Barstow Bagatelle

Composer: 
Tom Flaherty
Scoring: 
retuned, remapped keyboard
Year Authored: 
2012
Publisher: 
ACA
Publisher URL: 
American Composers Alliance

Ensemble Type

Instruments

Barstow Bagatelle makes use of the tuning system devised by Harry Partch and used in the guitar part of his "Barstow." The 19 notes per octave is a non-symmetrical subset of his 43-tone scale. Some adjacent notes are just about a "half-step" apart, in 12-tone equal tempered tuning. In other parts of the scale it may take 4 adjacent notes to span the same interval. The harmonic possibilities range from stunningly pure consonance to excruciating dissonance, and Barstow Bagatelle uses most of that range.

I am a relative newcomer to the world of microtonal composition, but I do have visceral early memories of tuning issues. Popular songs in the 50s and 60s would occasionally shift a tiny fraction of a half step, due to splicing two sessions that were recorded at different speeds, perhaps. The extraordinarily dizzying sensation of those moments made me wonder as a child whether they were deliberate key changes or accidents. Barstow Bagatelle begins with exactly that unsettling question and proceeds to explore many tonal centers, each with its own flavor.

Barstow Bagatelle is dedicated to Aron Kallay, master of the keyboard, whatever tuning system.