Themes Kraig Grady Kraig Grady — meta-slendro vibraphone Lament John Schneider John Schneider — guitar A Noiseless Patient Spider Joe Monzo Joe Monzo — intoned voice — I N T E R M I S S I O N — Part II: Microtonal Film Scores Openings Scores by Stephen James Taylor Windsong Score by Harry Partch Excerpts from Three Films of James Broughton Scores by Lou Harrison Static Cling Bill Alves Be sure to attend the other concerts in the MicroFest 2000 series: Sunday, May 9, 7:30 PM at Pierce College, Woodland Hills; Friday May 12, 8:00 PM Neighborhood Church, Pasadena; Sunday May 14, 7:00 PM Brand Library and Arts Center, Glendale. Special thanks to the Garrett Fund of Harvey Mudd College Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Thanks also to Pomona College Department of Music, Joseph Brennan, Joel Singer. Palace Music. Lou Harrison's "Palace Music" was originally written for solo harp to accompany scene IX of his puppet play Young Caesar (1971/88), transcribed here by the performer. Lou Harrison. Born in Portland in 1917, Lou Harrison is now recognized as one of the greatest living American composers. He studied with the great composers Henry Cowell (who ignited his interest in music of other cultures and new American music) and Arnold Schoenberg. Harrison pioneered the use of "found" instruments and staged the first percussion concerts with John Cage in 1930s San Francisco. -
Tuning, Tonality, and 22-Tone Temperament
Tuning, Tonality, and Twenty-Two-Tone Temperament Paul Erlich ([email protected]) (originally published in Xenharmonikôn 17, Spring 1998; revised 4/2/02) Introduction Western modal and tonal music generally conforms to what is known as the 5-limit; this is often explained (e. g., by Hindemith) by stating that the entire tuning system is an expression of integer frequency ratios using prime factors no higher than 5. A more correct description is that all 5-limit intervals, or ratios involving numbers no higher than 5, aside from factors of 2 arising from inversion and extension, are treated as consonances in this music, and thus need to be tuned with some degree of accuracy. The diatonic scale of seven notes per octave has been in use since ancient Greek times, when harmonic simultaneities (other than unisons and octaves) were not used and the only important property of the scale was its melodic structure. As melodic considerations continued to play a dominant role in Western musical history, scales other than the diatonic had very limited application, and harmonic usage was intimately entangled with diatonic scale structure. It is fortuitous that the diatonic scale allowed for many harmonies that displayed the psychoacoustic phenomenon of consonance, defined by small- integer frequency ratios, as well as many that did not. Medieval music conformed to the 3-limit, the only recognized consonances being the octave (2:1) and the perfect fifth (3:2) (plus, of course, their octave inversions and extensions, obtained by dividing or multiplying the ratios by powers of 2; this “octave equivalence” will be implicit from here on.1) The diatonic scales were therefore tuned as a chain of consecutive 3:2s (Pythagorean tuning).