essential listening

Ok folks,

The programmer of the Geomaestro keykit app that I have been plugging is
asking for a list of essential microtonal recordings. Lets see your favs
and I will pass it on. Please include enuf detail that he (or I) won't be
clueless as to what you are talking about. (like include composer, album
title, specific piece title, style or microtonal theory, etc. Is there a
webpage devoted to this?

Darren Burgess

>The programmer of the Geomaestro keykit app that I have been plugging is
>asking for a list of essential microtonal recordings. Lets see your favs
>and I will pass it on. Please include enuf detail that he (or I) won't be
>clueless as to what you are talking about. (like include composer, album
>title, specific piece title, style or microtonal theory, etc. Is there a
>webpage devoted to this?

Darren,

Simply refer your friend to www.lumma.org.

-Carl

On Mon, 11 Sep 2000 21:50:46 -0400, "Darren Burgess"
<DBURGESS@ACCELERATION.NET> wrote:

>
>Ok folks,
>
>The programmer of the Geomaestro keykit app that I have been plugging is
>asking for a list of essential microtonal recordings. Lets see your favs
>and I will pass it on. Please include enuf detail that he (or I) won't be
>clueless as to what you are talking about. (like include composer, album
>title, specific piece title, style or microtonal theory, etc. Is there a
>webpage devoted to this?

One of my all-time favorites is Wendy Carlos' "Beauty in the Beast" (Audion
SYNCD 200, long out of print but due to be rereleased on East Side Digital,
hopefully sometime soon!).

http://www.wendycarlos.com/discs.html#old

This CD explores a number of alternative tunings, including a scale derived
from the harmonic series similar to the one used by Ben Johnston and
others, an extended variety of just intonation, and scales from Bali,
Africa, and Tibet. The title track uses two fascinating non-octave equal
scales, "Alpha" (78 cents per step) and "Beta" (63.8 cents per step).

Another of my favorites is Easley Blackwood's CD "Microtonal Compositions"
(Cedille records, CDR 90000 018). This features the "Twelve Microtonal
Etudes for Electronic Music Media", which explore the tonal possibilities
of each of the equal-tempered scales from 13 to 24 notes per octave. The CD
also includes "Fanfare in 19-note Equal Tuning" and "Suite for Guitar in
15-note Equal Tuning".

Something else I would recommend. Not a top-ten microtonal recording, but
the person who likes brass and/or early music must not be without...

The Art of Baroque Trumpet, Vol 2.
Niklas Eklund, baroque trumpet
Knut Johannessen, organ
Naxos 8.553593

Niki is one of the greatest artists playing the trumpet today. The album
features music by Fantini, Viviani, Frescobaldi, Sweelinck, Pezel, and the
first "period" recordings of tunes by Prentzl and the German composer Lowe
von Eisenach. Good 5-limit just intonation is often achieved, and the organ
is tuned in "1/4 syntonic comma meantone". Importantly, the performances
are in the same good spirit as this sublime music. And it's Naxos, which
means you get good to excellent production for around $5 US.

The only Sweelinck tune is, rather predictably, the Chromatic Fantasia.
Overplayed, this is still an awesome tune, and if you've never heard it
in meantone, you're in for a treat.

Then comes track 11, _Toccata settima_ by Michelangelo Rossi, which is my
current pick for best showcase of meantone as a "microtonal" tuning. And
this is truely an astounding work, meantone or no. Sounds like Bach's
_Little Harmonic Labyrinth_ a 100 years ahead of schedule.

I never believed all that stuff about valveless horns sounding sweeter,
but it's apparently true.

-Carl