The Well-Tuned Piano
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The Well-Tuned Piano
''The Well-Tuned Piano'' is an ongoing, improvisatory, solo piano work by composer La Monte Young. Begun in 1964, Young has never considered the composition or performance "finished", and he has performed incarnations of it several times since its debut in 1974. The composition utilizes a piano tuned in just intonation. A typical performance lasts five to six hours. Young's wife, the artist Marian Zazeela, has contributed the lighting work ''The Magenta Lights'' to these performances. A 1987 performance of the piece was released on DVD in 2000. ''The Guardian'' described it as "one of the great achievements of 20th-century music." Inspiration and influence Young gives credit to Dennis Johnson, a former schoolmate and composer from UCLA, for inspiring ''The Well-Tuned Piano''. Johnson wrote an extensive, improvisatory, solo piano piece titled ''November'' in 1959, a few years before Young began working on ''The Well-Tuned Piano''. Although the piece is said to be as long as six ...
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The Well Tuned Piano Dvd
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a v ...
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Perfect Fifth
In music theory, a perfect fifth is the Interval (music), musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitch (music), pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so. In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval from the first to the last of five consecutive Musical note, notes in a diatonic scale. The perfect fifth (often abbreviated P5) spans seven semitones, while the Tritone, diminished fifth spans six and the augmented fifth spans eight semitones. For example, the interval from C to G is a perfect fifth, as the note G lies seven semitones above C. The perfect fifth may be derived from the Harmonic series (music), harmonic series as the interval between the second and third harmonics. In a diatonic scale, the dominant (music), dominant note is a perfect fifth above the tonic (music), tonic note. The perfect fifth is more consonance and dissonance, consonant, or stable, than any other interval except the unison and the octave. It occurs above the ...
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Lattice (music)
In musical tuning, a lattice "is a way of modeling the tuning relationships of a just intonation system. It is an array of points in a periodic multidimensional pattern. Each point on the lattice corresponds to a ratio (i.e., a pitch, or an interval with respect to some other point on the lattice). The lattice can be two-, three-, or ''n''-dimensional, with each dimension corresponding to a different prime-number partial ."Gilmore, Bob (2006). "Introduction", p.xviii, ''"Maximum Clarity" and Other Writings on Music'', edited by Bob Gilmore. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. . When listed in a spreadsheet a lattice may be referred to as a tuning table. The points in a lattice represent pitch classes (or pitches if octaves are represented), and the connectors in a lattice represent the intervals between them. The connecting lines in a lattice display intervals as vectors, so that a line of the same length and angle always has the same intervalic relationship between the point ...
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Rational Number
In mathematics, a rational number is a number that can be expressed as the quotient or fraction of two integers, a numerator and a non-zero denominator . For example, is a rational number, as is every integer (e.g. ). The set of all rational numbers, also referred to as "the rationals", the field of rationals or the field of rational numbers is usually denoted by boldface , or blackboard bold \mathbb. A rational number is a real number. The real numbers that are rational are those whose decimal expansion either terminates after a finite number of digits (example: ), or eventually begins to repeat the same finite sequence of digits over and over (example: ). This statement is true not only in base 10, but also in every other integer base, such as the binary and hexadecimal ones (see ). A real number that is not rational is called irrational. Irrational numbers include , , , and . Since the set of rational numbers is countable, and the set of real numbers is uncountable ...
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Undertone Series
In music, the undertone series or subharmonic series is a sequence of notes that results from inverting the intervals of the overtone series. While overtones naturally occur with the physical production of music on instruments, undertones must be produced in unusual ways. While the overtone series is based upon arithmetic multiplication of frequencies, resulting in a harmonic series, the undertone series is based on arithmetic division. Nattiez shows the undertone series on E, as Riemann (''Handbuch der Harmonielehre'', 10th ed., 1929, p. 4) and D'Indy (''Cours de composition musicale'', vol. I, 1912, p. 100) had done. Terminology The hybrid term ''subharmonic'' is used in music in a few different ways. In its pure sense, the term ''subharmonic'' refers strictly to any member of the subharmonic series (, , , , etc.). When the subharmonic series is used to refer to frequency relationships, it is written with f representing some highest known reference frequency (, , , , etc. ...
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Overtone Series
A harmonic series (also overtone series) is the sequence of harmonics, musical tones, or pure tones whose frequency is an integer multiple of a ''fundamental frequency''. Pitched musical instruments are often based on an acoustic resonator such as a string or a column of air, which oscillates at numerous modes simultaneously. At the frequencies of each vibrating mode, waves travel in both directions along the string or air column, reinforcing and canceling each other to form standing waves. Interaction with the surrounding air causes audible sound waves, which travel away from the instrument. Because of the typical spacing of the resonances, these frequencies are mostly limited to integer multiples, or harmonics, of the lowest frequency, and such multiples form the harmonic series. The musical pitch of a note is usually perceived as the lowest partial present (the fundamental frequency), which may be the one created by vibration over the full length of the string or air co ...
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7-limit Tuning
7-limit or septimal tunings and intervals are musical instrument tunings that have a limit of seven: the largest prime factor contained in the interval ratios between pitches is seven. Thus, for example, 50:49 is a 7-limit interval, but 14:11 is not. For example, the greater just minor seventh, 9:5 () is a 5-limit ratio, the harmonic seventh has the ratio 7:4 and is thus a septimal interval. Similarly, the septimal chromatic semitone, 21:20, is a septimal interval as 21÷7=3. The harmonic seventh is used in the barbershop seventh chord and music. () Compositions with septimal tunings include La Monte Young's ''The Well-Tuned Piano'', Ben Johnston's String Quartet No. 4, Lou Harrison's ''Incidental Music for Corneille's Cinna'', and Michael Harrison's ''Revelation: Music in Pure Intonation''. The Great Highland bagpipe is tuned to a ten-note seven-limit scale: 1:1, 9:8, 5:4, 4:3, 27:20, 3:2, 5:3, 7:4, 16:9, 9:5. In the 2nd century Ptolemy described the septimal ...
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Fundamental Frequency
The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the ''fundamental'', is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In music, the fundamental is the musical pitch of a note that is perceived as the lowest partial present. In terms of a superposition of sinusoids, the fundamental frequency is the lowest frequency sinusoidal in the sum of harmonically related frequencies, or the frequency of the difference between adjacent frequencies. In some contexts, the fundamental is usually abbreviated as 0, indicating the lowest frequency counting from zero. In other contexts, it is more common to abbreviate it as 1, the first harmonic. (The second harmonic is then 2 = 2⋅1, etc. In this context, the zeroth harmonic would be 0  Hz.) According to Benward's and Saker's ''Music: In Theory and Practice'': Explanation All sinusoidal and many non-sinusoidal waveforms repeat exactly over time – they are periodic. The period of a waveform is the smallest value of ...
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Harmonic Series (music)
A harmonic series (also overtone series) is the sequence of harmonics, musical tones, or pure tones whose frequency is an integer multiple of a ''fundamental frequency''. Pitched musical instruments are often based on an acoustic resonator such as a string or a column of air, which oscillates at numerous modes simultaneously. At the frequencies of each vibrating mode, waves travel in both directions along the string or air column, reinforcing and canceling each other to form standing waves. Interaction with the surrounding air causes audible sound waves, which travel away from the instrument. Because of the typical spacing of the resonances, these frequencies are mostly limited to integer multiples, or harmonics, of the lowest frequency, and such multiples form the harmonic series. The musical pitch of a note is usually perceived as the lowest partial present (the fundamental frequency), which may be the one created by vibration over the full length of the string or air co ...
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Imperial Bösendorfer
The Bösendorfer Model 290 Imperial, or Imperial Bösendorfer (also colloquially known as the 290) is the largest model and flagship piano manufactured by Bösendorfer, at around long, wide, and weighing . It has an eight-octave range from C0 to C8. For 90 years it was the only concert grand piano in the world with 97 keys, until it was joined in 1990 by the instruments of Stuart & Sons of Australia. Music critic Melinda Bargreen has described the Imperial as the ''ne plus ultra'' of pianos, while pianist Garrick Ohlsson dubbed it the "Rolls-Royce of pianos".Wise, Michael Z. (May 9, 2004)"Piano Versus Piano" ''The New York Times''. Retrieved March 23, 2008. Extra keys Bösendorfer built the first Imperial in 1909, following a suggestion by composer Ferruccio Busoni to build a model with an extended range. Busoni sought to extend the range to accommodate his transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ works. In order to emulate the 32 foot registers available on some large o ...
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Magic Chord MIDI
Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrelated events are causally connected, particularly as a result of supernatural effects * Magic (illusion), the art of appearing to perform supernatural feats Magic(k) may also refer to: Art and entertainment Film and television * ''Magic'' (1917 film), a silent Hungarian drama * ''Magic'' (1978 film), an American horror film * ''Magic'' (soap opera), 2013 Indonesian soap opera * Magic (TV channel), a British music television station Literature * Magic in fiction, the genre of fiction that uses supernatural elements as a theme * ''Magic'' (Chesterton play), 1913 * ''Magic'' (short story collection), 1996 short story collection by Isaac Asimov * ''Magic'' (novel), 1976 novel by William Goldman * ''The Magic Comic'', a 1939–1 ...
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Magic Chord
The Magic Chord is a chord and installation (1984) created by La Monte Young, consisting of the pitches E, F, A, B, D, E, G, and A, in ascending order and used in works including his ''The Well-Tuned Piano'' and ''Chronos Kristalla'' (1990).Grimshaw, Jeremy (2011). ''Draw A Straight Line and Follow It: The Music and Mysticism of La Monte Young'', p. 176. . The latter was performed by the Kronos Quartet and features all notes of the magic chord as harmonics on open strings. The quartet has been described as, "offer ngperhaps the ultimate challenge in performing in a just environment". Described as, "complex and throbbing", the chord does not contain its fundamental (see root chords), E, and is a subset of the ''Romantic Chord'', G- Dorian in eight octaves, spelled G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. "When the ''Magic Opening Chord'' is obtained by playing the ''Opening Chord'' at one end of a room while the ''Magic Chord'' is played at the other (as Young set it up for me), the feeling-ch ...
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