Mean Tone
Oliver Searle
Mean Tone – when pitch goes bad
For solo alto or bass flute
In July 2008, I was standing at the top of the Duomo, looking at the Renaissance architecture of Florence and trying to work out how any composer could get any work done here. Does any of this inspire me artistically? Should it?
What relationship do I have with this beautiful environment, or to the timeless works of art that were created here? Do I have anything in common with the pieces of classical music written in such a historical place, or the composers who wrote them? Should I?
Based on this personal quandary (and perhaps a touch of Stendhal Syndrome – the psychosomatic condition caused by an overload of art), I wrote this piece, using a very stretched-out Phrygian cadence. It gets stuck on the first 4 notes (a 3rd inversion dominant 7th chord), with adverse, quarter-tone tunings as melodic and timbral inflections infiltrate its harmonic function, disrupt its direction and attempt to destroy its beauty.
Instrumentation Genre Solo instrument
Tag solo
Duration 8 minutes
Instrumentation Alto flute [1 player]
Publisher Tetractys _
Performances of this work
Date | Venue | Performer | Link |
Upcoming events
- 03 Jun 2022, 11:00
[Covfefe: online coffee chat for composers & musicians] - 05 Jun 2022, 10:00
[Open Score Club - Gardenscape] - 08 Jun 2022, 14:30
[A CELEBRATION OF MARTYN BRABBINS – EMERGING COMPOSERS] - 08 Jun 2022, 20:00
[Sound Thought x GLEAM Concert - Darren Gallacher & Failed System Test] - 11 Jun 2022, 19:30
[Hebrides Ensemble x Drake Music Scotland: Hidden Door 2022]
Recent updates
Works
Events
- World premiere recording of "The Present", by James MacMillan
- New music listening club
- Sound Thought x GLEAM Concert - Darren Gallacher & Failed System Test
Projects
- Figurenotes Software and Resource Hub Lunch
- Album 200m: Ambient Music in a 9v World by casiomtb released
- New Recording: 'Ursa Minor' - chamber music of Stuart MacRae