Hear works in just intonation by La Monte Young, Untight, and by the Swedish artist Catherine Christer Hennix. Plus, Glenn Branca’s symphony for re-tuned electric guitars, and Kyle Gann’s work for three re-tuned pianos.
Hear an excerpt from La Monte Young’s five hour masterwork - the Well Tuned Piano - for a piano tuned in just intonation. The resulting sound is the building up and ringing out of the overtones, in such a way that all of the overtones reinforce each other – the “Cloud Effect”. Then, listen to just-intonated electric guitar from Untight, a sound art project by Arkansas-based artist and musician Sam King. King plays a custom-built baritone guitar, and draws inspiration from LaMonte Young and Glenn Branca for his big clouds of sound.
There’s also music by the late Swedish artist and musician Catherine Christer Hennix, a mathematician who taught logic at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. She made music with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Indian classical singer Pandit Pran Nath, and drone musicians La Monte Young and Henry Flynt. For Hennix, music was a way to synthesize her many interests and turn philosophy and math and poetry into sound, (Grella, Bandcamp.) Listen to her work where Minimalism meets alternative tunings, “The Well-tuned marimba” for Yamaha synthesizer, sine wave drone, live electronics, and amplified sheng.
Plus, the symphonic guitars of the late Glenn Branca – entire battalions of adapted guitars (and two drummers) - in his Symphony #3; and microtonal music by composer and music writer Kyle Gann for an imagined single piano with 243 keys -in this case, three computer-driven pianos (Disklaviers). -Caryn Havlik
Program #4887, Music in Just Intonation (First aired 5/23/2024)
ARTIST: La Monte Young
WORK: The Well-Tuned Piano: Magic Opening Chord [2:10]
RECORDING: The Well-Tuned Piano
SOURCE: Gramavision 5 CD-set, #18-8701
INFO: Out of print. Info at melafoundation.org
ARTIST: La Monte Young
WORK: The Well-Tuned Piano: Rainforest Chord [8:31]
RECORDING: The Well-Tuned Piano
SOURCE: Gramavision 5 CD-set, #18-8701
INFO: Out of print. Info at melafoundation.org
ARTIST: Untight
WORK: Fair [10:43]
RECORDING: Fair
SOURCE/INFO: https://untight.bandcamp.com/album/fair
ARTIST: C.C. Hennix
WORK: The Well-Tuned Marimba [8:09]
RECORDING: Selected Early Keyboard Works
SOURCE: Blank Forms
INFO: https://blankformseditions.bandcamp.com/album/selected-early-keyboard-works
ARTIST: Glenn Branca
WORK: Symphony #3, Gloria [6:44]
RECORDING: Symphony #3, Gloria
SOURCE: Neutral Records / Atavistic Records
INFO: Try discogs.com
ARTIST: Kyle Gann
WORK: Reverse Gravity [5:42]
RECORDING: Hyperchromatica
SOURCE: Other Minds, OM 1025
INFO: otherminds.org