3 ms·

I find microtonality gimmicky

• gnulinux 3y ago
  Me too. It's not a convincing direction for art music imho. This is my biggest criticism of Ligeti. I don't think he needed that detuned flute in his Violin Concerto. Otherwise love his music to my bones.
• mrob 3y ago
  It's true that a lot of microtonal music is gimmicky, but I think that's the fault of the composers, not the tuning systems. Do you find barbershop music gimmicky? The defining feature of the genre (harmonic seventh chords) is microtonal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_seventh_chord https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_seventh_chord
  • vonjuice 3y ago
    I'd not consider just intonation to be microtonality. I guess it technically is? But to me it conveys something different. For example, there's period performances of Bach pieces played in harpsichords tuned in just intonation. I'd not say that's microtonality.
    • mrob 3y ago
      Just intonation is an unusual choice for Bach's works. I'm not aware of any evidence that he used it, and he certainly thought about tuning. His "Well Tempered Clavier" was meant as a demonstration of some unknown tuning system that was more flexible than the various meantone temperaments that were common in his time. But there are approximations of meantone using just intervals, so it's certainly possible that people have performed it that way. But this sort of just intonation is not like barbershop, because all the intervals can be tolerably approximated with 12-equal temperament. The mood of the piece will change somewhat as some become more and some become less consonant, but it will remain essentially the same work. The barbershop seventh chord cannot be so approximated. The "ringing" sound of the seventh chord that defines the genre doesn't occur unless the seventh is tuned very noticeably flat from the closest 12-equal temperament equivalent. If you arpeggiate a barbershop seventh chord it sounds obviously microtonal.