43 Commas was composed for flutist Donnie Ashworth and pianist Adam Bowles. The work is based on just-tuned chord progressions that – with each iteration – drift in pitch by the interval of a Syntonic Comma. The resulting tonic chord at the end of the piece is a major sixth lower than the (functionally) same chord at the beginning. The instrumental parts remain in 12 tone equal temperament, and are constrained to pitches that are proximate to partials related to the just-tuned chords (4:5:6, 10:12:15, and 6:7:9). A computer program determined paths of common-tone harmonic progressions in order to maximize the number of available equal-tempered pitches. The timbres of the soundfile were chosen to reference blown-pipe and struck-string families of instruments. 

43 Commas

Vestiges is a percussion quartet re-arranged for Seth Noble to perform as a vibraphone/fixed media work.  Scored for metals and metallic models, alternating sections are loosely based on ferric folksongs and a large-gaited jazz standard. The title refers to remnants and recurring traces of that source material. Underlying the folksong sections are "hank drums" tuned to overtone relationships,
with equal-tempered F as fundamental (drum 1), as 7th partial (drum 2), as 11th partial (drum 3), and as 23rd partial (drum 4). In the other sections, audio clips exploit the pitch drift that naturally occurs when certain Justly Tuned chords progress with common tone linkage.  

Vibraphone and cymbals performed by Seth Noble.  Recorded somewhere in Birmingham by Brian C. Moon.

Vestiges

Incongruity refers to the meshing of two seemingly incommensurate systems: extended just intonation, represented by fixed media, and equal temperament, represented by the piano part. The sound file presents just-tuned, common-tone chord progressions that shift - with each iteration - by the interval of a Syntonic Comma. The functional tonic at the end of the piece is a sharp minor third higher than at the beginning. Piano notes are proximate to higher harmonic relationships, relative to the fundamental of each chord. Divisions of time at phrase and section are proportional to underlying fundamental frequencies. Incongruity was completed in December 2010, specifically for the UnTwelve 2010 Composition Competition (untwelve.org), and awarded first prize.

Incongruity

[I'll] Twine 'mid the Ringlets is the title of a parlor song from 1860 that was disseminated orally until recorded and popularized by the original Carter Family in 1928.  The tune, which underlies this work -- composed for the Amion String Quartet -- can be rendered communally (albeit with octave displacement) via open strings and/or natural harmonics.  The quartet is asked to tune fifths pure so that  Pythagorean tuning is the norm - extended with overtone relationships based on 5th and 7th partials.  Each of sixteen three-note figures within the tune correspond to a section in the string quartet, with primary tones determining durations and tonal centers. 

Twine 'mid the Ringlets

Iron Road is the lead track on the Alabama Places CD (Innova), and is performed by Ellen Tweiten (piano) and Kurt Carpenter (keyboard).  The "Iron Road" is a trail at Tannehill Ironworks State Park.  During the 1800s, it was the road leading from the facility to a stagecoach road, which ended at the railroad at Montevallo. While hiking there, I wondered what the sounds of 19th century industry might be like for the people traveling on the path. An imaginary landscape of alternating strokes, realized with piano and keyboard (plucked string patch), formed the basis of the composition. The pitch of the keyboard is lowered by 28 cents.

Alabama Places is a set of twelve duets for piano and microtonal keyboard, the fruit of an introspective four-year journey. As the title implies, each work is somehow connected to a place – some with strong personal ties, others recently discovered yet no less inspiring. If the choice of represented place is serendipitous, the microtonal structure is completely preconceived. The pieces serve as studies in the tradition of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, but in overtone-based harmony rather than key relationships.The keyboard is detuned by an interval between 4 and 48 cents, in 4-cent increments, for each of the twelve pieces. Thus, the entire set explores twelve different 24-note scales made up of two asymmetrical 12-note equal-tempered scales. Available pitches at a given moment correspond to overtone relationships from fundamental frequencies that also shift in 4-cent increments.

Iron Road

Drift (1996) for piano, two pianos, or player piano is the final track on the CD, "A Still Subtler Spirit" (Living Artists, 2003).  It is microtonally-conceived music for a fixed-pitch equal-tempered instrument, accomplished by extracting equal-tempered pitches corresponding to overtones relative to a conceptual fundamental that very gradually drifts lower in pitch. This process creates a dynamic series that eventually includes every note on the piano and, depending upon the register of the fundamental, increases or diminishes like a living organism. The nature of the row suggested its presentation as a long melody with constantly changing register and octave doublings. The definite tendency toward the piano's short small strings facilitated an almost total avoidance of damping, thereby treating the piano like a giant hammer dulcimer. Although the work may be heard as a rondo, I conceived it rather as a narrative interrupted by episodes.

Drift

Monroe Golden is a composer from rural Alabama whose works often explore microtonal systems. Critics have described his compositions as "delightfully disorienting," "lovely, sumptuous, yet arcane,” and "irresistible music, full of wit and beauty.” He graduated from the University of Montevallo and earned a doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Illinois. There are three complete CDs of his music, A Still Subtler Spirit (Living Artist Recordings, 2003), Alabama Places (innova Recordings, 2007), and Incongruity (self-published, 2011).

monroe-golden