In-Between: The Microtonal Universe

[torut]

Dave Seidel: ~60Hz
http://recordings.irritablehedgehog.com/album/dave-seidel-60-hz



"I am indebted to La Monte Young (via Kyle Gann's writings) for the concept of 60Hz as a tuning base, a practice that has suffused my work since I first learned of it. Young is also my primary influence in the use of rational intonation and sine waves. Henry Cowell's idea of rhythmic patterns based on pitch relations inspired the binaural beating patterns I employed through this piece.
More generally, I am continually inspired by, and learning from, the musics of Eliane Radigue, Laurie Spiegel, Mary Jane Leach, and Lois V Vierk." - Dave Seidel

I am fascinated with the sounds of pure sine tones. I am not sure why I want to keep listening to this. It calms my mind.

[torut]

Randy Gibson studied with La Monte Young, wrote tuning theories called The Four Pillars. Aqua Madora, for just intonation piano and sine wave drones, is a beautiful piece. Highly recommended to anyone who loves Young's The Well-Tuned Piano. It has strumming parts like Young's piece, but more melodic overall.

Aqua Madora V-ii-2008 21:07:26" - 21:54:40" (NYC)
bandcamp: http://randygibson.bandcamp.com/album/aqua-madora-v-ii-2008-21-07-26-21-54-40-nyc

[milk]

Thanks for posting these. I'm considering all these recent postings for a purchase.

[torut]

Thanks for posting these. I'm considering all these recent postings for a purchase.

Bandcamp's list of "just intonation" tag (https://bandcamp.com/tag/just-intonation) may be interesting. So far, I just checked out composers whose names I heard of or albums of reliable labels (Populist Records, Irritable Hedgehog), and I don't know about the qualities of other works.

I found this beautiful album of Larry Polansky on the list. Mostly quiet, and two pieces are based on my favorite Jazz standards. Unfortunately, the album cannot be purchased (the label Artifact Recordings went out of business?), but you can listen to the tracks on the bandcamp web page. I like it very much.

Larry Polansky - Simple Harmonic Motion (Works for Instruments in Just Intonation)
https://artifactrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/simple-harmonic-motion-art-1011-1994

Another You, Variations on Jazz standard There will never be another you (I believe) for solo harp in just intonation
Movement for Andréa Smith, My Funny Valentine for just string quartet
Movement for Lou Harrison, for just bass quartet
Horn, for horn and computer



Another Polansky album Change, containing Piano Study #5, a piece "written for Fender Rhodes in a non-octave replicating, 13-limit just intonation", is nice too.  Also OOP, but the mp3 files can be downloaded here: http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~larry/mp3_files/change_cd/mp3s/ The other works of the album are quite experimental, including computer-composed music.

[7/4]

Simple Harmonic Motion is an old favorite, an amazing album. I've had it for years!

[torut]

https://www.youtube.com/v/NJfI_wwLbQs

I tried to listen to this with headphones, but that moving sound image position caused me sort of motion sickness. I'll try it later with speakers.

[torut]

Simple Harmonic Motion is an old favorite, an amazing album. I've had it for years!

Larry Polansky is a very interesting composer. I want to check out his other projects.
I love this piece.

Larry Polansky: freeHorn (solo JI National 2012 Version)
https://www.youtube.com/v/fBWC1ea-CwQ

[torut]

Aaron Andrew Hunt - The Equal Tempered Keyboard, Book 1
Contrapuntal compositions for keyboard in every equal subdivision of the octave between 7 and 20 tones.
https://aaronandrewhunt.bandcamp.com/album/the-equal-tempered-keyboard-book-1



1. Two Part Invention in 7ET
2. Fantasia in 8ET
3. Fugue a4 in 8ET
4. Prelude in 9ET
5. Prelude in 10ET
6. Prelude in 11ET
7. Two-Part Invention in 12ET
8. Prelude in 13ET
9. Two-Part Invention in 13ET
10. Prelude in 14ET
11. Prelude (Elegy) in 15ET
12. Fugue a3 in 15ET
13. Prelude in 16ET
14. Two-Part Invention in 17ET
15. Prelude in 18ET
16. Prelude in 19ET
17. Prelude in 20ET
18. Fugue a3 in 20ET

This is very interesting. These pieces are composed in Bach-like style, so they sound accessible even in an unusual temperament. Prelude in 14ET is beautiful.

[milk]

Randy Gibson studied with La Monte Young, wrote tuning theories called The Four Pillars. Aqua Madora, for just intonation piano and sine wave drones, is a beautiful piece. Highly recommended to anyone who loves Young's The Well-Tuned Piano. It has strumming parts like Young's piece, but more melodic overall.

Aqua Madora V-ii-2008 21:07:26" - 21:54:40" (NYC)
bandcamp: http://randygibson.bandcamp.com/album/aqua-madora-v-ii-2008-21-07-26-21-54-40-nyc

I finally got around to this today. I've been taking a stab at various recommendations from this thread and I have to say that I've enjoyed this piece the most. It's quite serene as well as a bit sad and touching. I like the mood quite a bit.

[torut]

I finally got around to this today. I've been taking a stab at various recommendations from this thread and I have to say that I've enjoyed this piece the most. It's quite serene as well as a bit sad and touching. I like the mood quite a bit.

That's nice. I also like his another album Voices + Sine Waves, except for one track, Julia, which is a very intense and scary piece. I almost jumped when I first listened to it around midnight. Probably I will not listen to it often, but Randy Gibson wrote that it is one of his favorites "for its purity of statement and sheer intensity." My favorites are Mujeres de Juárez (for voices, the most beautiful piece) and Shiver (pure sine tones). I recommend trying out at least these two tracks (skipping Julia ).

https://randygibson.bandcamp.com/album/voices-sine-waves

[milk]

That's nice. I also like his another album Voices + Sine Waves, except for one track, Julia, which is a very intense and scary piece. I almost jumped when I first listened to it around midnight. Probably I will not listen to it often, but Randy Gibson wrote that it is one of his favorites "for its purity of statement and sheer intensity." My favorites are Mujeres de Juárez (for voices, the most beautiful piece) and Shiver (pure sine tones). I recommend trying out at least these two tracks (skipping Julia ).

https://randygibson.bandcamp.com/album/voices-sine-waves

Great. I'm going to do that. The other one has really clicked with me. I go through periods of time when nothing seems to grab me so I'm glad  for this. I think Aqua Madora is wonderful music. 

[torut]

This looks very interesting. The previous album of Schweinitz (Plainsound Glissando Modulation) was wonderful.

Wolfgang von Schweinitz: Plainsound Counterpoint; Catherine Lamb: Mirrors - Frank Reinecke (double bass) (Neos 11505)


Wolfgang von Schweinitz (*1953)
[01–07] Plainsound Counterpoint 48:04
Seven 23-limit Harmony Intonation Studies for double bass solo, op. 56 (2010–2011)
Dedicated to Frank Reinecke

Catherine Lamb (*1982)
[08–13] Mirror 11:51
for double bass solo (2006)

[torut]

Saman Samadi: Microtonal Piano Solos (2015)

Solitude(excerpt): https://soundcloud.com/samansamadi/2-solitude-microtonal-piano

Saman Samadi (b. 1984) is a Persian composer living in NYC. The microtonal piano album contains contemplative, melodic pieces using an exotic tuning ("He created this microtonal system derived from the traditional Persian modes") and pieces of complex, irregular rhythm. According to wikipedia, he has been influenced by New Complexity. I like this very much.

[milk]

Saman Samadi: Microtonal Piano Solos (2015)

Solitude(excerpt): https://soundcloud.com/samansamadi/2-solitude-microtonal-piano

Saman Samadi (b. 1984) is a Persian composer living in NYC. The microtonal piano album contains contemplative, melodic pieces using an exotic tuning ("He created this microtonal system derived from the traditional Persian modes") and pieces of complex, irregular rhythm. According to wikipedia, he has been influenced by New Complexity. I like this very much.

Looks really interesting. Thanks for posting that!

[torut]

Lydia Ayers: Virtual Gamelan (Albany Records)
[asin]B000JJSPDQ[/asin]

youtube playlist by Lidia Ayers
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj6olfMza_0An4-8pZU5k9s-YgpX5u-3V

description of the pieces
http://www.lydiaayers.com/compositions/recordings.html

Lydia Ayers is a Hong Kong-based composer who plays flutes from a variety of cultural traditions. She has worked with extended vocal and woodwind techniques, including quarter tones, multiphonics and other unusual flute timbres. She is creating native American, Australian, Chinese and Indonesian computer music designs. She has extensively researched and composed with microtonal tuning systems, especially unlimited just intonation. She also uses a 75-tone Indian/Partch scale on the "Woodstock Gamelan," a tubular percussion instrument built to her specifications by Woodstock Percussion. She has modeled the Woodstock Gamelan and other gamelan instruments using Csound, and authored Cooking with Csound: Woodwind and Brass Recipes, a CD-ROM package which gives synthesis designs for wind instruments. She has played gamelan at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University.

The album contains pieces of "microtonal soundscape" using Indian tunings, Balinese tunings, Partch tunings, etc., composed during 1990-2006. Otherworldly, strange, beautiful, and subtle. It's computer music, but the timbre is very good.

[Cato]

Lydia Ayers is a Hong Kong-based composer who plays flutes from a variety of cultural traditions. She has worked with extended vocal and woodwind techniques, including quarter tones, multiphonics and other unusual flute timbres. She is creating native American, Australian, Chinese and Indonesian computer music designs. She has extensively researched and composed with microtonal tuning systems, especially unlimited just intonation. She also uses a 75-tone Indian/Partch scale on the "Woodstock Gamelan," a tubular percussion instrument built to her specifications by Woodstock Percussion. She has modeled the Woodstock Gamelan and other gamelan instruments using Csound, and authored Cooking with Csound: Woodwind and Brass Recipes, a CD-ROM package which gives synthesis designs for wind instruments. She has played gamelan at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University.

The album contains pieces of "microtonal soundscape" using Indian tunings, Balinese tunings, Partch tunings, etc., composed during 1990-2006. Otherworldly, strange, beautiful, and subtle. It's computer music, but the timbre is very good.

75 tones: I assume that is per octave?       I would have trouble deciding where to go with so many choices!  But I find your recommendation intriguing, and hope to experience this music soon!

[torut]

75 tones: I assume that is per octave?       I would have trouble deciding where to go with so many choices!  But I find your recommendation intriguing, and hope to experience this music soon!

I think Partch used 43-tone (unevenly divided) scale, but I don't know about Indian scale. Wyschnegradsky and Haas used 72 ET, and Reinhard used 128-tone tuning.

another interesting microtonal music

Henri Pousseur: Electronic Experimental and Microtonal 1953-1999 (Sub Rosa)
[asin]B001DXBVZQ[/asin]

a good review by dusted:
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4790

Pousseur's works feel more academic than Partch, Young, Riley and others. Pousseur used serialism and was friends with Boulez but they split up later. The most interesting pieces to me are Prospection (1953), for 3 pianos tuned a sixth-tone apart, and Racine dix-neuvième de huit-quarts (1975) for cello solo using 19-tone scale. At moonlight, downland's shadow passes along Ginkaku-Ji (1983) almost sounds ordinary Japanese traditional music, and Figures enlacées (1999) for organ does not seem to have anything extraordinary, but I may be missing something. Ex dei in machinam memoria (1972) for oboe is the most strangest, with (sometimes cheap) electronics sounds.

[Cato]

Pousseur's works feel more academic than Partch, Young, Riley and others. Pousseur used serialism and was friends with Boulez but they split up later. The most interesting pieces to me are Prospection (1953), for 3 pianos tuned a sixth-tone apart, and Racine dix-neuvième de huit-quarts (1975) for cello solo using 19-tone scale.

I often used a 19-tone scale for my works, or a 17-tone: the 7 or 5 added tones were quarter-tones, and could be inserted anywhere among the usual 12, thereby creating a kind of new key or mode system.

I recall Pousseur and have the same reaction as you.  Has his oeuvre made a comeback?

[torut]

I often used a 19-tone scale for my works, or a 17-tone: the 7 or 5 added tones were quarter-tones, and could be inserted anywhere among the usual 12, thereby creating a kind of new key or mode system.

It's interesting. So, it's not 17-ET (equal temperament) or 19-ET. Are there audio samples of your works?

Regarding Racine, according to the dusted review:
"Racine" with a 19-tone scale, half way between equal temperament and Christian Huyghens's 31-tone system; [...] In "Racine," Pousseur picks notes that tend to sound almost tonal, with splatterings of dissonance and oddly tuned intervals thrown in to make the melodies that much more melodious.

I recall Pousseur and have the same reaction as you.  Has his oeuvre made a comeback?

I saw some posts about Pousseur on this forum but don't remember any mentions about microtonality. This is the only Pousseur album I have. I want to check out his other works.

[milk]

Lately I've been obsessed with Young's Well Tuned Piano and have even tried playing around with his tuning. It's extremely hard for me to make something of it. I think it's my favorite "xenharmonic" music. It's so mysterious. There's nothing much like it, I don't think. But it's really hard to get other people into it. It seems almost like asking them to join a cult or something. My girlfriend just looks at me like, "uh-huh." I was walking around a shopping mall listening to it recently (I know, a strange idea) and I felt like I was leaving my body.
I think the closest thing that comes to it is some kind of gamelan music maybe.