source file: mills2.txt Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 13:21:40 -0800 Subject: Microtonal concert in Toronto From: non12@delta1.deltanet.com (John Chalmers) During a recent visit to the music department at SUNY, Buffalo, I attended a concert of microtonal music in Toronto with Paul Rapoport, Gayle Young, (the editor of Musicworks), her husband Reiner (a sculptor), and John Cuciurean, a graduate student of John Clough's. The performance was by "Critical Band," a group lead by John Gzowski (pronounced Zosky) that plays homebuilt instruments in 19 and 31-tets as well as using the harmonic series and empirical pitches. John Gzowski's principal instrument was constructed as a longish and rather wide fingerboard strung with 10 strings and fretted for 31-tet. It was electrified and rested on stand coupled to a space-frame with another 40 or so resonating sympathetic strings. John also played an 19-tet electric guitar. He said that he had used fretting kits purchased from Mark Rankin to construct these instruments. Other novel instruments included a rotationally symmetrical Kalimba (Cylimba?) played by plucking or bowing metal tongues, and two instruments made from large dowels marked for the harmonic series and strung with about a half-dozen metal strings. They might be described as electric tube zithers, though they were mostly bowed as I remember. There was also a self-excited, free-form soundboard (called the Clusterflux, which was strung with a large number of metal strings, studded with magnets and pickups, and electrified. The current flowing through the strings heats them, causing them to change pitch. After it had played by itself for a few minutes, Marc and a clarinetist joined in playing harmonic series on various fundamentals. Supplementing this armamentarium was a battery of found metal objects, large clay pots, and sound sculptures such as a pair of electrified hedge shears, which were played with great verve and concentration by another member of the ensemble. Another instrument appeared to be part of an automobile exhaust system with attached wires. The performers included the violinist Marc Sabat, a clarinetist, and two other musicians. Unfortunately, I did not get their names or the names of all of the instruments as there were no programs and I forgot to take notes. Marc Sabat subscribes to this List, so perhaps he will post more information and correct any errors I have made. The music tended to be rather dense, sometimes obscuring the character of the non-12 tunings. This might suggest that timbre rather than pitch relations is Gzowski's primary interest at this time. A duet, however, by Marc and John for violin and 19-tet guitar was lovely. I would certainly like to hear more from Critical Band. It's a pity that Toronto is so far away from California, they'd be ideal for the Sonic Arts Gallery and similar West Coast venues. --John Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Fri, 1 Mar 1996 22:42 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id NAA13464; Fri, 1 Mar 1996 13:42:02 -0800 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 13:42:02 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu