installation

Mixtape #074

"Xenharmonic" music with alternative tuning (e.g. Just Intonation, Bohlen-Pierce, Wendy Carlos scales). Also some noise/concrete music, and a few otherwise typical pieces with a single odd aspect such as uneven rhythm.

ｘｅｎ / avant garde / experimental

Microtonal Music Collection

Wanna know about the vast world of experimental and nonwestern harmonies? Look no further! This is a potpourri of all the music out there that bends the rules away from 12 equal notes per octave.

Message me if you find any tracks that should definitely be included!

For a YouTube-based playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_zQK5KSD4m0MAFWAM2ELgZzlRI7iYA5f

Xenharmonic & Microtonal

Mohajira improv

This is a reharmonization of Happy Birthday, tuned to 22 equal divisions of the octave. It is loosely centered around what we call "porcupine temperament."


Happy Birthday

I recorded this a while ago, have no idea what it's from

Sunset

I was bored so I made this little short thing messing around with a 12 tone chain of fifths in 22 edo. Kinda nice sounding. 

Clocks - Random thing in 22 EDO

A nice improvisation in 22 edo featuring a 4:5:6:7 chord as the tonic in what I call "dominant major". 

Keys - 22 Edo Improvisation in F Dominant Major

This is a comma pump in the unnamed 17496/16807 temperament, tuned to 34-equal. The basic root movement is by 7/6, and the chords are tuned to 7-limit subminor 7 chords, to make the voice leading smoother.

17496/16807 Comma Pump, Subminor Chords, 34-equal

“I wish to join ideas with ideas.” - Arnold Schoenberg

Arrangement and Realization: Aaron Wyanski
Mixing and Mastering: Aaron Wyanski
Cover Design: Aaron Wyanski
Photo: "Ceci n'est pas Schoenberg" by Johannes Kreidler
Special Thank You: Don DiNicola

©2023 Speculative Records

1. Leicht, zart

From Rhythm and Xen (2015) by Sevish:
https://sevish.bandcamp.com/album/rhythm-and-xen

Desert Island Rain

Composition for 4 musicians and conductor
Instrumentation: Bandoneon, Electric Guitar, Fender Rhodes, Drums
Duration: 50 minutes
Khartes by Laura Andel ©2013

NYFA Composition Fellow 2013

Khartes in the 30th Anniversary of NYFA’s Artists’ Fellowship Program (New York Foundation for the Arts)
http://www.innova.mu/albums/nyfa-composer-fellows/nyfa-collection-volume-two

Khartes 3 (excerpt)

Tonality Flux Demo

Chiptune drum and bass in a microtonal just intonation scale.

Harmony Hacker

Ask Yourself

The “Great Man” theory was a view of history popular in the 19th Century that posited that society was advanced by a succession of “great men,” who influenced history through the centuries. It may come as no surprise that the majority of these men (besides notable exceptions such as Jesus or Mohammed) were white. In recent decades such views of history have been criticized, and the contributions of women and people of color have been studied in greater detail.
However, even today, there is perhaps no better field of study to see the Great Man theory at work than in the Classical canon. The music of long-deceased white male Europeans reigns supreme in the concert and recital halls, and these men are credited with all of the stylistic progressions of Western art music. To put it bluntly, the performance and study of the canon is one of dead white man music, and that fact often feels like a barrier for female composers and those of color that must be overcome.

Dead White Man Music serves as a personal reflection on this issue, and my own place in Classical music as a young black composer. This concerto for harpsichord draws on inspiration and influences across the centuries: from Bach and Dowland to Julius Eastman and Nina Simone, and from the Baroque to Post-Minimalism and Rock. Through the work I ask: what music am I called to write and who should be my models?

Dead White Man Music was commissioned by Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, through the generous support of over sixty donors through a crowdfunding campaign. The concerto was written for harpsichordist Daniel Walden.

Dead White Man Music, II. Flow (My Tears)

This is an early microtonal improvisation of mine, which I did before I knew anything about regular temperaments. 24-EDO is the tuning, and this composition can be loosely thought of as being structured around "semaphore" temperament within it, and perhaps "neutral" as well.

Oblique Motion

This song will be part of the "Agnostic Depression Characteristic of the 21st Century Voice" collection.

You don’t insist upon your way
You don’t insist upon your way
You don’t have labored points to prove
You don’t steal goods in desperate times
You don’t take sides when they’re not there
You don’t treat petty tricks as art
You don’t shun truth and common sense    
You don’t insist upon your way
You don’t insist upon your way
You don’t raise your voice
You don’t raise your voice

Unusual Unreal Unbelievable You (11 - EDO)

This is a comma pump in porcupine which goes up by three 6/5's and then down two 4/3's back to 1/1. I designed it as an example of something that I thought sounded perfectly "natural," but which doesn't work at all in 12-EDO. I'll use this in a piece somewhere down the road.

The tuning here is 23-EDO, which does a much poorer job in approximating the harmonic series when compared to the other tunings listed here, so the chords don't seem to blend as well. That notwithstanding, it still has a certain interesting color to it, which I somewhat enjoy.

A Porcupine Comma Pump - 23-EDO version

from NANA WODORI - knowsur - album at Split Notes Microtonal Netlabel
http://split-notes.com/spnt004.php

SUNERU

HIKARU

HANERU

YOMU

The latest release from This Way to the EGRESS.
Available for purchase on iTunes, Bandcamp and physical cd's available at www.thiswaytotheegress.com

Purchase on Bandcamp

Indigestion

This is mostly goofy experimental music theory stuff to see how different microtonal scales sound - no real musical compositions here (yet)

Mohajira improv

Mike Battaglia