JULIAN CARRILLO
 

Balbuceos
for 1/16tone piano and orchestra

was composed in 1960 for a contemporary music festival held in Houston, USA, at the request of conductor Leopold Stokowski. The piece was premiered by the composer's daughter, pianist Dolores Carrillo, under the baton of Stokowski himself.
Its name illustrates the fact that these are Carrillo's first “babblings” with sixteenth tones.

PASCALE CRITON
 

Bifurcations (1994)
for violoncello, piano and 1/16 tone piano

Bifurcations develops a micro-harmony created by the superimposition of two different temperaments. The Carrillo piano, tuned to 1/16th of a tone, fits into the diatonic playing of the piano and cello. This micro-chromatic line, with a different tonicity, introduces a slight tension, creating tiny contractions and expansions in the interval relationships, a sensation of deviation in the pitches. The two temperaments maintain elastic links: they intersect, influence each other, and bounce off each other. This fluidity creates a latent harmony, like “bifurcation thresholds” that make renewal possible.
 

Hold (2019)
for string trio

Hold plays on slight differences in time, like the unstable equilibrium of an ecosystem. Imperceptible changes in pitch, timbre, and nuance stimulate the emergence of sound interference (beats, resulting sounds, and multiple sounds) æsought after by performers when listening.

JULIA WERNTZ
 

"Wreaths"

Wreaths is a musical memorial—an attempt to mark the immeasurable losses of the Covid-19 pandemic and a contemplation of healing and continuity. Since it was completed in 2022, so much more has happened in the world that has been cause for additional anguish and mourning. We must somehow hold all of these events separately in our memories. My hope is that when Wreaths is performed, listeners will think of the many millions of people who died, and of those who lost them and were left grieving, those who were left disabled, the medical workers who made enormous sacrifices and suffered, the children and adolescents who are still dealing with the consequences of prolonged isolation, and others whose careers or familiar ways of life ended.

The circular form is manifest in various ways in the three movements. The first movement, “Closing,” recalls the arrival of the virus in winter 2019-2020, and the first days of the lockdown. Every day we would awaken and only gradually remember what was happening. Our plans again would be firmly closed down—as the violin pitches here trace a short unfolding pattern, and then retract again.

The second movement, “Ceremonial Wreath,” embodies the wreaths that are traditionally offered to commemorate loved ones who have been lost, symbolizing the cycle of life. The music here travels circle-wise around the entire violin range, the violinist weaving melodic garlands of flowers onto a round frame. Two long silences occur during which we contemplate the music that is continuing beyond our hearing. This concept is from Ivan Wyschnegradsky, a concept he used (in a very different way) in his beautiful 1961 piano piece Étude sur les mouvements rotatoires.

In the third movement, “Fragrances,” a circular inhaling/exhaling pattern is felt, evoking the pleasing, soothing scent of the blossoms or evergreen boughs on a wreath, the return of the ability to breathe and smell—the free use of the lungs.

Wreaths was composed using 72 equal temperament.

MARC KILCHENMANN

"Vertrauensseelig auf Eis"
for two pianos (1 player - 1/2 tone and 1/16 tone)

Although tonality was already broken down in the last millennium, most people in the European cultural sphere are still tonality-oriented, if not addicted to it.
Using simple settings, I explore the extent to which we still try to integrate microtonal deviations into the rigid well-tempered system. How large can deviations from the semitone taster be without disturbing our tonal bliss, how “wrong” must intervals be to make tonal references impossible...

PETER STREIFF
 

"Ohrenspuren am Drittelberg"
for  two pianos (1/3tone and 1/2tone)

The interplay of the third-tone and semitone grand pianos produces not only familiar intervals and newly audible third tones, but also sixth tones. This entire constellation of 116 pitches is explored and examined, partly experimentally and investigatively, partly by yielding completely to the ear. Different approaches were used; thus structural uniformity was deliberately avoided. The music moves away from its beginning into ever-changing sonorities and does not return to its starting point. Along the way, quotations appear as historical sound references. In the last third, the tempered semitone, third tone, and sixth tone scales are questioned by strnage interval arrangements.
The exploration of little-known interval combinations leaves behind intended, anticipated, and unpredictable traces.