Microtonal Music by Krzysztof Penderecki, Joseph Gabriel Esther Maneri, Isang Yun, Stepán Konícek, Manfred Stahnke, Maurice Ohana, Charles Ives, Richard Heinrich Stein, Robert Bonotto, Alan Hovhannes, Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Roland Moser, Arnold Schoenberg, and John Cage. Joshua Pierce, piano; Dan Auerbach and Tom Chiu, violin; David Gold and Anastasia Solberg, viola; Jodi Beder and Dave Eggar, cello; Johnny Reinhard, bassoon; Tom Goldstein, glockenspiel; Dorothy Jonas, piano. MSR Classics. $19.95 (2 CDs).
Zack Browning: Sol Prophecy; Cosmic Changes; Mercury Music; Rock Galaxy; Upscale Jammer; Fate and Fusion; Jupiter LVB; Moon Venus. Neuma Records. $15.
It seems natural to think of microtonality as an avant-garde and decidedly recent approach to music, a system created – like twelvetone – to extend preexisting norms of sound creation, opening up new aural worlds on the basis that prior sounds and systems have been overextended and overused. Yet this is a demonstrably false simplification, with Charles Ives (1874-1954) showing, in this as in so much else, that supposedly ultra-modern musical thinking has been around for quite some time. A fascinating two-CD MSR Classics release featuring pianist Joshua Pierce and colleagues in a sampling of microtonal music inevitably includes Ives’ Three Quarter Tone Pieces for Two Pianos, parts of which appear to have been written as early as 1903 (originally for strings). And it has to be said that even Ives was not alone in early quarter-tone exploration: Julián Carrillo (1875-1965) developed Sonido Trece and Alois Hába (1893-1973) created systems involving quarter-, fifth-, sixth- and twelfth-tones, and had woodwinds and keyboards built to play quarter-tone scales. So microtonal thinking is better thought of as coexisting with other fin de siècle musical and general societal attempts to find new forms of expression for a rapidly changing world. Pierce’s recording is no historical document – the Ives work appears last on the first CD, and neither Carrillo nor Hába is represented at all – but it does provide an interesting if somewhat scattershot view of the methods by which 14 different composers have approached microtonality, and the ways in which the sounds and effects of their music differ from those of compositions written in more-traditional tonal systems. The pieces also differ significantly from each other, just as twelvetone works do. In fact, Ives’ two-piano work (in which Pierce is joined by Dorothy Jonas) and the solo-piano Drei Klavierstücke by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) have little in common in their soundworlds, with Ives’ sense of flow (if scarcely lyricism) a recurring element in his material and Schoenberg’s cragginess a major feature of his. The rest of the music here is chronologically, and often sonically, all over the place. The recording opens with Miniatury for Violin and Piano (played by Pierce and Dan Auerbach) by Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020) – essentially a short, disconnected-sounding overture to all that follows. Next is The Feast of St. Luke by Joseph Gabriel Esther Maneri (1926-2009), in which the solo piano’s sound is delicate and bell-like. Duo for Viola and Piano by Isang Yun (1917-1995), played by Pierce and Anastasia Solberg, primarily explores the instruments’ differing sounds, after which, in Praeludium, Blues und Toccata for 2 Pianos (Pierce and Jonas), Stepán Konícek (1928-2006) showcases a complex and very attractive intermingling of sound, style and rhythm that happily lacks the sometimes dour and academic approach found in various other works contained in this release. Partota 1, written for solo piano by Manfred Stahnke (born 1951), is the longest work in this two-CD set, lasting 20½ minutes. Its dominant sound is not one of experimentation for its own sake but of incorporation of different tuning within a variegated aural landscape that incorporates both traditional and nontraditional pianistic elements. Syrtes for Cello and Piano (Pierce and Jodi Beder) is by Maurice Ohana (1913-1992) and is also extended, running 15 minutes; it has more of an “expectedly modernistic” sound in both instruments. It is followed by Ives’ work, which, along with Konícek’s, is a highlight of the recording.
The second CD opens with Zwei Konzertstücke for Cello and Piano (Pierce and Dave Eggar) by Richard Heinrich Stein (1882-1942), which sounds quite distinctly Romantic despite some experiments in temperament. Next is the intriguingly titled and scored Sibelius and the Cuckoo of Jarvenpää for Viola, Cello, Bells and Piano (Pierce, Eggar, David Gold, and Tom Goldstein) by Robert Bonotto (born 1962). Modest in scale (five minutes) and sensitive in instrumentation, the piece has a sometimes dense, sometimes clear texture, and leaves the overall feeling of asking more questions than it answers. O Lord Bless Thy Mountains for 2 Pianos (Pierce and Jonas) by Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000), one of Hovhaness’ many mountain-focused works, features his typical blend of slight exoticism with mysticism that is emphasized through the two pianos being tuned a quarter-tone apart. Next on the disc are three works by Ivan Wyschnegradsky (1893-1979), using three different instrumental mixtures: Meditation on Two Themes from the Day of Existence for Bassoon and Piano (Pierce and Johnny Reinhard), Chante Nocturne for Violin and 2 Pianos (Pierce, Jonas and Tom Chiu), and Dialogue a Deux for 2 Pianos (Pierce and Jonas). The first is notable for bassoon passages that work against the instrument’s natural sound, the second for the distinctly uncomforting violin part (the opposite of the usual expectation in a nocturne), the third for the extent to which the pianos overlap and seem to communicate against rather than with each other. Kabinett mit vierteltönen for 2 Pianos (Pierce and Jonas), by Roland Moser (born 1943), features a persistent echoing effect that creates a constant sense of overlap between the instruments. This is followed by the Schoenberg work and then, in conclusion, music by a composer whom listeners will likely think of quickly in association with microtones, prepared pianos and other avant-garde approaches: John Cage (1912-1992). The Cage pieces, all for solo piano, are In the Name of the Holocaust, Suite for Toy Piano, and Daughters of the Lonesome Isle. The “preparing” certainly makes the piano’s existence as a percussion instrument all the more apparent, and as often in Cage, the titles seem to reach for, or reach out for, specific audience responses: there is a suggestion of a tolling bell in the first piece, something childlike in the note sequences and sounds in the second, and a kind of plaintive extravaganza of dancelike notes in the third. Cage remains to this day an acquired taste and a somewhat divisive figure, if no longer as controversial as he used to be. But much the same may be said of many of the pieces on Pierce’s fascinating mishmash of a very generously extended program (each CD runs 80 minutes). By no means will all these works appeal to audiences at large, and it is likely that few listeners who do enjoy them will equally appreciate all of them. And because the sequence of pieces is at bottom a random one, there is no real sense here of exploring microtonal music from a chronological, theoretical or, indeed, any specific perspective. Instead there is simply a sense of display of a lesser-known element of composition that, while not nearly as ultra-modern as listeners may imagine it to be, still retains an aura of unpredictability in its multifaceted applications to the thinking of the various composers whose works are here displayed – and to the clear-headed and highly engaged performances by Pierce and his colleagues as well.
Microtonalism is, of course, just one of the approaches used by musical creators seeking expressiveness that goes beyond the realm of traditional techniques and looks not only to the present but also to the future. Another angle used by contemporary composers – and another one that has been around far longer than many listeners realize – is combinatorial: merging elements of one particular style and approach with those of another. Audiences generally recognize this sort of music-making through the fusion of classical materials with those of jazz, but in fact it predates the Jazz Era and persists to this day. And some composers seem particularly enamored of genre mixing – such as Zack Browning (born 1953). Browning seems to come naturally to his method of merging classical and pop-music sounds and structures, since he has performed both on classical trumpet and as a pop pianist. But in fact he has taken the mix-and-morph approach to a different, personal level, as the eight works heard on a Neuma Records release show. Just as Carrillo, Hába, Ives and other composers used microtonal concepts in individual ways, so Browning blends classical and pop elements with notions derived from nonmusical material – planetary orbits, feng shui and other systems and ideas. This could easily become yet another tired, overly esoteric “look at me” angle for someone seeking distinction by any means, but Browning seems genuinely committed to writing works that an audience will want to hear and will find engaging, perhaps even engrossing. The pieces generally turn out to work well despite rather than because of the systems within which Browning created them. So Sol Prophecy (2024), which opens this CD, uses two pianos and percussion in an attempt to explore various religious manifestations and dates – but it is effective simply as a sound portrait and does not demand, as so many contemporary compositions do, that listeners study its background and intent in order to enjoy listening to it. Similarly, Cosmic Changes (2022), for flute and harp, intends to explore the five “elements” – not the four traditional ones of air, earth, fire and water, but a fivesome consisting of earth, fire, water, wood and metal. Perhaps audiences knowledgeable about Browning’s inspiration will find specific touchstones for it within the music, but an understanding of the composer’s thinking about the piece is not needed to appreciate the well-balanced, often elegant juxtaposition of instruments throughout. The same combination of rarefied, abstruse underlying material with approachable and skillfully wrought musical lines pervades the rest of the CD. Mercury Music (2021/2025) is a percussion piece that tries to have historical relevance but that comes across well as simply an exploration of contrasting sonorities. Rock Galaxy (2023), for marimba and string quartet, incorporates bits of Mozart into a nice combination of contrasting sonic elements. Upscale Jammer (2017) is a short and vivid piano piece. Fate and Fusion (2017) combines vibraphone and marimba in ways that showcase the similarities between the instruments and their methods of sound production as well as their many differences. Jupiter LVB (2020) references the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth and is constructed with specific attention to Beethoven’s name, birth date and zodiac sign – none of which listeners need to know in order to find this piece for woodwind quintet well-balanced, nicely paced and written skillfully for the instruments. And Moon Venus (2019), for percussion ensemble, concludes the disc with an opening timpani explosion that soon turns into a pleasantly and effectively blended mixture of pop sensibilities with propulsive rhythms. The specific influences in this work are many, as indeed are the influences within all the pieces heard here, but the strength of Browning’s music lies in the way it is able to draw audiences in without requiring them to adhere to any specific set of beliefs or possess any particular knowledge about what caused the composer to create a particular piece in a particular way. Browning has a good sense of writing effectively for a variety of instruments, and the various performers on this CD are again and again able to put forth some effective advocacy for music that insists it means certain things and is derived from certain specific extramusical circumstances – but that transcends that narrow view of itself and allows listeners who are so inclined simply to enjoy the sounds that Browning wishes to produce from within whatever structure and approach he may choose to use.
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