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

The Angels of Minamisoma

Minamisoma was a city in Japan that was destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami of 3/11/2011.

I composed “The Angels of Minamisoma” back on March 15th 2011 with the idea that suddenly the population of the city died and didn’t quite realize that they had become angels. This written for the Vox Novus Composer’s Voice series and was not selected. The call for scores gave a choice of percussion instruments paired with flute. I chose a vibraphone as being one that suited the picture I was trying to paint – spooky, a bit light hearted yet sad.

As for the composition itself it is written in free tonality that is driven by melodic and harmonic tendencies that I heard / imagined while composing. Of course your mileage may vary. The piece is realized in Garritan Personal Orchestra. I used the occasion of releasing this piece of music as an opportunity to compare tunings; 12 equal, 12 note Blue Just Intonation, Pythagorean Just Intonation, and Marvelous dwarf 1/4 kleismic tempered duodene.

The score for the piece

The piece in “normal” 12 equal tuning
Scala text file for 12 equal

The piece in John O’Sullvan’s Blue Just Intonation tuning.
Scala text file for Blue Just Intonation

The piece in Pythagorean Just Intonation tuning.
Scala text file for Phythagorean

The piece in Gene Ward Smith’s Marvelous dwarf 1/4 kleismic tempered duodene.
Scala text file for Marvelous dwarf 1/4 kleismic tempered duodene tuning.

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