strings

Wierd, I thought I pressed Cancel, but instead I sent this.
Oh well. The cat's out of the bag.

Anyway, the problem quartets and string players in general is, you can
hear the uncertainty about pitch in the playing. You can hear their
fear. Once in a while, you get a group like Arditti, they are crazy and
have no fear. They're monsters. Thus, when they're playing 1/4-tones in
ferneyhough, it sounds great, or at least it sounds confident, and
"Strong" in some way. I kind of doubt that it's accurate, but
it doesn't matter. they play it like they mean it, and it sounds good.

If they were to play Ben Johnston, I dunno. I wonder if they could make
it work.

The truth is, I just can't even imagine, in my inner ear, a string
quartet sounding good playing subtle microtones. Except maybe at
extremely slow tempi.

>
>
> As for finding willing players, any amateur quartet around
> a campus should do for a start. You'll need money, though.
>
> -Carl
>
>
>Don't bother with campus players, and don't hire anyone. If you
>believe in the work, send the score to the best specialists.
>
>Daniel Wolf

Somehow, I feel that string quartets are the one of the worst mediums for
microtonal composition. Yes, I have recordings of the Johnston quartets.
they're the reason I say this. For all I know, they may be playing
totally accurately, but it just sounds out of tune to me.

Try the Arditti recording of Lucier's _Navigations for Strings_, a
piece about interference beating with a score notated entirely in cent
(and smaller) deviations from 12tet. At the first performance, they
also premiered a quartet by Walter Zimmermann which (among other
things) used the speed of beats to control intonation.

Daniel Wolf

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Christopher Bailey <chris@m...>
wrote:
>
> Anyway, the problem quartets and string players in general is, you
can
> hear the uncertainty about pitch in the playing. You can hear their
> fear. Once in a while, you get a group like Arditti, they are crazy
and
> have no fear. They're monsters. Thus, when they're playing
1/4-tones in
> ferneyhough, it sounds great, or at least it sounds confident, and
> "Strong" in some way. I kind of doubt that it's accurate, but
> it doesn't matter. they play it like they mean it, and it sounds good.

> Message: 8
> Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2005 10:16:53 -0000
> From: "danieljameswolf" <djwolf@...>
>Subject: Re: strings
>
>Try the Arditti recording of Lucier's _Navigations for Strings_, a
>piece about interference beating with a score notated entirely in cent
>(and smaller) deviations from 12tet. At the first performance, they
>also premiered a quartet by Walter Zimmermann which (among other
>things) used the speed of beats to control intonation.
>
>Daniel Wolf

But I imagine that these are at slow tempi.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Christopher Bailey <chris@m...>
wrote:
s
> >
> >Try the Arditti recording of Lucier's _Navigations for Strings_, a
> >piece about interference beating with a score notated entirely in cent
> >(and smaller) deviations from 12tet. At the first performance, they
> >also premiered a quartet by Walter Zimmermann which (among other
> >things) used the speed of beats to control intonation.
> >
> >Daniel Wolf
>
> But I imagine that these are at slow tempi.
>

It depends upon how you define tempi in these pieces. The scores would
suggest that the music is on the slow side, but the beating is so
vivid that it becomes the "surface" of the music, and it ends up
sounding rather fast, a paradox that Zimmermann, in particular,
emphasizes.

Daniel Wolf

is there a recording?

danieljameswolf wrote:

>--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Christopher Bailey <chris@m...>
>wrote:
>s
> >
>>>Try the Arditti recording of Lucier's _Navigations for Strings_, a >>>piece about interference beating with a score notated entirely in cent
>>>(and smaller) deviations from 12tet. At the first performance, they
>>>also premiered a quartet by Walter Zimmermann which (among other >>>things) used the speed of beats to control intonation. >>>
>>>Daniel Wolf
>>> >>>
>>But I imagine that these are at slow tempi.
>>
>> >>
>
>It depends upon how you define tempi in these pieces. The scores would
>suggest that the music is on the slow side, but the beating is so
>vivid that it becomes the "surface" of the music, and it ends up
>sounding rather fast, a paradox that Zimmermann, in particular,
>emphasizes.
>
>Daniel Wolf >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
> >
>
>
>
> >

--
Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
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