Halevy's _Promethee enchaine_ quarter-tones

I've long been intrigued by Halevy's _Promethee enchaine_,
the first modern work to use quarter-tones (1849), but
never got around to investigating it. I just found this
abstract from a recent music-theory event:

http://www.ams-net.org/Abstracts/2004-seattle.pdf

------- begin quote ---------

AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
SOCIETY FOR MUSIC THEORY
SEATTLE, NOVEMBER 11-14, 2004

Halévy's Quarter Tones
Paul Bertagnolli
University of Houston

Fromental Halévy's _Prométhée enchaîné_, a cantata
premiered in 1849 at the Paris Conservatoire, is generally
considered the first mainstream western orchestral
composition to use quarter tones. Surprisingly this
distinction has elicited virtually no investigation of
broad cultural developments that inpired the use of the
unorthodox intervals, scarcely any interest in their
notation or deployment in the score, and only the most
cursory appraisal of the cantata's reception. Recent study
of rare and archival documents at the British Library
and Bibliothèque Nationale illuminates all three issues.

The cantata articulates two aspects of an unmatched
fluorescence of French neo-Hellenism that began in the
1840s. The libretto, derived largely from a translation
of Aeschylus by Fromental's brother Léon, reflects a new
approach to classical literature by preserving the original
language's verse forms, unlike earlier versions that
imposed current theatrical conventions on Athenian tragedy
or contemporaneous adaptations that sensationalized antique
subjects. The music attests to popular and scholarly interest
in ongoing archaeological excavations at Athens and Pompeii,
including the recovery of fragmentary theoretical writings
concerning rhythm and microtones. Alexandre Vincent, a
mathematics professor at the Sorbonne, translated the
fragments and persuaded Fromental to test the affective
potency of quarter tones.

Although the intervals simply create the Dorian enharmonic
mode, appear only in the string parts between semitones
(E-F, B-C), and rarely accompany voices, they posed
insurmountable obstacles during rehearsals in 1847. Later
some critics admired their novelty, while others condemned
their "garbled combinations". Berlioz doubted their capacity
to revive the power of ancient Greek music.

------ end quote --------

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software

Monz,

Thanks for posting this information about Hal�vy
and his use of quarter-tones in Prom�th�e encha�n�.
The information I had earlier was much too sketchy
to form an understanding on.

But knowing that the quarter-tones only occurred
in the intervals E-F and B-C immediately makes the
point of his usage clear. He was not innovating for
the sake of innovation, rather, trying to revive a
lost art of intonation.

Regards,
Yahya

-----Original Message-----
monz wrote:

> I've long been intrigued by Halevy's _Promethee enchaine_,
> the first modern work to use quarter-tones (1849), but
> never got around to investigating it. I just found this
> abstract from a recent music-theory event:
>
> http://www.ams-net.org/Abstracts/2004-seattle.pdf
>
-----8><----- Snip!

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Hi Yahya,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Yahya Abdal-Aziz" <yahya@m...> wrote:
>
>
> Monz,
>
> Thanks for posting this information about Halévy
> and his use of quarter-tones in Prométhée enchaîné.
> The information I had earlier was much too sketchy
> to form an understanding on.
>
> But knowing that the quarter-tones only occurred
> in the intervals E-F and B-C immediately makes the
> point of his usage clear. He was not innovating for
> the sake of innovation, rather, trying to revive a
> lost art of intonation.

Exactly ... Halévy's usage of quarter-tones only
between E-F and B-C, indicates that his intention was
to revive some form of the enharmonic genus of the
ancient Greeks.

The way the Franks applied the Roman alphabet to
the theoretical Perfect Immutable System of the
ancient Greeks, c.900 AD, the enharmonic genus
would have the quarter-tones exactly in these places
in the Greater Perfect System.

http://www.tonalsoft.com/enc/gps.htm

http://www.tonalsoft.com/enc/pis.htm

http://sonic-arts.org/monzo/aristoxenus/tutorial.htm

http://tonalsoft.com/enc/enharmonic.htm

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software