between - original sine tone sketches
(equal seven scale)
between - midi strings
(adapted equal seven scale)
be-side - enharmonic organ
(adapted equal seven scale)
piano quartet
1997/99
15 min.
difference/between is a piano quartet in two parts which are quite different from each other - somewhat like certain of Jasper Johns' paintings in which two canvases are placed alongside one another. The first (Western) half starts off with tetrachords whose proportions are gradually smoothed out until the pitch steps are equal in size. Units of time-space are similarly divided up equally. The second (African) half is based on an equal seven scale - the octave divided into seven equal steps.
in the first half.
the division
of the octave into twelve
equally, in the second - it's division into seven
(time and space)
what does the one tell us about the other?
Score PDF
be-side
be-side is a
reworking,
the 'B side' if you like, of the second half of difference/between originally
written for strings playing in a tuning based on the division of the
octave into seven equal steps. I came to consider equal
temperaments, be they the division of the octave into twelve (Europe),
five (Indonesia) or seven (Indonesia, certain parts of Africa) as
analagous to consolidated forms of language such as BBC English,
Algemene Beschaafd Nederlands or Hoch Deutsch. These forms might be
considered as an evening-out of the various dialects out of which they
grew in a way analogous to the development of modern slendro or pelog
tunings out of a number of preceding scale forms. In this piece I
chose to work in the opposite direction, re-introducing irregularities
into the music that had originally been composed in the “high-language” of an equal-seven scale.
The version here was realised with the help of Clarence Barlow for enharmonic organ at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, 1999.