Cairns (2022)

Score

Special requirements for concert programming and instrument:

A grand piano.
10-15 minutes to detune the instrument, and a little shorter for retuning afterwards.
No prepared piano or inside-playing.

Use of microtonal techniques

Unison string course scordatura

×

　　　　　　　
Fig. 1

Sound example

The work requires 10 detuned pitches (fig. 1).:
The strings of the 10 keys shown to the left, are to be lowered by a quartertone, as shown to the right.

A Comment:
As in 'Rawgabbiting', Ness certianly makes use of his piano microtones. They are essential both to the quartertone trills, the narrow/streched octaves, to his complex harmonies – whether 'clumsy' or captivating, and much more.

Here (see sound example to the right) is a sound extract (from bar 159 in the score) where every note of a repeated pentaton scale is a written-out ‘acciaccatura’, always starting from the quartertone below, which makes all the notes of the scale sound like tiny glissandi. It may be noted that the piano is not doubled by any other instrument.

Click here to find another sound extract demonstrating the scordatura in Cairns.

Several aspects of the process are thoroughly described in the Mycloperspective.: