On Sun, 27 Nov 1994, RobForbes wrote:
 
> Did anybody hear the interesting piece on All Things Considered about a
> month ago about a composer at Urbana-Champaign who received a NEH grant
> to write compositions using equal temperament scales from, I believe, 8
> to 24 notes per octave?  Some of the pieces were very good, including a
> sort of Christmas carol for (synthesized) brass in 17 n.p.o, I think,
> which was more perfect than 12.  Some of the other pieces were deeply
> painful to listen to.  An interesting exercise, all in all.
 
Easley Blackwood, of _The Structure of Recognizable Diatonic Tunings_ and
other fame.  Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media, Op. 28,
using equal scales from 13 to 24 notes.
 
Those pieces and recordings aren't new.  They were released on LP in 1980.
Marketing and exposure, marketing and exposure, the publicity machines
which are surely soon to give us "The Three Tenors and Cecilia Bartoli
sing all-new Gregorian chants" ("all new chants" as advertised on the
Chant Noel album).  :)
 
Now the pieces you heard are on the CD "Microtonal Compositions by Easley
Blackwood," Cedille CDR 90000 018.  Yes, they are interesting.  Some do
sound kind of Christmasy, as you said: Blackwood made most of the pieces
imitate distinctive styles (which makes them more accessible to people who
aren't listening for the tuning so much).  His strategy was to try to
express the likely progressions and formulas obtained from the harmonic
and melodic content of these scales.  Kind of a game, "If these scales
became standard, what would middle of the road music sound like?"  And
there's a note in the booklet that the scores are available from
Blackwood: $25 for the Twelve Microtonal Etudes.  His first and fifth
symphonies are on Cedille CDR 90000 016, and the cello sonata on CDR 90000
008.
 
 |\      _,,,--,,_  ,)          Bradley Lehman, [log in to unmask]
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