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Verklaerte Neunzehn
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This electronic piece (2000) combines the expressionism of turn-of-the-century Vienna with a 19-note per octave scale.
joseph pehrson
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Not really a band, but a composer who writes contemporary classical works...
Purchase sheet music at: http://www.subitomusic.com/ (Main publisher -- ask for "Seesaw" Imprint) or http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/ Search "Joseph Pehrson" JOSEPH PEHRSON, composer, (b. Detroit, 1950) has written works for a wide variety of media including orchestra and chamber works. They have been performed at numerous venues including Merkin Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Symphony Space in New York and throughout the U.S., Eastern Europe and Russia. Since 1983, Pehrson has been co-director of the Composers Concordance in New York. He studied at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan (DMA 1981). Pehrson's teachers included composers Leslie Bassett, Joseph Schwantner, and, informally, Otto Luening and Elie Siegmeister in New York. As of 2008, he has written more than 14 hours of music. Composing highlights: Belgian horn player Francis Orval requested ensemble pieces from 1987 to 1991 including Hornucopia, a piece for 10 horns, and a piece for solo horn in just intonation, Harmonic Etude, which was premiered at Merkin Hall. In 1992 and 1993, the Goliard Concerts, through recommendation of composer Eric Ewazen, performed several pieces in the Metropolitan New York area, in Warwick, NY and on a tour of southern states. They also requested a new piece, Pehrson’s humorous Confessions of the Goliards for tenor and chamber ensemble. Starting in 1992, flute player Gerardo Levy of New York University presented Pehrson’s Etheroscape for 8 flutes biannually with his students and requested a new ensemble piece Forest of Winds. He also asked for two new solo pieces. In 1998 Pehrson’s Exhilarations for clarinet, cello and piano was the winner of a competition by the Chicago Ensemble and was performed at the Three Arts Club in Chicago. Pianist Jeffrey Jacob took an interest in Three Pianopieces in 1998, performing the piece in Ohio and Germany and later recording it professionally. Again through Ewazen, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble requested a new chamber work, Pehrson’s Trumpet in a New Surrounding which was performed at the Dia Arts Center in 1997. Pehrson had a May 1997 residency at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where his Fuoco for Brass Quintet was performed. Pehrson’s ensemble piece Wild, Wild West was requested and performed by Liviu Danceanu’s Archaeus Ensemble in Romania and Moldova in 1997, 1999 and 2004. Several works in unusual tunings have been featured on Johnny Reinhard’s American Festival of Microtonal Music continuously since the 1980’s. In 2001 and 2003 Pehrson traveled to Russia for a series of concerts arranged by composer Anton Rovner. In 2005, organist Carson Cooman premiered Pehrson’s Organum for solo organ and the work was performed in Russia at the Glinka Museum by Kirill Umansky as part of the Moscow Autumn Festival. In April, 2006, Peter Jarvis and April McCloskey of the “DoubleStop Percussion Duo” premiered Pehrson’s Inner Voices II for percussion and near-just-intonation electronics at William Paterson College, repeating it at Connecticut College in December, 2006. Pianist Juny Jung performed Three Pianopieces in Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, May, 2006. Flautando for flute and guitar was presented by the New York Composers Circle in June, 2006. Victoria and Robert Paterson’s American Modern Ensemble presented Levitations for viola and piano, October, 2006. In 2007 several works were presented in conjunction with the retirement of composer Dinu Ghezzo from NYU. There were also two woodwind quintets premiered: one in an unusual tuning by the American Festival of Microtonal Music and another more conventional work by the Composers Concordance. Pehrson visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, in March 2008 for a series of concerts. In St. Petersburg, he participated in a Festival "From the Avant Garde to the Present Day," with a new piece Quixoddities based upon Cervantes' Don Quixote for piccolo and bassoon, performed by Mikhail Pobedinsky with bassoonist Maxim Karpinsky at the "House of Composers" in St. Petersburg (March 19, 2008). Linda Past-Pehrson also danced to three electronic pieces in alternate tunings as part of this festival at the "Smolny Institute.” In Moscow, he had five pieces presented at the "Jurgenson Salon" on March 22, 2008: The day before, March 21, 2008, Linda Past-Pehrson danced to six electronic pieces in alternate tunings at the "Fireplace Hall" of the "Central Building for Workers of Art, (TsDRI).”Pehrson has works recorded on Capstone and New Ariel CDs and many pieces are published by Seesaw Music, Corp., now a division of Subito Music. More information at http://www.composersconcordance.org/
Song Info
Charts
Peak #124
Peak in subgenre #29
Author
Joseph Pehrson
Uploaded
December 07, 2003
Track Files
MP3
MP3 5.8 MB 128 kbps 6:17
Story behind the song
“Four years ago I made a remarkable discovery. I found a computer program (Scala) that could retune my synthesizer so that I could create any conceivable scale or sequence of tones on my keyboard! If I wished, I could use 72 per octave, and the entire keyboard would be only an octave long, or I could make a scale of 19 or 31 equal tones, both historically important temperaments. Like a child in a candy store, I wanted to try them all and I created several pieces using different scales. This is the period when Verklaerte Neunzehn (January 2000) was composed. I thought it might be interesting to create a sound fabric somewhat reminiscent of turn of the century Vienna, when Schoenberg composed his famous Verklaerte Nacht. Those expressive motives appealed to me, but I didn’t want to find myself rewriting the past. For this reason, this approach was ideal for a retuning, and I decided to write an “expressionistic” piece in one of these new scales, in this case a scale of 19 notes per octave, hence the title Verklaerte Neunzehn (nineteen). I could have very easily used an equally-tempered scale, i.e. 19 equal temperament, but I chose instead to use a scale that is very similar to this, also with 19 tones, but derived from “seven limit” just intonation. The difference between this scale and 19 equal is minuscule, but at the time I was infatuated with the idea that I could choose between these various exoticisms.” – J. Pehrson Additional information on the tuning in "Tuning Lab": http://www.soundclick.com/bands/5/tuninglabmusic.htm Score and parts available through Seesaw Music, c/o Subito Music Corp., 60 Depot St., Verona, NJ 07044, 973-857-3440. www.subitomusic.com.
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