This piece is loosely based on a korvai that BC Manjunath taught in the 2020 International Rhythm Course. The left hand is consistently a 5-beat pattern, while the right hand is doing its own thing.
The tuning is The Janus Scale, the same 11-limit tuning from Paul Johnson that I used for my last piece, Floating, but this piece is centered a tritone away on B-flat instead of E. Since it's called The Janus Scale, I wanted to write a contrasting piece to pair with Floating.
Floating - Stacy Fahrion (7-limit subset of 11-limit tuning)
Floating uses Paul Johnson's 11-limit Janus lattice, but I didn't play any of the 11-limit notes. It's in E Phrygian/mostly E minor pentatonic, and the left hand pattern is 11 beats long throughout. The right hand begins with 2 against 3, then 3 against 4, then 4 against 5, and after a slightly contrasting section, returns the way it came.
Thanks for listening to my tuning explorations, and thanks to my teachers, Jacob Adler and Michael Harrison, for being such lovely and inspiring humans and musicians.
Recorded on Modartt Pianoteq Steinway D/Nord Piano.
Exuberance - Stacy Fahrion
"Exuberance is beauty." ~William Blake (one of the more perplexing phrases from Proverbs of Hell)
A few days ago, I programmed Michael Harrison's 7-limit Revelation tuning into Pianoteq, and I feel like I could spend years just experimenting with this particular tuning. I began by playing excerpts of his gorgeous, mind-blowing piece, Revelation, and then veered off into improvising with the tuning a bit. This is the first thing I came up with, and Michael Harrison's tuning is really what makes it sound cool. At the very least, it's fun to play.
Find out more about Michael Harrison and his music here: https://www.michaelharrison.com/
Connect with Whimsically Macabre on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WhimsicallyMacabreMusic/
Whimsically Macabre Sheet music, including my recent book, Polyrhythms for Pianists: https://pianopronto.com/composers-community/stacy-fahrion/
Whimsically Macabre recordings: https://whimsicallymacabre.bandcamp.com/
(Watch for my album, Polyrhythmic Pieces for Piano,
coming very soon!)
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