Easley Blackwood - 16-notes Andantino

"16 notes: This tuning is best thought of as a combination of four intertwined diminished seventh chords. Since 12-note tuning can be regarded as a combination of three diminished seventh chords, it is plain that the two tunings have elements in common. The most obvious difference in the way the two tunings sound and work is that triads in 16-note tuning, although recognizable, are too discordant to serve as the final harmony in cadences. Keys can still be established by successions of altered subdominant and dominant harmonies, however, and the Etude is based mainly upon this property. The fundamental consonant harmony employed is a minor triad with an added minor seventh." -Easley Blackwood


This is a beautiful piece by Easley Blackwood I didn't see on YouTube. I have had requests to hear 16-tone music from people after they ask "why 16? or what does 16 tone sound like?". This doesn't display alot of harmonic properties or progressions, alternative temperaments or scales, but does explore diminished and shows a lot of the melodic properties and overall mood the fourths and fifths can have. One of many faces of 16 ..Enjoy.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Easley
• Blackwood
• 16
• notes
• microtonal
• music
• etude

[MuseDuCafe]

The synthetic sounds are so god-awful that it is impossible to say whether the sixteen-tone system used is at all interesting, or if the piece is successful.

[RSwordIAAA]

@MuseDuCafe those are analog synths....most synth connoisseurs prefer them!

[MuseDuCafe]

@RSwordIAAA There is 'no talking' with those people - or absolute 'just intoning' string players. Most musicians, even purists, like a little harmonics color to their timbres: I hate sine waves, dead as dead can be - very 'pure' of course, but horrible sounding. It is the ultimate cerebral, as if your brain were floating in a tank. Music is perceived between the ears, but shouldn't LIVE there, imho.

[RSwordIAAA]

@MuseDuCafe I dont even know what you're talking about anymore on here. Alot of people love this piece

[michaelthetaxidriver]

i don't see the point in going beyond 12 tones, as this sounds horrible. one can add in quarter tone bends in a blues solo, for instance, and that works nice but music BASED on micro tones just sounds a mess. 12 notes is enough to make endless amounts of cool music, stick to them.

[RSwordIAAA]

@michaelthetaxidriver ."12 notes is enough to make endless amounts of cool music, stick to them."

.....ok.......no

I'll have you know that 12-tone also sounds wretchedly out of tune, when I am trying to play the 7th, 11th, or 13th harmonics!

[TaterGumfries]

@michaelthetaxidriver You're basin your opinion on years of exposure to 12 tone music. If you'd only eaten beef and potatoes and lettuce salads your whole life you might make the same comment about sushi... and you'd still be in a rut.

[Benjabenja77]

This is pretty beautiful.

[MuseDuCafe]

@kratanuva725 OK, I didn't know what else to call what I heard. Ugly sound, though that's damned illiterate for a musician, but there it is. The Timbres, that is, seriously unnattractive - could be as idiosyncratic like someone just 'hating' anything that comes from a violin... Still think the piece is 'Verklarte Nacht configuration, near enough, in new costume,making it less interesting than if it were 'fresher.'

[kratanuva725]

@MuseDuCafe I don't know what you are talking about. watch?v=hq-SrgV7_Ow is pure sine waves, this is not.

[MuseDuCafe]

@RSwordIAAA The piece is fine, old news ala Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht as far as configuration and proceure go, the tuning is 'no problem,' all tunings are a conceit. I Hate the analog generatied sine wave sound, kills any opportunity for the thing to speak, for me.