20th-Century Microtonal Notation: (Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance) [Hardcover]

Gardner Read (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 18, 1990 | ISBN-10: 0313273987 | ISBN-13: 978-0313273988 | Edition: First Edition

No other book has covered the subject of 20th-century microtonal notation in such depth as this comprehensive guide book. 20th-Century Microtonal Notation surveys the many attempts to notate various microtonal divisions of the octave in our western music. The concerts, festivals, and journals devoted exclusively to microtonal composition evince the widespread interest and involvement in microtonal music today. Activity in the specialized field of microtonalism is also supported by the design and construction of a number of novel instruments capable of producing various fractional pitches in the octave, including the digital synthesizer. However, despite the developing interest and activity, no consensus has yet been reached about the clearest and most logical notation for each degree of microtonal division of the half and whole step. This lack of an essential consensus on a suitable, standardized notation system has, in some cases, hampered the complete integration of microtonalism into western music.

Bringing considerable expertise to bear, Read divides the volume into five sections, each addressing the notation of specific microtones. This volume is a comprehensive repository of the many attempts to find a logical notation for all degrees of microtonality. It represents an invaluable resource to anyone interested in studying the history and development of music notation, or in evaluating the many forms of microtonal notation in terms of their potential for contemporary notation. 20th-Century Microtonal Notation will be an important addition to the library collections of colleges and universities and will be of interest to composers, theorists, performers, and musicologists.

Editorial Reviews

Review

?No less a figure than Igor Stravinsky observed, shortly before his death, that he believed the expansion of intonation and pitch would characterize the next stage of development in Western art music. Read's new book brings us up to the moment on the history of, and current conditions in, the exploitation and notation of microtonal music. Exhaustive in coverage, free from judgmental views, clear and definitive in presenting the problems and possibilities of microtonal music and notation, Read's work is as thorough and authoritative a consideration of the field as we are likely to see. Drawing upon examples from an impressive list of composers living and dead, Read discusses the fundamental problems with microtones: how to accommodate microtonal notation to established diatonic and chromatic notational norms, which octave-divisions to exploit, and how to persuade the many composers working with microtones to agree upon a single notational method. Read leaves no doubt that the problems are daunting and thus far largely unresolved, but his predictions of likely avenues for development in the near future seem sensible and possible of achievement. The book is well printed, contains a lengthy bibliography and index, and is remarkably free from typographical error, no mean feat in a work of such complexity. If there is as yet no overpowering literature of microtonal music, Read's study demonstrates that many excellent musicians are laboring in the vineyard of the microtone. In the spirit of Mr. Micawber, something is bound to turn up.?-Choice

Book Description

Read lists chronologically, describes, and analyzes the majority of the notational systems proposed during the past three centuries, providing a broad understanding of the historical background that informs the current debates. Each proposal is accompanied by a brief transcription from standard notation to illustrate the effectiveness of implementing this novel system.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Praeger; First Edition edition (July 18, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0313273987
• ISBN-13: 978-0313273988
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,302,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A survey of the various solutions invented for microtonal notation that's more broad than I expected, August 28, 2011

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 20th-Century Microtonal Notation: (Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance) (Hardcover)

Western musical notation evolved to represent 12 tones to the octave, with no intervals smaller than a semitone. From the late 19th century, composers began to explore the use of new scales with quarter tones or even smaller intervals, but they had to find a way to put these down on paper, either notating these intervals in an ad hoc fashion within a traditional score, or proposing extreme new means of musical notation. Gardner Read's 20TH-CENTURY MICROTONAL NOTATION is a handbook for all the many competing solutions for how to represent microtonal intervals.

The book is divided into five chapters on the various microtonal intervals that composers have explored:

* Quarter- and three-quarter-tones
* Eighth- and sixteenth-tones
* Third-, sixth- and twelfth-tones
* Fifth-tones and the 31-tone scale
* Extended and compressed microtonal scales

Essentially, the book proceeds by giving very brief musical examples of each way to represent microtones, followed by a list of representative works. It's not just the microtones in isolation, as Read also covers microtonal glissandi, tremolos and trills.

The survey is vast. The author represents the music not only of the "microtonal composers" -- figures like Carillo and Partch who music was entirely concerned with microtones -- but also the dabbling in microtones by mid-century modernists like Berio and Xenakis. Read shows an awareness of figures like Paavo Heininen and Per Nørgård that are often too peripheral on the continental scene to get mentioned.

All in all, I found this survey informative and I think it a helpful reference for when one comes across a classic 20th century score and cannot see what the composer is getting at with some non-standard symbol.