A New Dissonance

Ben Johnston Premieres Concert

Jon Roy — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:38:54 +0000

As part of Microfest there will be an evening of Ben Johnston’s music at 7:30 PM, April 25th at Chapman University in Orange, California. The concert will feature a premiere of Johnston’s “Parable”, plus the Los Angeles premiere of the String Quartet #10 performed by San Francisco’s Del Sol Quartet. Also, John Schneider’s performance of The Tavern for microtonal guitar and voice and the bluesy, rollicking Suite for Microtonal Piano performed by Aron Kallay.

Harry Partch’s 12 Intrusions

Jon Roy — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:48:58 +0000

Harry Partch discusses receiving notariety using a scale of 43 separate tones and original instruments with references to his “Genesis of a Music.” There is a brief introduction to “Twelve Intrusions,” this recording which is played by five musicians under Partch’s direction. The pieces are: Study in an Ancient Phrygian Scale, Study in the Ancient Greek Enharmonic Scale, The Rose, The Crane, The Wind, The Waterfall, The Letter, The Street, Vanity, Lover, Soldiers/War/Another War, and Chamber Music. Plectra & Percussion Dances is the final piece and includes three sections: Castor and Pollux, Ring Around the Moon, and Even Wild Horses.

Musical Selections: Study in an Ancient Phrygian Scale — Study in the Ancient Greek Enharmonic Scale — The Rose [text by Ella Young] (1942) — The Crane (1945) — The Wind [texts by Ella Young & Lao-Tze] — The Waterfall [text by Ella Young] (1946-50) — The Letter (1943) — The Street [text by Willard Motley] (1946-50) — Vanity [text by Giuseppe Ungaretti] (1946-50) — Lover [text by George Leite] (1946-50) — Soldiers/War/Another War [text by Giuseppe Ungaretti] (1946-50) — Plectra & Percussion Dances: Castor and Pollux (1952) ; Ring Around the Moon (1952-53) ; Even Wild Horses [text by Arthur Rimbaud] (1949-53)

Performed by Gate Five Ensemble and conducted by Horace Schwartz. First broadcast over KPFA May 1, 1956.
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Vote for Kepler Quartet / Ben Johnston’s: String quartets 1, 5, 10, for BBC Music Magazine Chamber Music Album of the Year

Jon Roy — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:57:11 +0000

Cast your Vote for the Kepler Quartet’s recording of Ben Johnston’s: String quartets 1, 5, 10, for the BBC Music Magazine Chamber Music Album of the Year.

It’s a great honor to be nominated, but help them win for their hard work on this amazing album!

Vote here.
Hurry! Voting ends 29 February 2012.

New Twitter Feed

Jon Roy — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:24:56 +0000

Keep up with New Dissonance on Twitter: @NewDissonance HERE

Follow Ben Johnston news, performances, clips, etc., as well as other happenings from the New Music world.

Ben Johnston: From Helmholtz to Harry Partch

Jon Roy — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:13:02 +0000

A video I prepared for Ben’s lecture at Eastman last year:

2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year…

Jon Roy — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:09:00 +0000

Lots to look forward to this year: Premieres of Ben Johnston’s music, an exciting (unreleased) schedule at Microfest, new videos and recordings, lots of John Cage centenary celebrations/performances, and the Kepler Quartet rehearsing and recording the last in the cycle of Ben’s string quartets, Nos. 6, 7, 8.

Leigh Cross and his Proportional Pitch Keyboard

Jon Roy — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:50:03 +0000

Leigh Cross is a music enthusiast, scholar, and instrument builder whom Ben and I had the pleasure of meeting last year at a colloquium at Wright State. Leigh has designed and built a proportional pitch keyboard based on Ben Johnston’s fifty-three note, expanded just intonation scale as described in Ben’s paper, Scalar Order as a Compositional Resource (which can be found in his book Maximum Clarity). I had the pleasure of meeting up with Leigh again recently in his workshop in Vancouver, where I shot this video of Leigh explaining the keyboard.

Leigh is making this an open source project, as the keyboard needs development with the help of electricians, programmers, etc. If you would like to contact Leigh, please write to info[at] newdissonance.com and all inquiries will be passed along.

Promo video for new Kepler CD

Jon Roy — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:24:28 +0000

NY Times review of String Quartets nos. 1, 5, and 10

Jon Roy — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 06:15:07 +0000

Here is Steve Smith’s flattering New York Times review of the new recordings by the Kepler Quartet of Ben Johnston’s String Quartets Nos. 1, 5, and 10.

First Reviews are in for Ben Johnston’s String Quartets Nos. 1, 5, and 10

Jon Roy — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:29:10 +0000

And they are quite positive:

Frank Oteri’s piece for New Music Box can be found here.

Another review from the blogosphere is here.