Under; elsewhere (2020)
for quarter-tone trumpet in C
The ‘After Times’ –– a new reality. Time passes weirdly here. Distances are strange. Gravity is different. Prepositions no longer make sense. Up is down is left is right, inside is outside, and is under and over. The after times – an Escher-esque existence.
Otiose: producing no result or effect
Outraged: angered at something unjust or wrong Overcritical: inclined to judge too severely Overwrought: deeply agitated especially from emotion Outmoded: old-fashioned
Offcious: intrusive in a meddling or offensive manner Overmodest: shy especially in a playful or provocative way Odious: unequivocally detestable

Emily Koh (b.1986) is a Singaporean composer based in Atlanta, Georgia whose music reimagines everyday experiences by sonically expounding tiny oft-forgotten details, and is characterized by inventive explorations of the intricacies of sound. Her work also explores binary states such as extremes/ boundaries, distinguished/ ignored, and activity/ stagnation, through her unique Teochew and Peranakan Singaporean lens. An amateur multi-disciplinary artist herself, she enjoys collaborating with creatives of other specializations, especially when sound plays a central role in the project. Emily is currently Assistant Professor of Music Composition at the University of Georgia, USA.

Live recording of the premier, at:
'Das Stimmt!! with strings attached' (EUROMicroFest 2024)
8 March, 2024, 8pm
Elisabeth Schneider Stiftung, Weinschlösschen Freiburg.

Under; elsewhere (2020) WP

This improvisation was part of a live performance with accordionist, Karin Fleck, of improvisations, compositions and transcriptions. I play flugelhorn and trumpet.
The concert was in the St. Michaels-Kapelle (Alten Friedhof) in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. The concert was one of three concerts I put on under the title, 'due e due e due' in 2022, to raise money for the German Cancer Relief organisation, 'Deutsche Krebshilfe'.

https://www.karinfleck.de

Improvisation II: Duo Altoft Fleck

A live recording as part of the 'due e due e due' concert series on 5th May, 2024 in aid of Cancer Relief Germany (Deutsche Krebshilfe) in the St. Michaels-kapelle, Alten Friedhof, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.

The piece was commissioned as part of my on-going project, 'Inspired by Baroque', which focuses on the 19-divisions of the octave flugelhorn, and the historical tuning 'Third Comma Meantone Tuning'. Many composers chose movements of the baroque suite as their starting point. Erik chose the Air from Suite in G major, BWV1068, by Johann Sebastian Bach as his influence, and wrote the piece during 2020/2021.

https://www.erik-janson.de

Air from the end of bad times (for 19-div flugelhorn) by Erik Janson

four 19-div flugelhorn multi-tracks
Home Studio Recording

The video of the premier is here:
https://youtu.be/F3B-jTq6goo?si=oQQ59GXAhpd_6zM6


The hornpipe as a baroque dance is a somewhat lesser-known dance, but still had a very particular and popular place particularly in British music of the era, with figures like Handel, Daniel Purcell, and his more famous father composing such dances; and with the role of hornpipes in military music of the era too there is a unique place for this underloved dance. As a fan of obscure curiosities and word play - a flugelhornpipe for the wondrous flugelhorn felt like an ideal solution when asked by Stephen Altoft to compose a work in 19-TET. The dance draws on some typical characteristics, namely the prevalence of 3/4 time and use of horn call figures makes for a fun dance and interaction between the live player and the tape parts.

Ben Lunn
'A Radical Optimist’ – Aleksandra Line, Mūzikos Saule
Winner of two Scottish Music Awards 2020 for his work with Hebrides Ensemble and Drake Music Scotland. Ben Lunn's current projects include a large-scale work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra which was supported by the PRS Foundation's Composers' Fund. In September ’23, Ben was selected for the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Composer Scheme, which sees him paired with Music in the Round; his selection to the scheme saw him become the first composer from North-East England to be selected for it. In 2021, Ben helped found the Disabled Artist Network, an organisation which is bridging the gap between the professional world and disabled artists.

Flugelhornpipe by Ben Lunn (Backing Track Only)

Live recording of the premier, St. Pauls Hall, University of Huddersfield, 18th April, 1996. Concert by YON Ensemble.

Floating Poles begins by setting up a regular movement from sparse music to a more compressed equivalent. This flow occurs around ‘poles’, defined harmonically. Later the poles float away from their fixed positions, dragging the associated material with them, leading to an overlap between blocks. The holes that result are filled by low echoes of the original material. Floating Poles was written for Stephen Altoft and first performed by him in Huddersfield on 18th April 1996.

James Saunders is a composer with an interest in group behaviours and decision making. He performs in the duo Parkinson Saunders. He runs the Open Scores Lab at Bath Spa University. See www.james-saunders.com for more information.

Floating Poles by James Saunders

I recorded this in the early 1990's (James Saunders used his equipment), and it was on Chris Villar's website for a long time. I also got to perform it in London at a related book launch some years later.

A Very Short Trumpet Piece    

A Very Short Trumpet Piece by Morton Feldman

On 12th December of 2002, duo Contour, in collaboration with SUONO MOBILE put on the first and only complete performance of Bryn Harrison's 'Listenings' Cycle at The Warehouse in London.  'Mantra' (Listenings V) the fifth and final movement is for solo trumpet and drone, which Bryn wrote for me in Autumn 1997. I gave the premier in 1998 at the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival, and have played about 20 times in total, internationally.

Listenings III is here https://soundcloud.com/duocontour/listenings-iii-by-bryn-harrison

For details about Bryn Harrison, please see his website: brynharrison.com

Mantra (1997) by Bryn Harrison for trumpet and drone

The piece is inspired by the flower thought to grow in paradise. The premier was in the Lichthof at Rathaus Schoneberg in Berlin in 1999, and I subsequently played it around the UK too- including UK MicroFest, London. The recording is a live performance at the University of York from 2009 I think. There are some quarter-tones in it, used as an expressive device. 
https://www.stepha-schweiger.de

asphodels 1-7 (1999) by Stephanie K. Schweiger

This performance dates back to 2009 at the University of York, part of a tour of 'The Microtonal Trumpet' Project.

Alarmed and Dangerous (1996) for trumpet, brass ensemble, tape (35′). Commissioned by the BBC for Radio 3′s ‘Between the Ears’ and realised in the studios of the University of Huddersfield (with sound processing by Jo Thomas) and the BBC (technical presentation by Simon Hancock, produced by Alan Hall). Klaxonik is dedicated to Jo Thomas. First broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 11 November 1996. 4 works which may also be performed separately:
1. Sonar for trumpet and tape (5′)
2. Klaxonik for trumpet and tape (9′)
3. Insecurity for trumpet and tape (5′)
4. A Map of Heaven for 8 trumpets, 4 horns, 12 trombones, or 2 trumpets, horn, 3 trombones + tape (16′)

http://www.foxedition.co.uk

Klaxonik (1996) for trumpet and tape by Christopher Fox


Kerata for Straton for 19-Division Trumpet by Coreen Morsink 
This live home studio recording predates a planned World Premiere and future professional studio recording. 

' 'Kerata for Straton' depicts a day in the life of Straton, a fictional salpinx (trumpet) player at the time of the Trojan War. Although Straton is a made up character, he is based on the fact that music was a part of life in ancient Greece and the trumpet,
or rather the salpinx at the time, was used as an instrument for armies during the Trojan War as written in Homer's Iliad. References to music making are not frequent in the Iliad but even Achilles, when not fighting, sits with his friend Patroclus and plays the phorminx. In this made up story, all Straton, wanted in life was to enjoy playing the trumpet and to play instruments like the phorminx, kitharis, lyra and other instruments at happy events but he was forced to play salpinx commands in the army. Generally of good humour, Straton carries on after witnessing the horrific carnage of war
as well hearing of the sorrow of Achilles upon receiving the news of Patroclus' death. From this experience, Straton decides to become a bard and relay the sadness of the war through song and the playing of the kitharis and lyra.
Note about the title: Kerata means 'horns' in Greek and animal horns were used in ancient Greece as musical instruments (and thus the word). Straton was a boy's name in ancient Greece and is related to the word 'stratos' στράτος which means army.' (C.M.)
Quotes
"...what satisfaction can I get from that, now that my closest friend is dead, Patroclus, who was more to me than any other of my men, whom I loved as much as my own life?" Iliad by Homer-XVIII.65
"Clear as the trumpet's voice when it soundeth aloud beneath the press of murderous foeman" Iliad by Homer- XVIII.219

https://coreenmorsink.wordpress.com/about/


Kerata for Straton for 19-Division Trumpet (2024) by Coreen Morsink

This recording of Vania's solo piece is from a studio session last spring. The piece uses the unusual 'Hand in bell' technique.

Vasiliki Kourti-Papamoustou -  The head is floating shivering in the calmness of the morning frost

Stace and I both studied at the University of Huddersfield at the same time. He taught me a bit of software, cubase I think, in order that I could make a fixed electronic version of Jonathan Harvey's 'Ricercare una melodia' ; I played in his student brass ensemble composition- possibly the first microtonal piece I ever took part in; he controlled the amplification of my piccolo trumpet in a performance of Stockhausen's 'Oberlippentanz'. This piece has quarter and eight-tones dotted around in a 'harmonic cloud' resulting from a pointillistic approach.

'Microtones present various, interesting problems for the modern musician. Not only do they raise the question: can these microtones be performed harmonically and/ or melodically on a given instrument and by a particular performer? But also, how should they be notated?

Prelunit has been composed for Stephen Altoft to play on his quarter-tone trumpet. I wrote it having studied the guides he and the composer Donald Bousted published as well as after having many discussions with them about microtonal music.

In composing Prelunit I have attempted to keep the notation as clear-cut as possible. But have tried to also consider the view that a musical work can concurrently be virtuosic, complex, simple, beautiful and aesthetically challenging'.

Stace Constantinou, 29 June 2020.

Stace Constantinou 
Musician, composer, producer, teacher/ lecturer, occasional radio programmer maker, sporadic writer. Pianist, cellist, emerging audio-programmer.

Currently working on a new work: A trilogy of post-punk-dystopian-synth-pop with lyrical ideas influenced by Plato, Bacon, G.I. Gurdjieff and various theories around Artificial Intelligence (AI).
https://sconstantinou.bandcamp.com

Recording: Stephen Altoft
Post Production: Donald Bousted

Stace Constantinou - Prelunit (2018)

duo Contour
Stephen Altoft microtonal trumpet
Lee Ferguson percussion
Jeff Herriott Electronics

I would  like to share with you the recording of duo Contour playing ‘a glance at the sun’ by Jeff Herriott (USA) for microtonal trumpet, percussion and electronics. We met Jeff at the UKMicroFest in London in 2007, and he wrote this piece for our US tour in 2008.

Jeff Herriott - a glance at the sun (2008) for microtonal trumpet, percussion and electronics

Trumpeter specialising in contemporary music, and especially microtonal music.

Stephen C. Altoft

Popular tracks