Note（待翻译）

http://www.anniegosfield.com/ivory.html

NOTES ON THE CD

The title Burnt Ivory and Loose Wires was inspired by the image of a ruined piano and slack strings. This group of pieces emphasizes altered and detuned instruments: piano sounds have been prepared, sampled, detuned and manipulated, stringed instruments have been retuned, and saxophones slide to micro-intervals. The work uses both traditional and non-traditional techniques: detuned instruments are contrasted with equal-tempered instruments, and notated scores incorporate improvisation. Although digital sampling is used extensively, everything was performed live (no sequencers) and most of the pieces were recorded live without overdubs.

My fascination with detuned sounds started when I was 14 on a riverboat in New Orleans; the sheer power of a wildly out of tune calliope blasting out Basin Street Blues and Way Down Yonder in New Orleans gave those old standards a new life for me. The same can be said for a brass band in Oaxaca, and for a guitarist named Wichita picking an out of tune version of Wildwood Flower at the Johnny Mack Brown High School, tempering sentimental cliches with a richness only achieved by beating pitches and wild card tunings.

That pieces that incorporate detuned instruments use scales and tunings composed more by ear and random elements than strict microtonal systems. Generally, in the case of acoustic instruments, the tuning has a life of its own, and each individual instrument’s “calamitonality” will become more pronounced by the end of the piece.

This project was produced in part at Harvestworks/Studio PASS through the artist-in-residence program. Brawl was funded in part by the Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Program of the American Music Center.