The Huygens-Fokker Foundation () is a "centre for
microtonal music
Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of tw ...
" founded on February 15, 1960, housed in the
Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ
Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (English language, English: "Music Building on the IJ") is the main concert hall for contemporary classical music on the IJ (Amsterdam), IJ in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The building opened in 2005 and is located above the IJt ...
(Amsterdam, Netherlands), and named for
Christiaan Huygens
Christiaan Huygens, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , , ; also spelled Huyghens; la, Hugenius; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor, who is regarded as one of the greatest scientists of ...
and
Adriaan Fokker
Adriaan Daniël Fokker (; 17 August 1887 – 24 September 1972) was a Dutch physicist. He worked in the fields of special relativity and statistical mechanics. He was the inventor of the Fokker organ, a 31-tone equal-tempered (31-TET) organ. ...
(inventor of
31 equal temperament
In music, 31 equal temperament, 31-ET, which can also be abbreviated 31-TET (31 tone ET) or 31- EDO (equal division of the octave), also known as tricesimoprimal, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 31 equal-sized steps (equ ...
and creator of the
Fokker organ). The Foundation's library possesses a large archive of correspondence, scores, books, and other publications. The Foundation presents frequent concerts (originally in
Teylers Museum
Teylers Museum () is an art, natural history, and science museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. Established in 1778, Teylers Museum was founded as a centre for contemporary art and science. The historic centre of the museum is the neoclassical Oval R ...
) presenting contemporary, early, popular, and improvised microtonal music. They maintain contact with other organizations dedicated to microtonality including
Tonalsoft, the
Harry Partch Institute, the
Logos Foundation
The Logos Foundation is a professional artistic organisation founded in 1968. It focuses on the promotion of Contemporary classical music, new musics and audio related arts by means of new music production, concerts, performances, composition, tec ...
, and individuals such as
Kyle Gann
Kyle Eugene Gann (born November 21, 1955, in Dallas, Texas) is an American professor of music, critic, analyst, and composer who has worked primarily in the New York City area. As a music critic for ''The Village Voice'' (from 1986 to 2005) and ...
. They published the journal ''Thirty-One'' and presented MicroFest Amsterdam 2011. They house the 31-tone Fokker organ with new MIDI-connections in the BAM Hall. The current director is
Sander Germanus.
See also
*Carrillo-piano
*Euler-organ
*Acoustical Society of the Netherlands ()
*Dutch Microtonal Society ()
External links
*Official link fo
Huygens-Fokker Foundation
{{music-org-stub
Microtonality
Music organisations based in the Netherlands
Organisations based in Amsterdam
Christiaan Huygens