Microtonal music festival goes off the beaten scale in Pittsburgh
Microtonal music might sound small, but it's actually quite a broad concept. And one not as uncommon as you might think.
“If you think of blues players or jazz, when they bend (notes), they usually bend the string up or down to move the pitch slightly higher,” says Matthew Rosenblum, a composer and professor of music at Pitt, who co-directs the “Music on the Edge” new-music series. “(It's) to create more tension and raise the pitch. Flute players can bend a note down or up. Blues guitarists, when they use a slide, they move around the notes, slightly higher or lower than the normal 12 notes.”
This week, the Andy Warhol Museum and the University of Pittsburgh's School of Music will sponsor “Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival,” a first event of its kind for the city. It will include a symposium and performances by internationally renowned musicians from Feb. 27 through March 1.
Though generally associated with Eastern musical traditions, the prospect of a whole other spectrum of notes to play has long intrigued Western musicians and composers.
“You can't get those notes on the piano,” Rosenblum says. “Microtonal music uses more notes in the octave than the normal, 12-tone equal temperament you find on the piano — smaller than the smallest half-step increment on the piano — half-steps, quarter steps. It's natural for Indonesian music and Indian music. In Indian music, they have 22 notes instead of 12.”
There are fewer borders and barriers to the transmission of music than ever, so it's not uncommon to find microtonal music in unexpected places.
“A student brought me a Japanese pop band on YouTube that plays with the (microtonal music pioneer) Harry Partch tunings,” Rosenblum says. “It's totally wacky and sounds great, a real synthesizer sound.”
The festival will focus mostly on modern composition, played by small ensembles who specialize in microtonal music.
For example, on Feb. 27, Michael Harrison will perform “Revelation” on a “9-foot grand Steinway piano tuned to his special tunings,” Rosenblum says. “Record of the year for classical music, very meditative.”
Another unusual highlight is Mantra Percussion, who will perform Michael Gordon's hourlong piece “Timber” — played on six 2-by-4 pieces of wood — in the Warhol's entrance space, Feb. 28.
“The point is that it's a really striking sound — when you hear it, it creates a kind of a shimmering aura, or a special kind of glow,” Rosenblum says. “It also might sound a little strange. It's not what you're used to hearing. But to someone from another culture who uses ‘alternate tuning,' it would sound natural to them. To hear our system, it would sound odd.”
Michael Machosky is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at mmachosky@tribweb.com or 412-320-7901.
