Sonata for Microtonal Piano
Encyclopedia
Sonata for Microtonal Piano is a sonata for specifically microtonally tuned piano by Ben Johnston written in 1964 (see also just intonation
).
The composer is trying to escape the "standard" forms of music; in the words of the composer:
Sonata-allegro = Questions, Scherzo = Mood Music, Slow movement = Soul Music, Finale = Premises.
The piece has been recorded and released on:
Just intonation
In music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of small whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. The two notes in any just interval are members of the same harmonic series...
).
The composer is trying to escape the "standard" forms of music; in the words of the composer:
- "The Sonata, whether presented as beauty or as the beast, is a monstrous parody-enigma, allusive, referential, sometimes derisive, distorted, a tissue of familiarity in radically strange garb....Whatever the closing mood brings to mind, it is overlaid with irony and derision. The Sonata sequence poses the challenge: fast, faster, slow, slower. When, in the Sonatas finale, the knots are finally untied, will it be clear from what Houdini has escaped?"
Grindlemusic
- Premises
- Questions
- Soul Music
- Mood Music
Sonata-allegro = Questions, Scherzo = Mood Music, Slow movement = Soul Music, Finale = Premises.
The piece has been recorded and released on:
- Microtonal Piano by Ben Johnston (1997). Phillip BushPhillip BushPhillip Bush is an American classical pianist, with a career focusing primarily on chamber music and contemporary classical music....
, piano. Koch International Classics 3-7369-2.