Ernest Bloch and octatonic scale

Joseph Pehrson wrote:

>Also, as Paul Erlich mentioned, Ernst Bloch used the "octatonic."

It's _Ernest_ -- Ernst Bloch was a philosopher.

>Block --one of my favorite composers--

Mine too (Bloch, that is)!

>is actually a microtonalist...
>well, he went as far as quartertones, anyway, for "expressive" means:

>http://www.schirmer.com/composers/bloch_bio.html

I see not mention of quartertones here. Do you know what pieces he used
quartertones in? Should we add Bloch to the list of microtonalists on
Starrett's site?

Also, the loveliest octatonic music I ever heard was in a string quartet by
Henk Badings (famous here for his 31-tET work). I despair that I will never
get to hear this music again, as Badings appears to be ignored by every
record store I've ever been to . . .

Paul!
hear , hear. I commented once before that when I met him and played him a tape he would
instantly pick things out like " oh, there's the inversion but starting on the upbeat, like
the Balinese! a great ear whose own tapes impressed me!

"Paul H. Erlich" wrote:

> Also, the loveliest octatonic music I ever heard was in a string quartet by
> Henk Badings (famous here for his 31-tET work). I despair that I will never
> get to hear this music again, as Badings appears to be ignored by every
> record store I've ever been to . . .

-- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
www.anaphoria.com

Paul H. Erlich wrote,

> I see not mention of quartertones here. Do you know what pieces he
used quartertones in?

I think he used some quartertones in his first Piano Quintet.

--Dan Stearns

>I think he used some quartertones in his first Piano Quintet.

In the recording I have of the Sonata #1 for Violin and Piano, Isaac Stern
is often out-of-tune by as much as a quartertone (OUCH!!!). With all due
humility, Isaac should have spent a good long time practicing his octatonic
scales before attempting this piece.

--- In tuning@egroups.com, "Paul H. Erlich" <PERLICH@A...> wrote:

http://www.egroups.com/message/tuning/13964

>
> >Block --one of my favorite composers--
>
> Mine too (Bloch, that is)!
>
> I see no mention of quartertones here. Do you know what pieces he
used quartertones in? Should we add Bloch to the list of
microtonalists on Starrett's site?
>

Well... it seems to me they are used as "inflexions" in his Piano
Quintet #2 (in the strings)... but I think quartertones are used
fairly frequently in other string works as well, particularly when
Bloch wishes to evoke a kind of "Hebraic" orientation...

I hate this kind of a generalization, but I'm finding nothing more
specific on the Web. I'll look around some other ways.

Glad you also share Bloch enthusiasm!

I was going to say something about "Bloch-heads" but, fortunately,
restrained myself this time...

> Also, the loveliest octatonic music I ever heard was in a string
quartet by Henk Badings (famous here for his 31-tET work). I despair
that I will never get to hear this music again, as Badings appears to
be ignored by every record store I've ever been to . . .

Yes! Actually a pretty important figure on the Darmstadt scene...
progressive in tuning concepts, from what I can gather, and
almost entirely neglected...

Now "there's" a good project for "Continuum" or a similar performing
group (!!)
___________ ___ __ __ _ _
Joseph Pehrson

There's some Badings on the 'composer's voice' label of the Dutch Donemus
Foundation:

http://www.donemus.nl/nl/composersvoice/index.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Kraig Grady [mailto:kraiggrady@anaphoria.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 11:41 AM
To: tuning@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [tuning] Ernest Bloch and octatonic scale

Paul!
hear , hear. I commented once before that when I met him and played
him a tape he would instantly pick things out like " oh, there's the
inversion but starting on the upbeat, like the Balinese! a great ear whose
own tapes impressed me!
"Paul H. Erlich" wrote:

Also, the loveliest octatonic music I ever heard was in a string quartet
by
Henk Badings (famous here for his 31-tET work). I despair that I will
never
get to hear this music again, as Badings appears to be ignored by every
record store I've ever been to . . .

-- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
www.anaphoria.com
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Thanks Kees. I'm really hoping I find a way to hear that string quartet
agin, though. It was the closest I ever heard to the octatonic scale being
used as a "generalized diatonic".

--- In tuning@egroups.com, "Paul H. Erlich" <PERLICH@A...> wrote:
<snip>
> Also, the loveliest octatonic music I ever heard was in a string
quartet by
> Henk Badings (famous here for his 31-tET work). I despair that I
will never
> get to hear this music again, as Badings appears to be ignored by
every
> record store I've ever been to . . .

Well, there are a few snippets here:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/english/index.html
but you probably knew that...

John Starrett wrote,

>Well, there are a few snippets here:
>http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/english/index.html
>but you probably knew that...

Are you sure? I thought that website only had his 31-tET music.

--- In tuning@egroups.com, "Paul H. Erlich" <PERLICH@A...> wrote:
> John Starrett wrote,
>
> >Well, there are a few snippets here:
> >http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/english/index.html
> >but you probably knew that...
>
> Are you sure? I thought that website only had his 31-tET music.

Maybe so. I probably didn't read your post carefully.

Badings uses the octatonic scale also in his piano sonata (1934).
His teacher, Willem Pijper, used it in the Sonatine no.2 for piano.
And Messiaen in Le Corps Glorieux.

Manuel Op de Coul coul@ezh.nl