Re : thoughts on Haba's tooth quartet

> From: Jay Williams <jaywill@utah-inter.net>

> Is there, for example, any serial
> compositions using a 24-tone row? Or, is there a Verese-type person using
> 31-tet?

French composer Alain Banquart has most of his composition method based
upon the 24t-ET, using non-octavating series like:

B+ C#+ D# D#+ F F# F#+ G# A A# A#+ C C+ D D+ E E+ F+ G G+ G#+ A+ B B+ C#

These are all fixed pitches starting on the B+ central octave and going up
to C# third octave). Instrumentalists playing Banquart's music (like the
members of the french ensemble 2E2M) have to master this special serie,
which is called "�chelle de Banquart". I found a good working solution to
play it on the electric guitar using a scordatura combined with a capo at he
XIVth position. Open strings sound like A+ C# G G#+ D#+ F instead of EADGB.
The capo gives B+ D# A A#+ F+ G (six notes included in the serie). Then an
easy fingering allows to play the complete range. Other composers (mostly
french) like Didier D�nis adapted it as well. Alain Banquart recently
retired from his function as a composition teacher at the Paris Conservatory
and has had (has still) great influence on younger composers like Phlippe
Leroux or Henri Pauli-Laubry.

> I have a tape of Vyshnegrodsky's "Zarathustra" (or is there an "also Sprach"
> in the title) for four pianos, a pair at standard pitch and a pair a
> quarter-tone flat. His style features more clusters and other textures that
> make the tuning seem a more integral feature. To me, that piece simply has
> no 12-tet equivalent.
"Also sprach" is correct. That's Opus 17.

The Ensemble 2E2M produced a CD with 8 works by Wyschnegradsky (Opus Nr.
45c, 34, posthume, 39bis, 9 and 12)
Reference: 2E2M 1001 Distribution Disques Concord

Wim Hoogewerf