Some Neo-Medieval Music

Today I'm going to play about a half an hour of music by an assortment of composers who have posted announcements of their pieces on the Yahoo Group, Make Micro Music. This is a mailing list of composers who like to make microtonal music, like to talk about making microtonal music, and like to let others of similar interest listen to their work. If you are listening to this podcast, I'd recommend that you join the group to be notified when someone has created a new piece. I've accumulated a ton of great microtonal music this way, and today's podcast features eight great pieces announced on the list, plus one of mine, and an archive recording of Harry Partch.

The theme of thepisode is "Neo-Medieval Music", from a post by Daniel Wolf on his blog. Talking about Margo Schulter, another composer we will hear from later in the program, Daniel writes:

Margo Schulter has specialized in the nexus between medieval and renaissance tuning concepts and voice leading practice in early repertoire, both analytically and synthetically, through locating unexplored potential in historical practice for new work. Her impressive, if modest-in-scale, compositions are in a style which she identifies as neo-medieval, featuring deliciously subtle alternative tunings. To a certain extent, it is a kind of historical fiction, imagining a music that could have happened in 1300 or 1400 had history taken a slightly different course in the generations after Perotin or Machault. Ms. Schulter, although working outside of the academy, is one of the most rigorous and thorough scholars out there, and, in addition, is one of the most generous spirits in the contemporary music world, paying attention to the work of others with rare intensity and always more interested in fruitful collaboration than in competition.

Indeed. Kind of like an alternative history novel. Let's hear some examples, shall we?

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First up are two songs posted by Aaron Krister Johnson: Juggler and Adagio for Margo. Aaron writes that Adagio for Margo is his take on Margo Schulter's 'neo-medieval' style. He describes the piece as follows:

Thanks Margo, for your inspirational discussions and exploration of this subject! I used two soundfonts from the "Early Patches" set--a hammered dulcimer sound, layered with an alto recorder sound. The soundfonts were loaded into the 'fluidsynth' software engine, and run through a software effects rack (jack-rack) which hosted my favorite effects plugin: Freeverb. I was using the Jack low-latency audio server under Linux. I used my custom software to 'compile' the MIDI file, and again custom software to play it, both written in Python. Speaking of which, the tuning is 17-edo....did anyone guess that? It's been said here before, but 17-edo, I have to agree, has nice narrow semitones--good for melodic lines.

Listen now to Adagio for Margo by Aaron Krister Johnson.

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About The Juggler he writes.

The Juggler nicely represents the main strands of my compositional personality at once: The predilection for neo-Bachian counterpoint, but with a modern twist, using asymmetrical time signatures and changing meters, and of course, a fascination for non-12 per octave tunings. The tuning here is 19-Tone-Equal-Temperament also known as 19 Equal Divisions of the Octave. This intonation has rich harmonic resources, and a wonderfully vibrant and insistent energy. The title was arrived at after the composing. The music conveys what I feel when I watch a skilled juggler at work on his/her "aerial counterpoint"!

Listen now to The Juggler by Aaron Krister Johnson

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Jon Lyle Smith is a composer who has posted notices of his new pieces many times over the past few months. They are all wonderful microtonal explorations. Today I'm going to play three. The first is his Trio In G Major. He writes:

A light & airy souffle of neo-classical tonality, served with generous portions of just intonation. High in empty calories, low in proteins. Contains no outre intervals. Suitable for those on a bland diet.

Here is Trio in G Major by Jon Lyle Smith.

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Next up is another piece by Jon Lyle Smith - Apollonian Dance He describes this work on his site as follows:

Inspired by ancient Greek music. Based on a tuning by Ptolemy: 1/1 - 9/8 - 7/6 - 4/3 - 3/2 - 63/40 - 7/4 - 2/1 For soprano recorder, 'ud, cittern, frame drum.

Listen now to Apollonian Dance by Jon Lyle Smith.

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And now for the third of Jon Lyle Smith's works today, his Prelude No 1. Jon writes

Quiet & contemplative piano prelude, composed in a symmetrical octatonic scale with 7/4 meter. Tuning is 1/6 -comma meantone.

Great stuff. Jon Lyle Smith and Prelude No. 1.

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Next up is another piece in the growing genre of neo-medieval music

Margo Shulter describes her work as follows:

Hello, everyone, and I'm pleased to report that more music is available in Sagittal notation: a piece called _O Europae_ which I composed in the context of this group in 2004, when it was announced here that the European Union was expanding to 25 members, and that this might be a fitting subject for some compositions.

The score is available on her web site with a link to the PDF file here.

Listen now to Margo Schulter's O Europae.

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Next up is a piece performed by a real live musician. Dante Rosati describes the Prime Guitar he used to play the next piece,Tarkovsky's Mirror, on his web site:

The first guitar I refretted, the 21-Tone Just Intonation Guitar, used a 21 note scale derived from the harmonic series, using pitches up to the 7 prime limit, and with the scale repeating throughout the range of the instrument. After that, I wanted a guitar that would enable me to play in the harmonic series without limitations, so I next refretted an instrument into the Harmonic Series Guitar (webpage to follow). Being able to play partials like 11, 13, 17 and other higher primes was quite interesting, and I found myself wondering if an instrument could be designed that would play only higher prime partials.

The Prime Guitar is designed to play prime partials 17-199. The lowest string is tuned to the 17th partial of a series, and the successive strings are then tuned to partials 23, 37, 47, 67, and 89 to preserve the basic tonal spread of a standard set of guitar strings. Because the lowest partial is 17, there are no familiar intervals like octaves, fifths, thirds, etc., which are all lower prime limit intervals. Nevertheless, some intervals between higher primes approximate the lower prime limit intervals (e.g. 61/31), without of course reproducing them exactly. This gives the guitar a unique sound that can be heard in this piece composed and recorded on this instrument:

Listen now to Dante Rosati and his Tarkovsky's Mirror.

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Hudson Lacerda posted this improvisation back in November when he wrote on the Yahoo Make Micro Music group list:

George Secor's 17-tone well temperament is simply fantastic! You all definitely need try it! The qualitative differences from 17-EDO are really strong (forget the harshness of 17-EDO intervals), and there are very interesting and effective consonances/dissonances based on 3 7 9 11 13. The improvisation is new-age-like, but I think it shows a bit of the harmonic and melodic potentials of 17WT.

Listen now to Hudson Lacerda perform his improv.

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The last piece is one of mine that I've played once before on the microtonal podcast, back in October of 2005. Forgive me if you've heard this before. I scored it for Balloon Drums, Oboe, Flutes, Guitar, and Finger Piano. The piece starts out with a simple chord progression for the winds, with finger piano bass, that sounds rather conventional. But some of the intervals are not what they appear. As the piece moves on, I use glissandi to drift from one to the other, to showcase how un-12-tone the tuning is.

The balloon drums are made from a four foot long sewer pipe with a balloon membrane over one end. I recorded one and use Csound to bring it up in pitch. Each note played on the balloon drum is actually 5-10 strikes of the drum separated by a few milliseconds. It gives it a sense of many drummers playing at once.

Listen now to Balloon Drum Music by Prent Rodgers.

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The final sound clip is taken from Innova Records DVD called Enclosure Seven: Harry Partch. This DVD includes several recording of Partch talking about his instrument. I couldn't resist including this clip from his description of the Boo. It's all Harry, at his sexy best.

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That's it for now podcatchers. Let's hope it won't be another eight months before the next one!

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