Distances

Distances is a piece for two retuned pianos dedicated to Fred Lerdahl.

The idea behind this piece was to apply some of Fred’s ideas regarding tonal pitch space and modeling tonal tension in a just intonation framework. The two pianos are retuned as shown below:

These piano tunings reflect complimentary dimensions in the pitch lattice provided here:

While Fred’s compositional and theoretical work has not yet explored microtonality, he has expressed an interest in expanding in this direction. The ideas from Fred’s books and articles can be extended into a microtonal pitch system in fascinating ways and I hope that this work begins to unravel some of these implications and reveal some of these possibilities. While the general idea of hierarchical structures in the rhythmic domain is implemented non-systematically, the idea of pitch distance and tonal tension were the central interests during the composition of Distances.

My deepest gratitude goes out to Fred for his unwavering support and guidance throughout my doctoral studies and beyond.