Comprehensibility and Ben Johnston's String Quartet No. 9
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The Boston Modern Orchestra Project's January 2008 Premiere of Ezra Sims's Concert Piece II, Featuring Clarinetists Michael
The Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s January 2008 premiere of Ezra Sims’s Concert Piece II, featuring clarinetists Michael Norsworthy and Amy Advocat, was one of the most thrilling concert experiences I can remember. I’ve been an admirer of Sims’s music for many years, and I am familiar with his distinctive microtonal style—certain characteristic intervals and harmonies, ostinati, and phrase contours. But despite my familiarity, I found myself laughing out loud with pleasure at this latest, and very grand, example of Sims’s continued resolve and daring. Years ago the Boston Globe music critic Richard Buell called Sims’s music “subversive,” and I believe in a sense he was right. With certain aspects of his music Sims sticks to tradition; for example, Concert Piece II is a double concerto with classic instrumentation, in ABA form, with clear motivic development, arching “antecedent” and “consequent” phrases, even tonality (albeit of an idiosyncratic kind). However, within conventional parameters such as these Sims produces sonorities that subvert our expectations on a visceral level. From the very opening of Concert Piece II, over undulating and pulsating microtonal figures in the strings and bassoons, the clarinets begin trading off strange, soaring lines with intervals such as 1/3 tones, 2/3 tones, and 1/6-tone-augmented minor thirds. The melodies are elegant, articulate, intensely expressive, and even seem to have familiar contours—yet they are also startlingly alien. This feeling is somehow underscored when the oboe enters with its own wild take on the theme, and then even further when later the violins, flutes, and oboe take up the thematic line in unison. -
THE CLEVELAN ORCHESTRA California Masterwor S
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2012 02 20 Programme Booklet FIN
COMPOSITION - EXPERIMENT - TRADITION: An experimental tradition. A compositional experiment. A traditional composition. An experimental composition. A traditional experiment. A compositional tradition. Orpheus Research Centre in Music [ORCiM] 22-23 February 2012, Orpheus Institute, Ghent Belgium The fourth International ORCiM Seminar organised at the Orpheus Institute offers an opportunity for an international group of contributors to explore specific aspects of ORCiM's research focus: Artistic Experimentation in Music. The theme of the conference is: Composition – Experiment – Tradition. This two-day international seminar aims at exploring the complex role of experimentation in the context of compositional practice and the artistic possibilities that its different approaches yield for practitioners and audiences. How these practices inform, or are informed by, historical, cultural, material and geographical contexts will be a recurring theme of this seminar. The seminar is particularly directed at composers and music practitioners working in areas of research linked to artistic experimentation. Organising Committee ORCiM Seminar 2012: William Brooks (U.K.), Kathleen Coessens (Belgium), Stefan Östersjö (Sweden), Juan Parra (Chile/Belgium) Orpheus Research Centre in Music [ORCiM] The Orpheus Research Centre in Music is based at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, Belgium. ORCiM's mission is to produce and promote the highest quality research into music, and in particular into the processes of music- making and our understanding of them. ORCiM -
Download the Just Intonation Primer
THE JUST INTONATION PPRIRIMMEERR An introduction to the theory and practice of Just Intonation by David B. Doty Uncommon Practice — a CD of original music in Just Intonation by David B. Doty This CD contains seven compositions in Just Intonation in diverse styles — ranging from short “fractured pop tunes” to extended orchestral movements — realized by means of MIDI technology. My principal objectives in creating this music were twofold: to explore some of the novel possibilities offered by Just Intonation and to make emotionally and intellectually satisfying music. I believe I have achieved both of these goals to a significant degree. ——David B. Doty The selections on this CD process—about synthesis, decisions. This is definitely detected in certain struc- were composed between sampling, and MIDI, about not experimental music, in tures and styles of elabora- approximately 1984 and Just Intonation, and about the Cageian sense—I am tion. More prominent are 1995 and recorded in 1998. what compositional styles more interested in result styles of polyphony from the All of them use some form and techniques are suited (aesthetic response) than Western European Middle of Just Intonation. This to various just tunings. process. Ages and Renaissance, method of tuning is com- Taken collectively, there It is tonal music (with a garage rock from the 1960s, mendable for its inherent is no conventional name lowercase t), music in which Balkan instrumental dance beauty, its variety, and its for the music that resulted hierarchic relations of tones music, the ancient Japanese long history (it is as old from this process, other are important and in which court music gagaku, Greek as civilization). -
The Ten String Quartets of Ben Johnston, Written Between 1951 and 1995, Constitute No Less Than an Attempt to Revolutionize the Medium
The ten string quartets of Ben Johnston, written between 1951 and 1995, constitute no less than an attempt to revolutionize the medium. Of them, only the First Quartet limits itself to conventional tuning. The others, climaxing in the astonishing Seventh Quartet of 1984, add in further microtones from the harmonic series to the point that the music seems to float in a free pitch space, unmoored from the grid of the common twelve-pitch scale. In a way, this is a return to an older conception of string quartet practice, since players used to (and often still do) intuitively adjust their tuning for maximum sonority while listening to each other’s intonation. But Johnston has extended this practice in two dimensions: Rather than leave intonation to the performer’s ear and intuition, he has developed his own way to specify it in notation; and he has moved beyond the intervals of normal musical practice to incorporate increasingly fine distinctions, up to the 11th, 13th, and even 31st partials in the harmonic series. This recording by the indomitable Kepler Quartet completes the series of Johnston’s quartets, finally all recorded at last for the first time. Volume One presented Quartets 2, 3, 4, and 9; Volume Two 1, 5, and 10; and here we have Nos. 6, 7, and 8, plus a small piece for narrator and quartet titled Quietness. As Timothy Ernest Johnson has documented in his exhaustive dissertation on Johnston’s Seventh Quartet, Johnston’s string quartets explore extended tunings in three phases.1 Skipping over the more conventional (though serialist) First Quartet, the Second and Third expand the pitch spectrum merely by adding in so-called five-limit intervals (thirds, fourths, and fifths) perfectly in tune (which means unlike the imperfect, compromised way we tune them on the modern piano). -
HSK 6 Vocabulary List
HSK 6 Vocabulary List No Chinese Pinyin English HSK 1 呵 ā to scold in a loud voice; to yawn HSK6 to suffer from; to endure; to tide over (a 2 挨 āi HSK6 difficult period); to delay to love sth too much to part with it (idiom); 3 爱不释手 àibùshìshǒu HSK6 to fondle admiringly 4 爱戴 àidài to love and respect; love and respect HSK6 5 暧昧 àimèi vague; ambiguous; equivocal; dubious HSK6 hey; ow; ouch; interjection of pain or 6 哎哟 āiyō HSK6 surprise 7 癌症 áizhèng cancer HSK6 8 昂贵 ángguì expensive; costly HSK6 law case; legal case; judicial case; 9 案件 ànjiàn HSK6 CL:宗[zong1],樁|桩[zhuang1],起[qi3] 10 安居乐业 ānjūlèyè live in peace and work happily (idiom) HSK6 11 案例 ànlì case (law); CL:個|个[ge4] HSK6 12 按摩 ànmó massage HSK6 13 安宁 ānníng peaceful; tranquil; calm; composed HSK6 14 暗示 ànshì to hint; to suggest; suggestion; a hint HSK6 15 安详 ānxiáng serene HSK6 find a place for; help settle down; arrange 16 安置 ānzhì HSK6 for; to get into bed; placement (of cooking) to boil for a long time; to 17 熬 áo HSK6 endure; to suffer 18 奥秘 àomì profound; deep; a mystery HSK6 bumpy; uneven; slotted and tabbed joint; 19 凹凸 āotú HSK6 crenelation to hold on to; to cling to; to dig up; to rake; 20 扒 bā to push aside; to climb; to pull out; to strip HSK6 off 21 疤 bā scar HSK6 to be eager for; to long for; to look forward 22 巴不得 bābudé HSK6 to the Way of the Hegemon, abbr. -
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 -
Computer Music Experiences, 1961-1964 James Tenney I. Introduction I Arrived at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in September
Computer Music Experiences, 1961-1964 James Tenney I. Introduction I arrived at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in September, 1961, with the following musical and intellectual baggage: 1. numerous instrumental compositions reflecting the influence of Webern and Varèse; 2. two tape-pieces, produced in the Electronic Music Laboratory at the University of Illinois — both employing familiar, “concrete” sounds, modified in various ways; 3. a long paper (“Meta+Hodos, A Phenomenology of 20th Century Music and an Approach to the Study of Form,” June, 1961), in which a descriptive terminology and certain structural principles were developed, borrowing heavily from Gestalt psychology. The central point of the paper involves the clang, or primary aural Gestalt, and basic laws of perceptual organization of clangs, clang-elements, and sequences (a higher order Gestalt unit consisting of several clangs); 4. a dissatisfaction with all purely synthetic electronic music that I had heard up to that time, particularly with respect to timbre; 2 5. ideas stemming from my studies of acoustics, electronics and — especially — information theory, begun in Lejaren Hiller’s classes at the University of Illinois; and finally 6. a growing interest in the work and ideas of John Cage. I leave in March, 1964, with: 1. six tape compositions of computer-generated sounds — of which all but the first were also composed by means of the computer, and several instrumental pieces whose composition involved the computer in one way or another; 2. a far better understanding of the physical basis of timbre, and a sense of having achieved a significant extension of the range of timbres possible by synthetic means; 3. -
Solo Percussion Is Published Ralph Shapey by Theodore Presser; All Other Soli for Solo Percussion
Tom Kolor, percussion Acknowledgments Recorded in Slee Hall, University Charles Wuorinen at Buffalo SUNY. Engineered, Marimba Variations edited, and mastered by Christopher Jacobs. Morton Feldman The King of Denmark Ralph Shapey’s Soli for Solo Percussion is published Ralph Shapey by Theodore Presser; all other Soli for Solo Percussion works are published by CF Peters. Christian Wolff Photo of Tom Kolor: Irene Haupt Percussionist Songs Special thanks to my family, Raymond DesRoches, Gordon Gottlieb, and to my colleagues AMERICAN MASTERPIECES FOR at University of Buffalo. SOLO PERCUSSION VOLUME II WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1578 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2015 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. AMERICAN MASTERPIECES FOR AMERICAN MASTERPIECES FOR Ralph Shapey TROY1578 Soli for Solo Percussion SOLO PERCUSSION 3 A [6:14] VOLUME II [6:14] 4 A + B 5 A + B + C [6:19] Tom Kolor, percussion Christian Wolf SOLO PERCUSSION Percussionist Songs Charles Wuorinen 6 Song 1 [3:12] 1 Marimba Variations [11:11] 7 Song 2 [2:58] [2:21] 8 Song 3 Tom Kolor, percussion • Morton Feldman VOLUME II 9 Song 4 [2:15] 2 The King of Denmark [6:51] 10 Song 5 [5:33] [1:38] 11 Song 6 VOLUME II • 12 Song 7 [2:01] Tom Kolor, percussion Total Time = 56:48 SOLO PERCUSSION WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1578 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. TROY1578 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. -
An Examination of Minimalist Tendencies in Two Early Works by Terry Riley Ann Glazer Niren Indiana University Southeast First I
An Examination of Minimalist Tendencies in Two Early Works by Terry Riley Ann Glazer Niren Indiana University Southeast First International Conference on Music and Minimalism University of Wales, Bangor Friday, August 31, 2007 Minimalism is perhaps one of the most misunderstood musical movements of the latter half of the twentieth century. Even among musicians, there is considerable disagreement as to the meaning of the term “minimalism” and which pieces should be categorized under this broad heading.1 Furthermore, minimalism is often referenced using negative terminology such as “trance music” or “stuck-needle music.” Yet, its impact cannot be overstated, influencing both composers of art and rock music. Within the original group of minimalists, consisting of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass2, the latter two have received considerable attention and many of their works are widely known, even to non-musicians. However, Terry Riley is one of the most innovative members of this auspicious group, and yet, he has not always received the appropriate recognition that he deserves. Most musicians familiar with twentieth century music realize that he is the composer of In C, a work widely considered to be the piece that actually launched the minimalist movement. But is it really his first minimalist work? Two pieces that Riley wrote early in his career as a graduate student at Berkeley warrant closer attention. Riley composed his String Quartet in 1960 and the String Trio the following year. These two works are virtually unknown today, but they exhibit some interesting minimalist tendencies and indeed foreshadow some of Riley’s later developments. -
Curriculum Vitae
Curriculum Vitae Nathan E. Nabb, D.M. Associate Professor of Music – Saxophone Stephen F. Austin State University www.nathannabbmusic.com Contact Information: 274 Wright Music Building College of Fine Arts - School of Music Stephen F. Austin State University TEACHING EXPERIENCE Associate Professor of Saxophone Stephen F. Austin State University 2010 to present Nacogdoches, Texas Maintain and recruit private studio averaging 20+ music majors Applied saxophone instruction to saxophone majors (music education and performance) Saxophone quartets (number depending on enrollment) Private Applied Pedagogy and Repertoire for graduate saxophone students Recruitment tour performances and master classes with other wind faculty Saxophone studio class Assistant Professor of Saxophone Morehead State University 2005 to 2010 Morehead, Kentucky Maintain and recruit private studio averaging 17-22 music majors Applied saxophone instruction to saxophone majors (education, performance and jazz) Saxophone quartets (three or four depending on enrollment) Woodwind methods course (flute, clarinet and saxophone) Saxophone segment of Advanced Woodwind Methods Course Private Applied Pedagogy and Performance Practice for graduate saxophone students Guided independent study courses for graduate saxophone students Present annual clinics for Kentucky high-school saxophonists for the MSU Concert Band Clinic Present annual All-State audition preparation clinics Academic advisor for undergraduate private applied saxophonists Saxophone studio class Nathan E. Nabb Curriculum -
Xii - Les Tempéraments Justes De Plus De 12 Divisions (19, 31, 43)
XII - LES TEMPÉRAMENTS JUSTES DE PLUS DE 12 DIVISIONS (19, 31, 43) 1. INTRODUCTION Les acousticiens et théoriciens de la musique ont toujours été affrontés au problème de l’Intonation Juste. Depuis Ramis (ou Ramos) en 1482 [34], jusqu’à Helmholtz en 1863 [8], ils ont essayé de concevoir des échelles à intervalles consonants. Ça a repris en Europe dès le début du XXe siècle pour continuer outre- atlantique jusqu’à nos jours. Plusieurs fois on a eu recours à des octaves de plus de 12 divisions, ce qui donne des intervalles inférieurs au demi-ton, on parle alors de micro-tons. Continuons de parler de Ton dans le sens le plus large, ou bien d’Unité. Le système de F. Salinas (1557) était composé de 19 degrés et était censé être juste [48]. Défendu par Woolhouse au XIXe siècle, il sera relancé au XXe siècle par J. Yasser [49]. Le système à 31 tons a aussi des origines anciennes, l’archicembalo conçu en 1555 par Vicentino avait déjà 31 touches 1. Il avait pour objectif, entre autres, d’introduire des quarts de ton pour interpréter les madrigaux du napolitain Gesualdo. Etudié par le physicien C. Huygens à l’aide d’arguments scientifiques, il est basé sur la présence de la quinte, de la tierce et de la septième justes. 1 Comme dans tous les domaines, la Renaissance a connu une grande effervescence en théorie musicale. On a ressorti les anciens manuscrits (Aristoxène, Euclide, Nicomaque, Ptolemé,…), mais aussi hélas ceux de Boèce, unique référence du haut Moyen Âge. Le système de Vicentino n’avait donc rien d’insolite.