Temple in the Ear 2000 performance by David Beardsley last Sat.

Hello to all, very rare post-er Bob Lodge here with some thoughts
following a fine performance last Saturday by David Beardsley of his
semi-improvisational composition "Temple in the Ear 2000' .
The performance was the first in a hopefully ongoing series by the
'Music
Annex' performed at but not aligned with the Univ. of Penn. First up was a
piano and cello duet by Doug Boyce and David Langella, two Ph.D. candidates
at Penn. Nattily attired in matching Dockers and loafers, they offered four
movements of free-improv squeaky-squawky and clangy-bangy full of sul ponte
bowing and fingers-on-strings piano drumming.
On to better and more soulful things. David renders his Just
Intonation
guitar synthesizer music using a conventionally fretted 12-ET solidbody
electric but using only the MIDI pickup output. His synth modules then
respond in a chosen JI scale. 'Temple' uses a 19-limit scale that I believe
was first used by Wendy Carlos; 1/1, 17/16, 9/8, 19/16, 5/4, 21/16, 11/8,
3/2, 13/8, 27/16, 7/4,15/8. This scale offers (to me) a particularly vivid
mix of consonance and dissonance, a mix that Beardsley used subtly in this
very slowly unfolding (hour-plus) exploration.
Digital delays were relied upon heavily here, repeating high limit
arpeggios
against tonic drones then layering in cross motives for textural effect.
Occasionally, high pealing tones of simpler consonance seemed to signal a
move to different sections of the music and different moods of the scale.
The piece ended with a much more active (for this style) melodic
improvisation.
I don't know Beardsley's influences in this field but I heard much
more of Indian music than Klaus Schulze, more of LaMonte Young than Star's
End. Overall, it was a thoroughly involving and convincing performance.
Missed the final musician Aharon Varady, a sound collagist.

Reporting from Philly, Bob Lodge