JED STEPHEN LARSON - Opus. A1201

Notes:

This piece was played using a piano (sampled) tuned to the 31 tone equal temperament scale. This tuning was chosen for this piece, and for all my microtonal works, because it allows the use of the Septimal Minor 3rd, the Septimal Tritone, and the Harmonic Seventh. The Harmonic 7th is the 3rd most pure interval/chord of the harmonic series (only behind the perfect 5th and 3rd) , and is impossible on standard "piano" 12 note tuning. The other referenced septimal chords also rank quite high in their purity. All of these chords are in this piece, perhaps most notably, a "root, 3rd, 5th, Harmonic7th" chord as the final sound of the work. Being able to access these intervals, used in chording is a powerful tool of the sonic palette. The 31 note division allows an elastic chromatic scale to unfold and also facilitates chordal shifting reminiscent of pitch bending. It is not intended to be anything other than a work for piano, that is - all music is microtonal.

Tuning information:

! fokker_31.scl ! 31 tonen per octaaf evenredig zwevend 31 ! 38.70968 ! C| Dbb 77.41935 ! C# Db; 116.12903 ! C#| Db 154.83871 ! Cx D; 193.54839 ! D 232.25806 ! D| Ebb 270.96774 ! D# Eb; 309.67742 ! D#| Eb 348.38710 ! Dx E; 387.09677 ! E 425.80645 ! E| Fb 464.51613 ! E# F; 503.22581 ! F 541.93548 ! F| Gbb 580.64516 ! F# Gb; 619.35484 ! F#| Gb 658.06452 ! Fx G; 696.77419 ! G 735.48387 ! G| Abb 774.19355 ! G# Ab; 812.90323 ! G#| Ab 851.61290 ! Gx A; 890.32258 ! A 929.03226 ! A| Bbb 967.74194 ! A# Bb; 1006.45161 ! A#| Bb 1045.16129 ! Ax B; 1083.87097 ! B 1122.58065 ! B| Cb 1161.29032 ! B# C; 2/1 ! C

Composer bio:

Jed Larson grew up in north central Minnesota and has been playing music since a young age. As a cellist, pianist, vocalist and guitar player, he has been playing in groups and ensembles for over twenty years and has been writing, performing and recording original music since his early teens. In the Minneapolis area he continues to write music for commission and independent projects. Following the inspirational quote of Igor Stravinsky, "Yes: pitch. I even risk a prediction that pitch will comprise the main difference between the 'music of the future' and our music,"* Jed has enveloped microtonal scales into his writing and also is very much convinced that this type of music will be the next avenue for sound and music to evolve in our culture.