Microtonal Elgar!

I was just given a CD of Menuhin playing the Elgar concerto live in
1961 - he sure can play quarter-tones! It's a whole new reading of the
work.

On a rather less flippant note, what do people make of the melody on
'For No One' (Revolver) ? I think you will know which note I mean.

~~~T~~~

> On a rather less flippant note, what do people make of the melody on
> 'For No One' (Revolver) ? I think you will know which note I mean.

In fact i'm not sure. If you mean the not-quite-a semitone wavering on
"no LONGER NEEDS you", i think it's more of a glissando or "grace
note" than a distinct non-12 pitch.

If you mean "cried for NO one", though, it sounds like a conscious
quarter-tone or "neutral" interval, without any real harmonic
implication in the context, but more like a intentional dissonance,
the same way certain East European styles contain "ugly" intervals in
a otherwise diatonic context for expressive effect.

/Ö

Mats �ljare wrote:

> > On a rather less flippant note, what do people make of the melody on
> > 'For No One' (Revolver) ? I think you will know which note I mean.
>
> In fact i'm not sure. If you mean the not-quite-a semitone wavering on
> "no LONGER NEEDS you", i think it's more of a glissando or "grace
> note" than a distinct non-12 pitch.

I hear it as 16/15, which a minor second should be anyway. It might be a little sharp of that. (In comparison, the first movement of Bart�k's Concerto for Orchestra has a G natural at one point in the score that I always hear performed sharp, even as much as a quarter tone.)

> If you mean "cried for NO one", though, it sounds like a conscious
> quarter-tone or "neutral" interval, without any real harmonic
> implication in the context, but more like a intentional dissonance,
> the same way certain East European styles contain "ugly" intervals in
> a otherwise diatonic context for expressive effect.

I do hear a 3/4-tone there! I'm thinking he's (unintentionally?) singing an F double sharp, around 25/16 or 14/9 in relation to the tonic of B.

~D.