Wyschnegradsky - Quarter-Tone Etude on Density and Volume No. 1

First Etude from Studies on Density and Volume for two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart Op. 39b (1956)

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

[ch252525]

i don't understand, can someone explain this to me? it is not "out of tune"?

[Hexameron]

Quarter tone (or 24-tone) music is the result of dividing the octave (normally 12-tones) into 24 tones. The two pianos employed here are tuned a quarter tone apart in order to play 24 pitches.

It does sound "out of tune" to our Western ears and I'll admit it's an acquired taste. If you think 24 tones sound strange, there were a few early Soviet modernist composers, like Avraamov and Sabaneev, who actually divided the octave into 53 tones, creating what they called "ultrachromaticism".

[ch252525]

Then how are the notes written?

[Hexameron]

I don't have any scores of Wyschnegradsky's microtonal music, but I believe he uses conventional notation with the addition of special accidentals (half-sharps, half-flats).

[RoboticusMusic]

Fuck C Major! =D

[superstition222]

Doubling the number of notes by halving the difference between them does not result, necessarily, in dissonant and unsettling music like this.

It's just as possible to come up with something that likes like Mozart, especially if you have two players and two pianos. The only difference between a quarter tone system and a half tone system is that there is greater spacing between half steps as well as the ability to produce new chords. Some tonal music could actually sound better if revised.

[alphabet661]

If you like Blues then you like some microtonal music. Why? The Blues produce 3rd that are in between major and minor and 7ths that is flat the usual 7th.

If you like period performance, then you would be hearing some slight microtonal inflections. If you hear old organs - meantone temperament there are extra keys for microtones.

The difference here is the context. The music is already quite dissonant, so the microtones add or subtract to it.

[ClueBand]

I need help: I like this!

[lamaman94]

I cannot enjoy this kind of "music" I'm sorry.

[BenPumpkinHead]

I'm interested... How did all of you who enjoy microtonal music get into it? I can't imagine immediately picking it up..haha. I just find it strange how "all out" this guy gos with it. Is there any example of a microtonal piece that stays a bit truer to western standards? because to my ears there are really no discernible melodies or hooks of any sort in this. It's more just...well..."tones". Interested to hear anyone's opinions on it.

[kutlessrocker23]

@pablogregorian It's from a woodcut book called Mad Man's Drum.

This is really awesome.

[pablogregorian]

this is totally weird, my first experience with microtonality! What is the name of the image in the movie?

[nianqiao]

i'm totally lost in the aural puzzle

[username122487]

mushroooooms

[Superape613]

Where did the art from this video come from?

[xxxTokioHotelxxxx]

omg i go crazy from this...