“Aphoristic Madrigal“ 31-tone Microtonal, live performance: 4 voices & Organ-Fabio Costa, composer

[ Check out my entire microtonal discography at BandCamp at ] November 29th concert of the 2015 Mikrofest of the Huygens-Fokker Foundation at the Muziekgebow an ’t Ij, Amsterdam. Vokalprojekt 31: Valeria Mignaco (soprano), Alfrun Schmid (alto), Edward Leach (tenor), Arnout Lems (baritone), Ere Lievonen (Fokker-organ) Fabio Costa (conductor) _____________ Aphorism: Eart–Mother; Water–Love; World–Mind; Harmony–God. _______________________________ Why 31-ED2? In 2006 I wrote an “Organ Prelude“ (in 12-ED2) - with a peculiar harmonic cadence: minor Dominant with major seventh; while composing “Psalms for the Earth“ in 2008 (a choral work that won the Brazillian Music Academy composers’ competition that year), I went back to that material realizing that this chord could be resignified as 3:7:9:11 of the overtone series, which I employed in “Psalms“; that was the beginning of my work outside of 12 notes. The 19-limit, Just-Intonation “Meditation“ (a virtual rendering of part of the “Organ Prelude“) from 2009 employed a system where natural 19-limit intervals started at each of the 12-ED2 notes, generating many unequally spaced pitches per “octave“ 2:1 and only approximate enharmony. That remained a problem to be solved. Looking for a pratical way to employ these new harmonies, I was made aware by colleague Marc Sabat of the 31-note equal temperament (late 2014), realizing that it could approximate the natural ratios of the harmonic series up to the 23-limit with a maximum error of only 10 cents – at the same time providing for enharmony (common-note harmonic relations), since the steps are equal. That brought me to the Huygens-Fokker Foundation in Amsterdam, with their 31-tone Organ, build in the 50’s by Adriaan Fokker, who rediscovered the theoretical work on 31-edo by Christian Huygens of the late 1600’s. From composer Sander Germanus came the idea of a concert with a new work and I was honored to take part in the foundation’s Mikrofest that year, for which I wrote this “Aphoristic Madrigal“. Poetical Inspiration: Words and inspiration are given by a short, simple haiku, which tries to make sense of the outer and the inner worlds of man: Earth=Mother Water=Love World=Mind Harmony=God The first concept of each binome is an outer reality, the second, an inner concept, condition or instance of man; the relation of both invites to reflection as to how we as people relate to the world. Do we really regard our planet Earth as our ever birth- and life-giving Mother of mankind? Is the essential ressource Water maybe also neglected and misused just as Love is disregarded and distorted in our unbalancedly capitalist world? What is the World that our Minds are constructing and building every day? And how could we find God and Harmony among and between peoples as well as between us and our planet? Some crucial questions that I grapple with. The Music 0:00 “Earth“ = The overtone series builds up from the deep C, the voices alternate a “Tonica“ (4:5:6)/“Dominante“ (3:7:9:11) cadence, modulating (over the Dominant chord with 2 common notes) in a 11-step interval (C-E^-Av-C#); over a few bars a modulation leads back to C major with a quote from Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony (“Du bist mein Eigen“, “you are my own/my self“). 2:08 “Mother“: a melacholic line develops around the 10 : 15 fifth and the 10:12:15 minor chord with 11, 12, 13 and 14 forming the melody; modulations over the 4-step interval (13 : 11 = 12 : 10). 3:52 “Water : Love“ = a diatonic sequence based on 1:12:15:18 (Dominante with Tonica pedal – or a Bass on 1 and upper harmony on 3) leads to split, bitonal textures of a bass pedal on 1 and upper harmony on the natural scale (limit 11) starting from 15; in “Psalms for the Earth“ the music reflects the words from Psalm 148: “Praise him, you highest heavens / and you waters above the skies“. 4:51 “World:Mind“ = a perfect fifth (3 : 9) opens into a consonant 1:3:9:11 chord. Through (upper fifth) imitation the 9 : 11 (or 18 : 22) interval is piled up to a more dissonant 18:22:27:33 chord; successive imitation and piling up leads to two, mutually very dissonant chains (7- and 5-note respectively) of pure fifths (each chain perfeclty consonant in itself) exaclty a half-fifth apart (18/2=9 steps): the world, as build by an abstract mind, has led to conflict, but a compromise solution is to be found: 5 of those mutually dissonant notes can form a consonant chord, with a new fundamental note, which leads to 6:20 “Harmony:God“ = a study on enharmonic relations of 5 and 6 steps; three series of three consonant 19-limit chords of about 8 notes succeed each other, sharing 2 to 4 common notes. 7:49 applause & credits ___________________________________