Microtonal Restraint

Forkert, Annika (2018) Microtonal Restraint. Journal of the Royal Musical Association. (Accepted for Publication)

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Abstract

This article proposes that the beginnings of twentieth-century microtonal music and thinking were shaped more by restraint in composers’ thinking, rather than by a full embrace of the principle ‘progress for progress’s sake’. Pioneering microtonal composers like Ferrucio Busoni, Charles Ives, Alois Hába, John Foulds, Richard Stein, and Julián Carrillo constitute an international group of breakaway modernists, whose music and writings suggest four tropes characterising this first-generation microtonal music: rediscovery of a microtonal past, preservation of tonality, refinement of tonality, and restraint itself. The article traces these tropes of early-twentieth century microtonal experiment in works by Ives, Carrillo, Hába, Foulds, and Stein with reference to writings and music by Karol Szymanowski, Nikolay Kul’bin, Ivan Vyschnegradsky, and Harry Partch. It adds to the growing scholarship about early-twentieth century tonally based aesthetics and techniques and broadens perspectives of the history of twentieth-century microtonal music.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	“This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of the Royal Musical Association on [date of publication TBC], available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/[Article DOI, TBC].”
Keywords:	microtone quarter-tone modernism Charles Ives Ferruccio Busoni Alois Hába John Foulds Richard Stein Julián Carrillo
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Creative Arts & Humanities > School of Creative and Performing Arts
Depositing User:	Annika Forkert
Date Deposited:	30 Oct 2018 11:16
Last Modified:	30 Oct 2018 11:16
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/2568

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