| Julia Werntz | |
| I use microintervals in my music
simply because the sound of the pitches—the pitch relationships—is
thrilling. My method was just to seize the "new" pitches from in-between the "old" pitches of 12-note equal-temperament—60 new pitches in total—and to sing the intervals again and again (and again) until I had internalized a new microtonal, equal-tempered chromatic scale consisting of 72 pitches. Then I began developing a melodic, contrapuntal technique, using the microintervals toward my compositional ends, and relying on certain aspects of my traditional musical training, while at the same time taking care to yield to the peculiar new demands of the new intervals themselves, such as rhythm. It is essential that the rhythmic gestures respond directly to the microintervals. What exactly would that mean? There is no specific formula I can think of—fortunately—but as a general approach it would mean that rather than relying on "automatic" regular or symmetrical rhythmic/metric structures, or any conventions from twentieth-century or pre-twentieth-century music, one would seek one's own intuitive and perhaps unusual or idiosyncratic rhythmic reactions to the new pitches. Or, to view it in a perhaps more logical way, Russian microtonalist Ivan Wyschnegradsky's idea makes sense: that there is a direct connection between breaking down the "harmonic continuum" with microintervals as small as a twelfth-tone and breaking down the "temporal continuum" with rhythmic relationships that are "more nuanced and more complex" and "at the same time more natural." (See La loi de la pansonorité.) I like how he calls this a "liberating rhythmic revolution" (une révolution libératrice rythmique). Over time, of course, the new intervals cease to be "the new intervals," or even "microintervals"; they become "the pitches I work with." But they never cease to lead me in new directions, and to be thrilling. Biography Click here. |
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