Von Möllendorff's Quarter-Tone Theory With MIDI Examples

[Cato]

I happened to come across a website where someone has translated Willi Von Möllendorff's treatise on quarter-tone music.

Of interest is that it contains MIDI files of many examples of progressions of quarter-tone chords:

http://tonalsoft.com/monzo/moellendorf/book/sequences.htm

Presented to keep Greg from being bored!   

[greg]

I happened to come across a website where someone has translated Willi Von Möllendorff's treatise on quarter-tone music.

Of interest is that it contains MIDI files of many examples of progressions of quarter-tone chords:

http://tonalsoft.com/monzo/moellendorf/book/sequences.htm

Presented to keep Greg from being bored!   

Hell yeah, Cato! 
This will be fun...

[Benji]

I happened to come across a website where someone has translated Willi Von Möllendorff's treatise on quarter-tone music.

Of interest is that it contains MIDI files of many examples of progressions of quarter-tone chords:

http://tonalsoft.com/monzo/moellendorf/book/sequences.htm

Presented to keep Greg from being bored!   

Oh dear. The translator might have taken the time to proof read the work. But then it was amusing to read about hermaphrodites and the ferocious beasts eating out of our hands in an essay on music theory. Plus, I liked that we are encouraged to congratulate ourselves, and I obliged with relish. 

[Cato]

Oh dear. The translator might have taken the time to proof read the work. But then it was amusing to read about hermaphrodites and the ferocious beasts eating out of our hands in an essay on music theory. Plus, I liked that we are encouraged to congratulate ourselves, and I obliged with relish. 

Another reason why computers will not replace humans for a while at least!   

I did not read most of the translation: the musical examples were of more interest!  But now I will go back and read more carefully!  Maybe I can offer some help!   0:)

[Cato]

Oh dear. The translator might have taken the time to proof read the work. But then it was amusing to read about hermaphrodites and the ferocious beasts eating out of our hands in an essay on music theory. Plus, I liked that we are encouraged to congratulate ourselves, and I obliged with relish. 

I found the "hermaphrodite" reference in Section 36: in fact, the translation is not quite incorrect: "Zwitterhaft" means "hermaphrodite"...but in context von Möllendorff is talking about the dual "major-minor" sound of a triad (D - F1/4 - A) which "loses" (not "looses") an "unnatural duality" (Widernatürlich-Zwitterhafte) when resolved to F#.

One must admit that a chord which exhibits hermaphroditism is much more vivid and interesting than one with "duality."   

[jlaurson]

I found the "hermaphrodite" reference in Section 36: in fact, the translation is not quite incorrect: "Zwitterhaft" means "hermaphrodite"...but in context von Möllendorff is talking about the dual "major-minor" sound of a triad (D - F1/4 - A) which "loses" (not "looses") an "unnatural duality" (Widernatürlich-Zwitterhafte) when resolved to F#.

One must admit that a chord which exhibits hermaphroditism is much more vivid and interesting than one with "duality."   

Susan Marie Praeder [CPO's notoriously awful translator] at work again?? :-)

[Cato]

I found the "hermaphrodite" reference in Section 36: in fact, the translation is not quite incorrect: "Zwitterhaft" means "hermaphrodite"...but in context von Möllendorff is talking about the dual "major-minor" sound of a triad (D - F1/4 - A) which "loses" (not "looses") an "unnatural duality" (Widernatürlich-Zwitterhafte) when resolved to F#.

One must admit that a chord which exhibits hermaphroditism is much more vivid and interesting than one with "duality."   

I should mention that such is one of the interesting aspects of quarter-tone music, the invention of new "minor" / "major" sounds, similar to what e.g. Ravel attempts in the Menuet of Le Tombeau de Couperin.

Susan Marie Praeder [CPO's notoriously awful translator] at work again?? :-)

JLaurson: I thought about that earlier!  The English notes for CPO CD's contain some of the most inscrutable sentences ever written in the language: to be fair, however, the German is not much better!   

[CD]

Who would you say is the most interesting composer that works (or worked) extensively with quarter (or smaller) tones? I'm interested!

[Cato]

Who would you say is the most interesting composer that works (or worked) extensively with quarter (or smaller) tones? I'm interested!

The winners are two: the Russian Ivan Wyschnegradsky and Mexican composer Julian Carrillo.

For a sample of Carrillo's rather mystical sounding work The Christopher Columbus Prelude see:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/pitchrecs3

For Wyschnegradsky se:

http://www.last.fm/music/Ivan+Wyschnegradsky

And this Wyschnegradsky CD is an excellent taste of a new universe hidden between the keys of a regular pianos:

http://www.amazon.com/Ivan-Wyschnegradsky-Mouvements-rotatoires-Pr%C3%A9ludes/dp/B000063X10/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1258571429&sr=1-1

[CD]

Thank you. I was able to find some Wyschnegradsky online (not much is in print it seems). I will look for Carrillo.

[CRCulver]

Who would you say is the most interesting composer that works (or worked) extensively with quarter (or smaller) tones? I'm interested!

Jukka Tiensuu is very dedicated to microtonal writing. Per Norgard has also used microtones in many of his classic works (Voyage into the Golden Screen, the Violin Concerto No. 2...)

[CD]

I know Nørgård well, but I'm not sure if he falls in to what I consider "extensive" use of microtones — they always seemed part of a sliding scale and not "discrete" pitch classes (if you can even use that term here) in themselves.

I've heard a disc of Tiensuu playing contemporary music for harpsichord, but didn't know he composed.

[Cato]

I know Nørgård well, but I'm not sure if he falls in to what I consider "extensive" use of microtones — they always seemed part of a sliding scale and not "discrete" pitch classes (if you can even use that term here) in themselves.

I've heard a disc of Tiensuu playing contemporary music for harpsichord, but didn't know he composed.

Decades ago, I came into contact with a character named George Secor.  Motorola had hired him to play concerts with and compose music for a microtonal synthesizer they had built called the Scalatron, which had the capability of electronically playing (I believe) 72 tones per octave.   

It sounded rather primitive, of course, and I am sure computerization has changed its design: Secor was quite proud of his design for the keyboard, which some have called "bizarre."

It seems he is still around:

http://www.anaphoria.com/SecorMiracle.pdf

Anyway, he claimed that a 24-tone scale on thirds of a tone had better possibilities, and a better sound, than quarter-tones.

[Dax]

The winners are two: the Russian Ivan Wyschnegradsky and Mexican composer Julian Carrillo.

I can't really agree. Carrillo's most impressive microtonal piece happens to be about the only one that many know - Preludio a Colon (Prelude to Columbus) from 1921 (or a couple of years later, depending on which reference you believe), but many of the others seem to go little further than "this is what you can do with microtones" rather than making coherent pieces of music. I'm going through this downloadable stash at the moment in the hope that I'll find something exciting.

http://www.sonido13.com/obras.html

Hit "zip" + it should arrive straight into Itunes.

Wyshnegradsky (Vishnegradsky), however, is far more interesting. Here's a stash.

http://www.ubu.com/sound/wyschnegradsky.html

The Meditation has the cello playing in 1/3 + 1/6 tones against a normal piano - it's his earliest microtonal piece although I do prefer Johnny Reinhard playing it on bassoon (!). The Preludes for 2 pianos tuned 1/4 tone apart are well worth investigation, but some of the later pieces are difficult to get on with.

Wot, no mention of Haba? I do find him more difficult, but I was convinced by a recording of his opera Matka (The Mother) which I think is the only 1/4 tone opera - certainly the first. And Ives 3 pieces for 2 pianos tuned 1/4 tone apart are a must, especially no 3.

All these I've mentioned are from before WW2. Another from the 1930s is Mildred Couper, but unfortunately recordings of her pieces have disappeared from the web along with "geocities". For works written since WW2 in a non-modernist style, I'd recommend Easley Blackwood's 12 microtonal Études which peculiarly explore every equal tempered tuning between 13 and 24 notes to the octave.

Here's the 16 noter

http://www.sendspace.com/file/vg39ww

[listener]

ahh..... HÁBA       nothing like quarter-tone trombone quartets or a string quartet in fifth-tones (enharmonic with standard tuning only at the octave?) or having this beast to practice scales on

[DieNacht]

I have that interesting and sometimes excellent ALOIS HABA set

- and notice from the photo that he built his piano so that it was big enough to hide in ...