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~Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. microtonal Music Musical Technique

Heptadecaphilia

I have put together a retrospective album of 20 seventeen note per octave pieces called “Heptadecaphilia”. This includes one, Mars News at 17 ET which was no longer available online. I graciously acknowledge the contributions of Norm Harris, The TwoRegs, William Newbold, Evan Harrington, CA Conrad, and Gene Ward Smith.

The album can be downloaded from this address http://micro.soonlabel.com/0-hosted-albums/chris_vaisvil/heptadecaphilia/heptadecaphilia.zip

Or you can download just the PDF guide with graphics and links to videos http://micro.soonlabel.com/0-hosted-albums/chris_vaisvil/heptadecaphilia/Heptadecaphilia.pdf and play the music in order below:

17 ET Jazz
17 Pink Tuxedos
CT Scan
On the Shores of the Dead Sea
Devil In the Deep Blue Sea
A Cast of Billions
A Fish and a Grenade
Only in Disneyland
17 Reasons I Hate the Blues
Godzareh Depression
A Parking Lot Thought in 17
Klingon Opera Overture
I Gave up Thinking for Better Things
Semimarvelous Blue Dwarf
Piano Study in 17 ET
The Pond
seventeen selfless notes
Mars News at 17 ET
seventeen years in the sixties

One reply on “Heptadecaphilia”

Well, I’m not Greek, but I think “Heptadecaphilia” means “to love 17”.

Quite an impressive collection of “17 equal tones per octave” songs (20!).

If one wants to immerse themselves in an environment of tonality that is in stark contrast to the conventional “12 tones per octave” standard that has dominated human ears since the 17th century, this a great collection to explore.

It takes a bit of courage to give microtonal music a shot – at times it sounds blasphemous and dizzyingly disorientating to me. Stretching the definition of the established custom probably always feels like that.

The surprise is how quickly my ear adapts to it but it takes a bit of immersion for me to get to that point.

Strong work, Chris. I philia it.

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