Whispers by Kyle Gann

I've always thought that minimalism and microtonality were made for each other. Minimalism gives microtonality room to breathe and be aurally understood at leisure; microtonality (just intonation) softens the harsh acoustic edge of minimalism's simple harmonies. I wanted to write a series of deliberately unambitious pieces to showcase various tuning concepts, mere breaths of microtonal ideas - and so I call them Whispers. They are naturally limited by the fact that I wanted them to be playable on a 61-key MIDI keyboard, and yet each employs twenty to thirty or more different pitches per piece. These pieces are postminimalist, however, rather than minimalist, because they follow no strict process, but operate freely within circumscribed worlds.

Each movement has a different tuning. No. 1 features, in simpler form, an idea from my The Insomnia of Lilacs: perfects fifths moving from minor to major along a hyperchromatic scale. (Hyperhromatic means that the melodic steps are significantly smaller than half-steps.) No. 2 is a languid waltz oscillating between hyperchromatic movement within a B-flat 7 chord and diatonic movement on the A-flat tonic. No. 3 traces a chain of perfect 5ths up and down the scale just-tuned thirds, so that the high-register 5ths are out of tune with the low-register ones, all within a five-limit system. No. 4 is my first foray beyond 13-limit tuning, focusing on the 23rd harmonic - a slightly sharp tritone. No. 5 simply weaves a non-repeating tune high above the 1st, 7th, and 13th harmonics. No. 6 is a spare four-voice chorale, though it does use 37 different pitches; I wrote the hyperchromatic melody, and the strange voice-leading results from the harmonizing chords. And No. 7 is a tango moving among three incommensurate tonalities related via the 13th subharmonic. The pieces are played by David Sytkowski, and the sound design is by Matt Sargent. Aside from whatever intrinsic merit Whispers might have, the piece strikes me as a non-threatening introduction to microtonality for the beginning student or listener who may be squeamish about departing from the usual pitches.

As you'll understand when you listen to them, I dedicate these pieces to the late, fantastic composer Harold Budd, whose calm, beautiful music has been a source of inspiration for me for over forty years.

Kyle Gann (b. 1955 in Dallas, Texas) is a composer and the author of seven books on American music, including books on microtonality, Charles Ives's Concord Sonata, John Cage's 4'33", Conlon Nancarrow, and Robert Ashley. He studied composition with Ben Johnston, Morton Feldman, and Peter Gena.