Easley Blackwood: Microtonal

Easley Blackwood (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Easley Blackwood
• Audio CD (May 16, 1994)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Cedille
• ASIN: B000009KIL
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,277 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #63 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Electronic

Editorial Reviews

Easley Blackwood's Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media, a landmark exploration that drew widespread critical praise upon its release in 1980, has been reissued for the first time on compact disc. Also new on the CD are two never-before-released Blackwood microtonal works. The intriguing études culminated Blackwood's research, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, into the techniques and expressive possibilities of microtonal tunings. Microtonal tunings are those that divide an octave in some other manner than into 12 equal parts. Blackwood wrote études for equal tunings of 13 to 24 notes to the octave and has likened the task to writing a "sequel" to "The Well-Tempered Clavier," JS Bach's famous collection of preludes and fugues in each of the major and minor keys. Blackwood let the "flavor" of each tuning suggest an established musical form or style for each étude: a Classical piano sonata (track no. 13), Russian nationalism (track no. 8), jazz (track no. 11), the sound of South Pacific gamelans (track no. 5), and the form of a Baroque violin sonata (track no. 4). This approach also allows listeners to hear how microtonal tunings affect familiar musical genres. The Fanfare in 19-note Equal Tuning (1981) was commissioned by Chicago fine arts radio station WFMT, along with fanfares by other Chicago-area composers, to celebrate the station's 30th anniversary. The Suite for Guitar in 15-note Equal Tuning makes use of the properties Blackwood discovered when he wrote the microtonal étude in 15-note tuning. It's cast in four movements with dance-like rhythms akin to those found in Baroque suites. "For the performance of microtonal music on conventional acoustic instruments, those with fretted strings are the least problematic because the frets automatically and accurately establish the location of each pitch," Blackwood writes in the CD booklet. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating experiment in microtonal tunings, February 28, 2000

By 

Ernest Barreto (Frederick, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Easley Blackwood: Microtonal (Audio CD)

Easley Blackwood is a professor of music at the University of Chicago. From the liner notes: "In the late 1970's, Prof. Blackwood won a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to investigate the harmonic and modal properties of microtonal tunings. The project culminated in Blackwood's Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media, composed as illustrations of the tonal possibilities of all the equal tunings from 13 to 24 notes to the octave." Though initially jarring to the ear (some tunings more so than others), one quickly adjusts to the new sounds. Once that happens, it's fascinating to hear Blackwoods exploration of "compelling progressions of hiterto alien harmonies and modes." Of course, some tunings work better than others. Also included is a piece for guitar in 15-note equal tuning. The sound of the guitar is much more appealing and effective than the "polyfusion synthesizer" used for the Etudes.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for the mind and the spirit, April 5, 2002

By A Customer

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This review is from: Easley Blackwood: Microtonal (Audio CD)

I am fascinated by this CD, plus I really enjoy it. The mathematical puzzles it poses are fascinating. I've found myself trying to design guitar and piano keyboards with some of the more interesting tone sets (15, 19) and wondering about different ways of writing music. I'd love to see Mr. Blackwood's notebooks on musical notations.
In addition, this is a lot of fun to listen to. Mr. Blackwoods compositions are sometimes a little basic, but I think he intended them that way in order to let the beauty and strangeness of these new modes just wash over us in their glory. He does a great job of tying the style of the composition to the tones that a given mode best expresses. Bravo!