Sonata for Microtonal Piano

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Sonata for Microtonal Piano is a sonata for specifically microtonally tuned piano by Ben Johnston written in 1964 (see also just intonation).

The composer is trying to escape the "standard" forms of music; in the words of the composer:

"The Sonata, whether presented as beauty or as the beast, is a monstrous parody-enigma, allusive, referential, sometimes derisive, distorted, a tissue of familiarity in radically strange garb....Whatever the closing mood brings to mind, it is overlaid with irony and derision. The Sonata sequence poses the challenge: fast, faster, slow, slower. When, in the Sonata's finale, the knots are finally untied, will it be clear from what Houdini has escaped?"[1]

Contents

[edit] Movements

[edit] Sonata for Microtonal Piano

  1. Sonata-allegro
  2. Scherzo
  3. Slow movement
  4. Finale

[edit] Grindlemusic

  1. Premises
  2. Questions
  3. Soul Music
  4. Mood Music

Sonata-allegro = Questions, Scherzo = Mood Music, Slow movement = Soul Music, Finale = Premises.

The piece has been recorded and released on:

  • Microtonal Piano by Ben Johnston (1997). Phillip Bush, piano. Koch International Classics 3-7369-2.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Liner notes for SOUND FORMS FOR PIANO, New World Records 80203, fetched from [1]