| Julian Carrillo and the 13th Sound : a microtonal musical system | Julián Carrillo y el Sonido

August 5, 2012 3:26 AM

| Julian Carrillo and the 13th Sound : a microtonal musical system | Julián Carrillo y el Sonido 13 : un sistema musical microtonal |
posted by beshtya (10 comments total)

Fascinating. There is a nifty violin run in the mp3 that ascends microtonally in tiny steps. I haven't found examples of his notation system yet but I'll keep digging.
posted by Jode at 5:47 AM on August 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

also check out Microtonal Composer and Master Improviser JOE MANERI.
http://youtu.be/igR9Hdik0mQ
http://youtu.be/q-92mMz1pOM
http://youtu.be/lSvMxb3JKms
http://youtu.be/sdhg_yUYpBA
posted by frankbooth at 5:57 AM on August 5, 2012

Anyone interested in this will probably be interested in an interview I made with the grandson of Julián Carrillo on my website MexicanClassicalMusic.com:
http://www.mexicanclassicalmusic.com/index.php/2012/03/09/interview-with-the-grandson-of-julian-carrillo-the-worlds-first-microtonal-composer/
posted by BobsterLobster at 6:05 AM on August 5, 2012

Oh yeah, I translated a short biography of Carrillo from a Mexican book, there is some information in there that may not be available from other English language sources:
http://www.mexicanclassicalmusic.com/index.php/mexican-composers/
posted by BobsterLobster at 6:07 AM on August 5, 2012

Preludio a Colon (scored)
posted by wobh at 6:52 AM on August 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Bobster, that is sweet. Are you still in touch with his grandson? A friend of mine (jpvd.org) made a chocolate vinyl record of Preludio a Colón a while back. I believe he had troubles with copyright with the grandson, so we ended up eating the record :--)
posted by beshtya at 7:27 AM on August 5, 2012

Well, I just left Mexico, so not so much any more! But yes, there still seem to be a lot of problems with copyright in the family, perhaps with usually less than delicious results.
posted by BobsterLobster at 7:40 AM on August 5, 2012

Microtonal scales have long been a fascinating idea but they've seldom produced memorable results. (Honestly, many are psychoacoustically unavailable to many people - and they can be played on only a few common instruments.)

On the other hand there are dozens (in theory hundreds) of scales using more conventional intervals that -have- led to memorable results. Their advantage is that they're available to common instruments. Unfortunately (apart from a handful) they're seldom explored (in part because of technical hurdles).
posted by Twang at 2:38 PM on August 5, 2012

Here is a piece of microtonal music that is very enjoyable and easy to listen to. Also check out xentonality or dynamic tonality, which changes the timbre of each note to match the tuning. Great stuff.
posted by gray17 at 5:13 PM on August 5, 2012

I don't know Twang. This album, Transcendissonance, an experiment in composing in dissonant scales, has become my one of my favorite listenings lately. I found out about it from this list of reviews. That "Beauty in the Beast" album, I first read about here has been on my buy-on-sight list ever since.

I think people's expectations about art often get in the way of appreciating new things. Everything from expressionist paintings to punk rock required something different of people.
posted by wobh at 5:37 PM on August 7, 2012