Intonation Workshop I

Course open to Music School students only.
Let's make use of the results of acoustical
research concerning the various phenomena
constituting the timbre of tuned compound sounds
(as first described in 1863 by the physicist
Hermann von Helmholtz in his historic book 'On
the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis
for the Theory of Music'), of Harry Partch's
'language of frequency ratios' ('Genesis of a
Music') and of James Tenney's concept of harmonic
space ('John Cage and the Theory of Harmony')!
This experimental hands-on tuning workshop with
instrumental and computer sounds (with students
playing their instruments) will set out to expand
the ear's analytical hearing capabilities
(training the awareness of partial unisonos,
difference tones, and beats) and explore the
sonorities of microtonal just intonation, methods
for refining instrumental tuning and ensemble
playing techniques, and possibilities for their
musical application. The course will offer a
review of the complete curriculum for the theory
of harmony (with a focus on just intonation and
its microtonal implications) and an overview of
the history of intonation in Western music.