"Maximum Clarity" and Other Writings on MusicDescribed by New York Times critic John Rockwell as "one of the best non-famous composers this country has to offer," Ben Johnston reconceives familiar idioms--ranging from neoclassicism and serialism to jazz and southern hymnody--using just intonation. Johnston studied with Darius Milhaud, Harry Partch, and John Cage, and is best known for his String Quartet No. 4, a complex series of variations on Amazing Grace. This collection spans forty years and brings together forty-one of Johnston's most important writings, including many rare and several previously unpublished selections. They include position papers, theoretical treatises, program notes, historical reflections, lectures, excerpts from interviews, and letters, and they cover a broad spectrum of concerns--from the technical exegesis of microtonality to the personal and the broadly humanistic. A discography of commercially available recordings of Johnston's music closes out the collection. |
Contents
II ON MUSICAL AESTHETICS AND CULTURE | 89 |
III SOME COMPOSITIONS | 181 |
IV ON OTHER COMPOSERS | 209 |
Notes on Sources | 259 |
| 263 | |
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acoustical adjacency ratios aesthetic American analogous artistic audience avant-garde basic Ben Johnston Carmilla chord chromatic chromatic scale complex composers composition consonance consonance and dissonance contemporary music context culture cycles cyclic derived diatonic diatonic scale dissonance duration electronic emotional ensemble equal temperament equal-tempered European extended just intonation Festival FIGURE harmonic Harry Partch instruments interest intervals John Cage Johnston keyboard kind La Monte Young lattice listener major third mathematical means melodic metrical Microtonal Piano minor Monte Young movement music theory musicians notation notes octave orchestra organization overtone series patterns perception perfect fifth perfect fourth performance pitch relations pitch system play possible practice prime number problem proportional Pythagorean ratio scale Records relationships result rhythm rhythmic scalar order Schoenberg serial Sonata sound String Quartet style symbol syntonic comma tape techniques tempo tion tonal tone tonic tradition triad triadic tuning twelve-tone twentieth century University of Illinois vibration Western music