CXXVIII. IVES, Charles (1874-1954)
Three Quarter Tone Pieces for Two Pianos (1923-24)
Elizabeth Dorman, piano
Michael Smith, piano
(12:12)
Ives holds a very special place in the history of 20th-century music. Composing music was always a part-time occupation -- he made his living in the insurance business (his work paved the way for the concept of estate planning) ...
His father, George (1845-1894) directed bands, orchestras, choirs, taught music theory and many different musical instruments.
A prominent family in Danbury, Connecticut, Charles grew up listening to his father's bands play, while simultaneously hearing another band playing a distance away.
This effect can be heard in almost all his music -- the carefully structured composition of competing music-making.
(For example, his Symphony #4 requires at least two conductors to coordinate all the goings-on! [Many years ago, I heard a performance at Yale {where Ives studied composition with Horatio Parker} with four conductors!])
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A quarter-tone is half of a semitone which is half of a whole tone. In other words, if you play a C to a D, that is a whole tone. If you play a C to a C# (or Db) that is a semitone. You cannot normally play a quarter-tone on a piano because that semitone (C-C#) is the smallest interval on the instrument.
Therefore, to acquire the quarter-tone, Ives has one of the pianos tuned specially a quarter-tone apart from the normally tuned piano.
(My understanding is that most piano technicians would rather tune a piano a quarter-tone down, as opposed to up -- which places too much tension on the strings ...)
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To Western ears, this all just sounds "out-of-tune." But today, many composers use microtonality to achieve an effect which has long been heard in Eastern, Asian music.
If it feels strange to you, give it a chance -- let the music float inwards -- and you might see that it is all very natural; it is only that the Western ear is so accustomed to the semitone-based diatonic system.
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