The Two Random Microtonal Studies were initially written as part of the piece Whispers, but I decided they didn't fit into that context very well. The first is a moto perpetuo "wedge study," starting with a minor third, moving quarter-tone-like (though in just intonation) to a major third that encompasses it, then to a perfect fourth wider than that on each side, and so on up to a major sixth - first linearly, then in the second half moving around in various permutations. The second is an attempt to build a form around a series of repeating images, somewhat like Cage's 1950 String Quartet. The images move within and among scales built on the first, fifth, seventh, eleventh, and thirteenth harmonics. I'm not all that impressed with them, frankly, but each does something that I wanted to hear, and they seemed too interesting to discard. We still have Beethoven's Wellington's Victory, and his music has survived, so perhaps these will be of some interest to someone.

Score (PDF)
Recordings: No. 1; No. 2

- Kyle Gann

Return to List of Compositions

return to the home page