where David intersects with 12-tone jazz. Some avantgarders in the jazz world would truly love this. On the other hand, did Schoenberg ever consider microtonal rows?

this chordal area surprised me, both texturally and with respect to the flow of the piece--a nice surprise

are these your trichords or from the row itself?

polymicrotonal weirdness with max msp, 2018

PolymicroEtude7

This, my second mixed Trio in poly, features 17-19-21-23-25-28-31 seven note scale in the cello, that loops 6X against two polyrhythmic contrapuntal 24 unequal Pythagorean scale of al Farabi in the piano, and Ben Johnston's 6th Prime row of 25 unequal per octave, in the Clarinet. The interplay is finely thought out and responsorial. The poly trio is a new form I am experimenting with for more transparency for the contrapuntal interplay between the instruments in polymicrotonality. 2025

Mixed Trio in Polytempic Polymicrotonality #2

Another snippet from Caligo Paean - beware of gifts when chasing gods : ) 

Caligo Paean is a 1 hour long sound piece installed on river front property in the town of Franklin, Tasmania as part of the exhibition "When The Fog Clears". It formed part of the Ten Days on The Island Festival March 2025.
The work was installed in several locations across the property including a stack of subs under an old bus, in the main exhibition space and in an abandoned shed some 40 metres from the main area . The speakers were 'tuned' quite differently depending on their location and the sound was not delay corrected with the result of each mini-installation merging with each other in odd sonic ways - kind of calling the listener from one spot to another. The the work features field recordings, percussion, piano, bass guitar and Intonarumori as well as this special one off choir : )

Caligo is the Ancient goddess of Chaos. Born of the fog she controls the darkness, dwells in the void and is as old as the primordial matter that created the universe. This work is a tribute to the goddess as she continues to influence our lives and, in the case of this installation, the site and concept informing the show.

Official press release below for The Fog Clears

Every day, the mists of the Huon Valley perform a seductive dance, gently obscuring and revealing contours of the fertile land and waters. Situated in The Watershed Franklin, When The Fog Clears features six artists from lutruwita / Tasmania exploring the region’s iconic mists through a variety of mediums including installation, sculpture, illustration, sound, and video.

Developed exclusively for Franklin, this exhibit extends from the waterfront itself into the chambers, kilns, and rafters of the shed, inviting visitors to consider fog as an atmosphere that can cloak us in unexpected ways.



Caligo Paean (A gift, a choice)

This is the mixed trio with bassoon added: Clarinet, Bassoon, Cello, and Piano. No fireworks. Just a rather nice low key ensemble. Neither morbid nor jubilant. This is the sister piece to the trio and Polymicrotonal Quartet. My pieces will have several versions. Actually they frankly always did, but it's much more deliberate now. 2025

Mixed Quartet in 12tet

"Tightness" is a composer's value, a quality of music that more often revealed by score study than by casual listening.  Composers might call a score "tight" if its events and parameters turn out overdetermined, as do the answers to a crossword puzzle.  That means the little details all satisfy multiple constraints and the overall fit-together quality verges on the uncanny.

Here I have combined the serial logic with a minimalist's sense of decorum, to keep the listening experience as close as possible to a deep dive into the score.  Indeed, in the second and third sections the rhythmic invention helps you out if your relative pitch lets you down.

In particular, this piece is a love song to the only three tone rows that enjoy a property similar to but distinct from the row that forms the basis of my recent "Let Me Be As Clear As I Can."  

As with the row in that previous piece, each row, joined with certain rotations of two alternative forms of that same row, produces a succession of all 12 distinct trichord classes — and in each case, one can choose the alternative forms in four essentially distinct ways!  Where these rows differ, the succession of trichords always turns out essentially the same across all four solutions.  

Think of a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces can fit together in very different ways and yet strangely still form the same picture.

The three rows and all the solutions receive three different compositional treatments, each forming one of the sections of this work. 

I consider the work indeterminate in a limited way: other versions might replace any or all of the three rows with one of their 2304 = 48² forms (taking into account multiplications of pitch classes and position numbers, as well as transpositions and rotations), and versions can also shuffle, in six ways, which row receives which compositional treatment.




Music Tighter Than A Gnat's Ass Stretched Over A Rain Barrel, for solo piano

A polycyclic piece with 5 looping cyclic parts not in a neat order, but not polytempic nor polymetric, either. Formerly a string quartet, but with added synth, is essentially a quintet. 2025

String Quintet in standard tuning with synth pad

Tunings are: five sets of differently tuned 17-19-21-23-25-28-31 overtones for piano, violin, marimba, trumpet and English horn, and 48tet for the guitar.

Polytempic Polymicrotonal Sextet for Piano, Violin, Marimba, English Horn, Trumpet in C, and 12-string Guitar

fucked up mess

Twist

This piece is an outgrowth of the previous sextet that is now a NONET, with English Horn, C Trumpet, violin, viola, cello, 2 marimbas, guitar and piano. This is fully polytempic, but is only standard tuned, no microtones. (unless of course 12tet in-itself is already microtuned as it deviates from just overtones) . This piece is sprightly and alive, quite the opposite of its composer, so that remains an enigma. 

Just Shut the Fuck UP, it's a Beautiful Day Outside and I have a Boner, so don't ruin it.

Like a wild Klezmer orchestra, everyone is going dixieland Mad with pdlytempo and polymicrotonality, for piano, guitar, violin, viola, cello, 2 marimbas, English horn and Trumpet. It's a mad drunken bar fight but, fun, a fun mad drinking bar fight. No one lives! Composed today and all week. This is related to the Boner happy day piece. You're welcome. 

Polymicrotonal Nonet I

Composer, mathematician, visual artist. 
Seeks collaboration with performers and choreographers.

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Music Tighter Than A Gnat's Ass Stretched Over A Rain Barrel, for solo piano

David Victor Feldman

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