Genesis of a Music

Whole Earth, Winter, 1997 by Johnny Reinhard

My own compositions are polymicrotonal. I prefer to mix and match tunings in each composition. Another interest of mine is to connect natural phenomena to intervalic treatment. In my string quartet, "Cosmic Rays," the actual splitting of a photographed cosmic ray is invoked by "splitting" and rotating a musical motif through a display of virtuosic sliding tones, sometimes traveling opposite directions simultaneously on two or three strings.

Electronic tuners, now augmented by computers, have made the production of microtonal music possible for anyone, but technology is still a toy when it comes to the mass of microtonal music accomplishments.

Though synthesizers are naturals for microtonal sound production, any instrument can play microtonally. Mine is the bassoon, once thought to be quite lame regarding its ability to play in tune. It can do anything thanks to its large range, overtone-rich tone, open tone holes, and relative plethora of keys. It can do anything, but so can a cello, a flute, a trumpet (albeit with one extra piston), or even a piano, when it is returned accordingly, or redesigned with microtonal intentions. And, of course, one can sing microtonally.

The lesson here is that with an infinite number of pitch points on the musical continuum, relationships between intervals sensible to the composer are eminently transferable to the audience. Everything is intervals, after all; matter is intervalic on the sub-atomic scale. There is space between all things, and that is what creates meaning.