Skye van Duuren - Manifestations (mvmt. 3)

Notes:

Manifestations is a microtonal composition in three movements, scored for a mixed octet. Three techniques of my own invention were implemented to construct a unique microtonal pitch language. Controlled beating: adding or subtracting "beats" (periodic interference resulting from impure intervals) from a simultaneity Linear inflection: "stretching" or "shrinking" a scale or melodic motive at a microtonal level, and using unique microtonal profiles on a melody that help to characterize it Centstonic modulation: a change in key center at a microtonal level To make these techniques possible, Manifestations uses a standard chromatic scale that is split into twenty steps of five cents each, dividing the octave into 240 pitches. The intent of the complex pitch language of Manifestations, and the recording and processing method that makes it possible, is to invite more acoustic instruments into microtonal music while using the new techniques as only a part of the overall scope of ideas with which I compose music.

Tuning information:

240 equal divisions of the octave (gradations of 5 cents) - see description for additional pitch organization elements

Composer bio:

Skye van Duuren is a composer, trumpeter, arranger, copyist, transcriber, and tutor. He holds two Master of Music degrees from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, from The University of Arizona. Mr. van Duuren's teachers of composition include Andrew Sigler, Jorge Variego, Daniel Asia, Alejandro Rutty, and Mark Engebretson. His compositions have been performed in academic and sacred venues in Greece, China, Michigan, Tennessee, Arizona, and North Carolina. In 2014 he was honored with the national Marion Richter American Composition Award and first prize in the national Emil and Ruth Beyer Composition Contest. His newer work has explored just intonation, microtonality, and other alternative tuning systems in the contexts of fixed media and live performance.