Musical Times Publications Ltd.

Microtonality: Aesthetics and Practicality

Author(s): James Wood
Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 127, No. 1719 (Jun., 1986), pp. 328-330
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
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 aesthetics
Microtonality: and practicality
James Wood

1: The Quarter-toneMachine went on to producea largenumberof com- Teyler Museum, Haarlem.The Mexican
In a centurywhich has seen more radical positions using both quarter-tonesand JulianCarrillo,who as earlyas 1895 wrote
changein musicalstyle than any previous sixth-tones.Afterthis, questionswere rais- a string quartet in quarter-tones, later
time, it is curiousthatthereis one develop- ed about the precise number of subdivi- dividedthe octaveinto 96 equal parts;he,
ment whose potential has never been ful- sions that should ideallyconstituteone oc- too, constructed instruments such as a
ly realized;somehowit got ignoredamidst tave - was not 24 quarter-tonesa con- 'harp-zither'on which his music could be
the outpouringof musical innovationsin tinuationof the imperfectionsof the even- played.
the first half of this century. The matter tempered chromatic scale? Was this not Today, through the development and
to which I referis the developmentof what the time to find a more universal answer the growingavailabilityof electronicsound
George Ives, nearly a century ago, called to the subdivisionof the octave, based on sources, we have an infinite number of
his 'Quarter-tone Machine'. His son acoustic principles? possible octave subdivisions at our
Charles Ives recalls: Harry Partch (1901-74) devised a disposal. So it is hardly surprisingif it is
One afternoon, in a pouring system called 'Monophony',in which the to this medium that the composer today
thunderstorm,we saw him standing octaveis dividedinto 43 unequalparts.In most readilyturnsto realizehis microtonal
without hat or coat in the backgarden; his Genesisof a Music (1949) he wrote: music. Hence the evolution of acoustic
the churchbell next door was ringing. The majorcontributionof Monophony microtonalinstrumentshas falteredbefore
He would rush into the house to the as an intonationalsystem is its realiza- even enteringits adolescence.But if there
piano, and then backagain.'I've heard tion of a subtle and precise interrela- is to be a futurefor acousticmusic, should
a chord I've never heard before - it tion of tonalities, all stemming or ex- we not encouragethe continuationof this
comes over and over but I can't seem panding from unity, 1/1. This inter- evolution?is therenot a greaterlikelihood
to catch it.' He stayed up most of the relation is not capable of manifold that acousticmusic will become museum-
night trying to find it on the piano. It modulationsto 'dominants' or to any bound if it continues to be limited to the
was soon after this that he startedhis other common scale degrees; it is not 12-noteoctavewe haveused sincethe 18th
quarter-tonemachine. capableof paralleltranspositionsof in- century? if so, which system should be
The instrument consisted of 24 violin tricate musical structures;it does not adopted as universal? how many notes
strings which could be tuned in different presentany tone as any specifictonality should there be in the octave?Ironically,
ways. Georgewould pick out quarter-tone identity. Conversely, it is capable of questions like these were being raised in
melodies and have his family try to sing both ordinary and hitherto unheard the 17th century,the result, of course,be-
them - but, as Charles relates, 'he gave modulationsto the natural limits im- ing the compromiseof equaltemperament.
thatup except as a meansof punishment'! posed by Just Intonation and the ar- But need there be just one solution? In
Partlythroughstimulusfromhis father, bitrarylimit of 11; it is capableof an 1863 the great acoustician, Helmholtz,
and partly as a result of a later meeting expandedsense of tonality, from Iden- wrote in his On the Sensationsof Tone:
with Hans Barth(1897- 1956), a German tities 1- 3 - 5 to Identities that the system of scales, modes and
composer experimentingwith a quarter- 1-3-5-7-9-11; it is capable of harmonic tissues does not rest solely
tone piano in New York,' Ives began ex- great variety in that expanded sense; upon unalterablelaws, but is at least
perimentsof his own. These were reveal- it does offer28 possibletonalities,more partlyalso the result of aestheticprin-
ed in a Chorale for Strings in Quarter- than are inherent in Equal Tempera- ciples, which have already changed,
tones (1913- 14), the Three Quarter-tone ment, and therefore a greatertotal of and will still furtherchange, with the
Pieces for Two Pianos (1923-4), the tonalityidentities;or assumablesenses, progressivedevelopmentof humanity.
Fourth Symphony (1916) and an article than does Equal Temperament. The lessons we can learn from this, and
'Some Quarter-tone Impressions' Partch was perhaps the most important from the example of Ives, Haba, Carillo,
(1924- 5). figure in the evolution of microtonalin- Partch and Huygens is surely that we
At about the same time the Czech com- struments in that he created a complete should constructour own instrumentsac-
poser Alois Haba was working on a family of string, keyboardand percussion cording to our own aesthetic principles.
quarter-tonepiano in Prague.2 This was instruments,all tuned to his 43-notescale, Many would arguethat a more realistic
producedin 1923 by A. Forster - it con- which wereused in the performanceof his future for acoustic microtonalmusic lies
sisted of two keyboards, one tuned a music. He was not, however, the first to in writing for instrumentswhich do not
quarter-tonehigher than the other. Haba build such instruments,nor to subdivide have to be specially built such as strings,
the octave accordingto the principles of wind, brass and voices, thereby employ-
just intonation. In the Low Countries a ing the finer ear and techniquethat many
school of composersstartedas long ago as of today's musicians can boast. It is,
'The first known quarter-tone piano was patented
even earlier, by G. A. Behrens-Senegalden in Berlin,
the late 17th century, when Christiaan however, preciselythese conventionalin-
1892. Huygensdiscussedthe use of a 31-noteoc- strumentswhich in practicalterms are in-
:In 1923 Haba founded a class in quarter-tone com-
tave which permittedtranspositionof the capableof consistentlyaccuraterealization
position at the Prague Conservatory, which has since
diatonicscalesin justintonation.A 31-note of micro-intervalsbecause of the subjec-
attracted numerous students from many countries. organ was built, which is now in the tivity involved.Againfollowingthe exam-
328

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pie of the pioneers of microtonality,if we Ex. 1 Only possibilitieswithina I2-noteoctave:
want to achieve any degree of precision, 1) Pentatonic
we have to build special instruments.
< 2
So it is understandablethat composers, T2 3 2 3 =12
4 4 6 4 6 =24
performersand instrumentmanufacturers 2) samecombinationre-ordered
are put off from pursuing this course
through the apparentcomplexity and the ^ 2 2 3 3 =12
sheer expense. The system I have devised 4 4 4 6 6 =24
for percussion instruments, however, Further possibilities within a 24-note octave:
which I shall now explain, is neithercom- 3)
plex nor especially costly.
3 3 6 6 6 =24
2: A new system for quarter-tonepercussion cumbersometo play - the distance, for
D 4)
In 1983 I composed a work for soprano example, between the striking points of
and percussion,Ho shangYao ('Songs by middle C and middle C sharp ?/2-sharp
3 6 3 6 6 =24
the River'). The texts come from the an- would be qs much as 38 cm, the same
5)
cient Chinese Shi Jing ('Book of Songs'), distance as between middle C and the F
X ^-
J ^' (X) two octavesand a 4th higher. (A four-row
which date from about BC700.We know 9 9 2 2 2 =24
that these ancient folksongs were written 6) glockenspielwouldcreateless of a problem
to be sung, and thanks to the work of on account of its much smaller size.)
LaurencePicken3we alsoknowsomething 9 2 9 2 2 =24
Moreover, with the single row extension
about how they were sung and accom- one can use up to seven additionalnotes
main instruments (marimba and per octave; Ho shang Yao required only
panied.4 Anxious not to disregardwhat I
learntof the traditionsof ancient Chinese glockenspiel) were used, it became three or four.
performing practice, I tried to devise a necessaryto add only eight additionalbars Fig.2 shows how this system can be ex-
five-note scale based on the principle of to the marimba and nine to the tended to the point where one possesses
the pentatonic scale, upon which, of glockenspiel(ex.2). These extensionswere a completeset of quarter-tonepitches(cer-
course, most traditional Chinese music designed simply by fitting one extra row tain marimbamanufacturerscan supply a
was composed. The principle, like that of of notes on to the front of each existing complete set of bars and/orresonators,or
the seven-note diatonic scale, is the chromaticinstrument.(In the case of the indeed individual bars and resonators,
Ex2 which can then be retunedby one quarter-
presence of only two different intervals Marimba
between adjacentnotes (in the pentatonic
scale these are the minor 3rd and the ma- i^_ .o *-+- ? _

jor 2nd). This is the only possible com-

bination of two intervals for a five-note Glockenspiel When considering the
scale in a 12-noteoctave. In a 24-note oc-
tave there aretwo more possiblecombina- publicity of your
tions, three-quarterand six-quartertones, marimba,the struts supporting the addi- FESTIVAL OR CONCERT
and two-quarterand nine-quartertones. tional row were bolted to the supportsof
Each of these three combinationscan be the sharp-row,and were therefore posi- don't forget to include
ordered in two different ways making a tionedin the gapsbetweenD and F sharps
total of six possible scales(I referto a scale andA and C sharps:see illustrations.)The THE
as a sequence of intervals irrespectiveof principlefor layingout the additionalbars MUSICAL TIMES
'tonic' which can be shifted to create dif- was to align E/2-sharp with E natural,
ferent modeswithin that scale), as shown G1/2-sharpwith G natural, and so on. In for nationwide coverage to a
in ex. 1. the caseof C sharp1/2-sharp andDV/2-sharp discerning musical readership
My instinctivepreferencewas for scales being laid out next to each other, the
5 and 6, and in order to keep the experi- formercould not be aligned with C sharp
ment as simple as possible I chose scale if D1/2-sharpwas aligned with D natural,
5, since for each octaveand eachtransposi- so it was shiftedslightlyto the left, to align
tion only one note was needed in addition with C natural, since no C'/2-sharpwas
to our existing chromatic keyboard. By needed. The layout of the keyboardwas
restrictingmyself to a very small number therefore as shown in fig.1.
of transpositions, particularlywhere the In practical terms, the advantages of Contact

3seehis articles'The shapesof the Shi Jing song-texts restricting oneself to a single additional The AdvertisementDepartment
and their musical implications', Musica asiatica, i row of notes to any percussion keyboard The Musical Times
(1977), 85-109 and 'Brief Communications: The are obvious, from the points of view of Novello & Company Limited
Musical Implicationsof Line-Sharingin the Book of both the performer and the instrument
Songs (Shi Jing)', Journal of the American Oriental
8 Lower James Street
builder. Had two additional rows been
Society, lxxxix/2 (1969), 408-10 London W 1R 4DN
4It is interestingto note that sets of bronze bells and necessaryon the marimba,the frameof the Tel: 01-734 8080 ext. 2621
lithophones dating from BC1000- 500 have been ex-
entire instrument would have had to be
cavated in China. redesigned, and it would be extremely
329

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 nearas possible a straightline linking the is unspecificbut uniformacrossall six in-
bars'nodalpoints, therebyfacilitatingthe struments.Following ancientpracticesin
mounting of the bars on normal straight Asia and Africa, certain instruments, in-
supports. cluding gongs, cowbells, marimbasand
Severalother quarter-toneinstruments log-drums can also be temporarilyfine-
were also employed in Ho shang Yao, the tuned by sticking a weighty substance
individual components of which merely (nowadaysplasticine)to certainvibrating
needed to be selected accordingto pitch, areas of the instrument. This method,
and assembled.These includeda one-and- however, has the effect of damping the
a-half-octave set of miniature Chinese vibrations so that some of the resonance
temple-blocks,bronzebells from the Jura is lost.
in France, and gongs and bonang from The composerwill deducethat a certain
Java.A metallophonewas also simplycon- attitude, or selective process, is required
structed from 15 old vibraphone bars in the composition of quarter-tonemusic
(without resonators)and tuned according for the proposed system of three-row
to the specific pitches required. This keyboard percussion instruments. If he
tone), which can be mountedon to the ex- system is not unlike that used by Xenakis were to feel that such an attitude seemed
tension frame in any of the combinations in Pleiadeswith the so-called 'Six-Xen'. restrictive,I would submit that the beau-
shown. The reason for these limitations These are metallophones with 19 bars ty of working in a quarter-tonemedium
is merelyto preservea reasonablysmooth notatedas a C majorscale, but tuned 'out comes not from the feeling of liberation
gradationof bar-lengthso as to ensure as of tune' to create a microtonalscale that derived from the gaining of an extra 12
notes in the octave but from the fact that
the inclusionof justone quarter-tonepitch
SIXTH INTERNATIONAL
ALMEIDA gives rise to an additionalsix intervals(12
including inversions).It is ironic that, in
OFCONTEMPORARY
FESTIVAL Ho shang Yao, the practical necessity of
restricting myself to so few additional
MUSICANDPERFORMANCE notes taughtme the aestheticbeautyof do-
ing so - even with such sparse use of
quarter-tonepitches, in the context of the
harmonicstyle that resultedfromthe par-
100BRITISH
PREMIERES*25WORLD PREMIERES ticularfive-notescaleused, the sound was
immediatelyfresh and distinctive.
70 EVENTS . . . ALLIN JUST 28 DAYS! In conclusion, it seems to me that the
evolution of acoustic microtonal in-
strumentshas falteredbecauseof a vicious
circle: composers are not writing for
REICH?ARVO
STEVE PART- microtonalinstrumentsbecause they are
THEMUSICOFNEWSPAIN. not available;performersare not building
THE MUSIC OF JAPAN. them becausethereis no music.The situa-
tion is not helpedby the fact that such ex-
AND MUCH MORE
periments as are carried out in different
parts of the world remain isolated and
known only to a small circle of the ex-
'THE MOST AMBITIOUS, perimenter's friends and associates.
FASCINATING AND Perhapsit is also a consequenceof the in-
VARIED MODERN MUSIC creasing rarity of the 'composer-
FESTIVAL IN EUROPE' performer'.Perhapswe may soon see im-
THE OBSERVER
provedcommunicationbetween those in-
volved in similar projects around the
world, and the further development of
'IMAGINATIVE,ORIGINAL, acousticinstrumentsfor microtonalmusic.
CHALLENGINGAND FUN'
TIME OUT *

The National Campaign for the Arts has publish-

ed its first newsletter which includes 'Orchestral
Music in the Dark' (Andy Wilson), 'Ill-judged Par-

ALMEIDA THEATRE
ALMEIDA ST ? ISLINGTON- LONDON N1 1TA 70
simony' (David Owen MP) and 'Sadler's Ills' (Stephen
Remington). Details from NCA Ltd, Francis House,
X Francis Street, London SWIP 1DE.

I
The Fradan Festival, an exhibition of Cyril
Fradan's paintings with musical evenings, continues
at 23 Lower Addison Gardens, London W14, until
FUNDED BOROUGH
BYLONDON OFISLINGTON BOROUGHS
FUNDEDBYLONDON SCHEME
GRANT t
15 June.

330

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