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After starting this page in the summer of 2007, I am finally updating it with with new work! Most recent is "Life Path", a collage of live sound, synthesis and microtonal keyboards sounds. I plan to continue to update with my recent work, shortly. Please check back, from time to time.
Intro to the harmonies
The harmonic material in the music presented on this page is fundamentally based on simultaneities composited from an equal-tempered division of the octave into 72 parts. I would note the work of Ezra Sims and Joeseph G. Maneri in pioneering a music and a musical notation using the 72-note scale. In addition, Maneri has recorded a remarkable body of improvisational work in this field. The Boston Microtonal Society has an excellent site including detail info on the composers and links to relevant publications and resources.
In this scale the smallest interval is 16-2/3 cents, which is not much larger than the just noticeable difference (JND) that the human ear can percieve. A careful effort has been made in this music to seek out harmonies with non-derivative functional implications, which yet drive forward to points of closure. A short musical example (score and mp3) from my and Joe's 1986 text book, Preliminary Studies in the Virtual Pitch Continuum, illustrates this driving counterpoint approach to the new sonorities.
New! Life Path, 15' 02" (2009)
Life Path combines pure tone elements generated from the 72-note scale interwoven with noisy analog synth textures. The higher-pitched pure tones explore the subconcious realms of mind and soul, while the lower-pitched, richer synthesized textures represent the emergence, clumping and ebb of human energy. The persistant percussion elements drive the "life path" from beginning to end.
Moonwaves II, 12' 26" (2007)
Moonwaves II makes considerable use of close interval clustering to create various complex beating patterns. Sounds were generated with classic additive synthesis methods with some application of distortion effects and filtering. I started work on Moonwaves II in 1988 using an 8086 clone and a protpotype microtonal keyboard co-designed by Maneri and myself, then set it aside. Then in 2007, I bought a MacBookPro and finally completed the piece!
Real musicians learned to intone the intervals and hear the harmonies. I'm very happy with their efforts. The music is difficult to execute as once each player begins playing, he/she is not permitted to rest until the final note. The continuous 4-part harmony is heavily informed by European traditions of harmony and counterpoint, and in some sense is a cross pollination of open renaissance vocal contrapuntal styles with the driving functional pre-12-tone Schoenberg-ian counterpoint (plus microtones!). This live rendering of String Quartet in the Virtual Pitch Continuum was recovered from a lap-held cassette recording made at Old West Church, Boston, Mass. in 1985. Excellent performances by: Anne Marie Wiesner (violin), Thomas Reutche (violin), Bernard DiGregorio (viola), and Nancy Barney (cello).