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Polytempic Polymicrotonal Music in 4 Items, by Peter Thoegersen, is a brand new digital launch from the Fragments of Blue recording label. Since acquiring his Doctorate in Composition from the College of Illinois, Urbana, Thoegersen has devoted a lot of his composing profession to the exploration of the musical prospects on the intersection of rhythmic constructions in a number of meters mixed with scales constructed from microtonal pitches. This newest album builds on earlier works by concurrently combining totally different meters and tempi with varied microtonal temperaments. These items initially date from 2003 to the current, however all have been up to date to include expanded mixtures of polyrhythms, microtonal scales and synthesized MIDI instrumentation.
The concept of mixing such unconventional musical supplies collectively would appear to be a formulation for sonic chaos, however the outcomes underneath Thoegersen’s creative contact obtain a coherent and constant class. This album was created by notating elements for strings, woodwinds, brass, piano and percussion as sheet music after which orchestrating with MIDI devices. Though Thoegersen has written microtonal and polytempic items for efficiency, the music on this album is mostly extremely advanced and sometimes delivered at a torrid tempo, in order that realization is simply doable by digital means. The 4 items heard on this album symbolize a pure extension of Thoegersen’s approach that pushes to new limits what might sound in any other case unattainable for the listener’s mind to understand.
Two Worlds: quartertone quintets in dialog, monitor 1, opens the album and is consultant of the large technical scope and excessive ambition that drives Thoegersen’s music. In line with the liner notes, it is a “…massive ensemble piece with double blended quintets and drumset that every one splits into 11 separate tempi/meters through the climax and to additionally add full quartertone options…” This begins briskly with crisp drumming and a bathe of microtonal notes in numerous timbres. A barely much less energetic part follows, with a slower melody and languid accompaniment within the decrease registers. Woodwind and digital sounds are additionally heard together with marimba in a busy texture.
Because the piece proceeds, there’s a broad number of sound for the listener to soak up, usually in a fantastic wash of good flashes and vivid colours. The microtonal pitches appear to work collectively properly in a approach that’s all the time energetic however not overwhelming or excessively alien. The percussion sounds are particularly efficient and lend some order to the customarily agitated floor textures. A easily devolving end brings the piece to a detailed. In Two Worlds, Thoegersen extends his expressive imaginative and prescient of polytempic and microtonal music to new ranges of fullness.
A Day by the Strand, monitor 2, is the longest and maybe probably the most restrained piece within the album. 4 pianos in the identical tuning are employed with tempi of 96, 87, 100, and 80 bpm and this facilitates better transparency within the harmonic formulations. Gentle piano chords open with brief, impartial rhythmic figures in accompaniment. That is relaxed and measured; virtually typical at instances. Not quick or loud, however relatively easy and laid again. Every of the piano strains are made up of easy, solemn notes expressed in a number of rhythms and microtonal tuning.
Because the piece continues, the piano strains start to syncopate in opposition to one another to construct a sense of rigidity. Trills and ornaments add selection to the feel, usually leading to a questioning uncertainty. In direction of the end a extra improvisational feeling dominates and results in the graceful ending. A Day by the Strand supplies the house and timing for the numerous microtonal and rhythmic processes to unfold with better element within the listener’s listening to.
Observe 3, Fractured Consciousness, returns to the frenetic type of the opening monitor. The liner notes state that this piece consists of “Giant meterless tuplets in numerous sizes…” to create “… polytempic landscapes with 4 tunings: 24, 26, 30, and 31 TET…” Fractured Consciousness begins with an anxious, siren-like opening that immediately evokes a frantic and complicated really feel. Keyboard timbre dominates in unconventional pitches so fast and quite a few that it usually seems like a swarm of buzzing bugs.
The sounds arrive in amount and with a pace that’s past typical human taking part in. That is perceived, nonetheless, as if it’s a carried out piece producing an attention-grabbing juxtaposition that stretches the mind of the listener. A bit like listening to a Conlon Nancarrow participant piano, solely sooner and with advanced rhythms and microtonal pitches. Because the piece proceeds, a slower melody line emerges with single notes within the bass accompanied by roiling passages within the higher registers. Fractured Consciousness is an lively, virtually crushing assault on the listener’s sense of listening to – a Jackson Pollock portray is sound.
Hypercube Model III, the ultimate monitor, concludes the album with extra summary and complicated types of expression in massive scale. The scoring consists of 4 strings, 4 pianos and 4 drum units in 4 totally different tempos and 4 distinct tunings. The opening of Hypercube Model III is highly effective with the drum package rhythms giving a way of path inside the move of the impartial strains from the numerous devices. A sequence of creative piano melodies trip on prime of the feel offering a considerably typical really feel and an agreeable level of reference.
Round 4:00 the piece slows and turns dramatic, with lengthy, sustained sounds. There’s a relaxed, nostalgic really feel to this part at instances, all the time summary however introspective and accessible. A gradual diminuendo in dynamic and a thinning of the feel makes for a satisfying end. Hypercube Model III is a shorter piece, however is likely to be the most effective place to start listening because it properly captures the essence of the numerous uncommon musical parts within the album.
Polytempic Polymicrotonal Music in 4 Items extends the thrill, energy and nuance of Thoegersen’s creative mixtures of the unconventional.
Polytempic Polymicrotonal Music in 4 Items is obtainable for digital obtain instantly from the Fragments of Blue label on Bandcamp.
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