Wyschnegradsky - Quarter-Tone Dialogue for two pianos (Part 1/2)

Dialogue for two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart op. posth. (date of composition unknown)

Ivan Wyschnegradsky (1893-1979) is typically acknowledged as a microtonal composer who spent most of his creative life in Paris and Germany developing his theories and "ultrachromatic scales." Before his emigration to Paris in 1920, he studied composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and became an avant-garde composer. Wyschnegradsky was clearly a disciple of Scriabin's music. He actually experienced something like an epiphany after hearing Scriabin's works and thereafter became a mystic, abandoned his Wagnerian approach to music, and emulated the "scriabinesque." His early orchestral work "The Journey of Existence" owes much to Scriabin's "Poem of Ecstasy". However, he was more interested in pursuing quarter-tone composition and even had Scriabin-like visions that this kind of music would push mankind to the next step in evolution. Composers like Messiaen and Boulez appreciated and performed his microtonal music, but there is virtually no interest in Wyschnegradsky today.

Artwork by Lynd Ward (woodcut from Mad Man's Drum)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• quarter
• tone
• microtonal

[mothershipjellyfish]

I would have to disagree. There is plenty to grab onto: a very consistent aesthetic, dialogue between different registers, etc. I think this is an extraordinary piece.

[4444matthew4444]

There is a clear form in this first half....the color from the quarter tones just throws the perception of it off.....Listen to the second half and then listen to all of it again...you would be surprised

[blueahmed1984]

@CocoaRadix your totally right and there is a reason for that . His usage of quarter tone should be based on a musical scale for it to be followed , now in the western music there is no musical scale that include a quarter tone yet in the middle east the quarter tone is essential and there are a lot of musical scales that include the quarter tone take for example the rast makam or rast scale you will hear the quarter tone u will hear where is it suppose to be

[fisherroastedpeanut]

scriabinesque 

[gymgymgymgym]

This sounds very alien

[ChibiRaikou]

oh god that descending hyperchromatic thing at 1:10 is so fucking nightmarish holy shit

[dactyl1000]

Can someone tell me who the artist is of this picture (and the other ones)...

reply to ida_lida@yahoo.com

Tanx!

[OceansBoulevard]

quarter-tone pieces like this are very interesting

[CocoaRadix]

This is really hard to listen to. There's absolutely nothing to grab onto. The otherworldly sound of the piano tuned a quarter-tone off is great, but, compositionally, this starts in the middle of nowhere, and never really journeys anywhere. Nor does it arrive anywhere.