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Well Tuned Piano

646 Words3 Pages

The Well Tuned Piano is a piece for solo piano and the entire duration of the work is 6 and a half hours. The music is composed of Just Intonation and is improvised by the composer La Monte Young. The composer also performs himself. During the song, the modern concert grand piano is played in just intonation pure toning. The sounds are completely controlled, and the composer exploits the constitution of pitch. In the beginning of the song, the low toned notes are played powerfully. The notes continue naturally and the flow is uniformity. According to the professor, Just Intonation is a musical tuning in which all frequencies are tuned as ratios of small whole number ratios to a single unified fundamental. At 3:20, the second part begins after …show more content…

The pitches are getting higher, while the song is going to the end. From 32:25 to 30:10 the flow is gaining momentum and the song has more powerful sounds until 44:25. The atmosphere of the work is entirely powerful and strong. The other hand, as the song is progressed, the flow loses momentum, and at 58:41, the atmosphere is changed into placidly mood. Ratio-based tuning system has intimately relationships between the other scales and notes. The same themes and chords cycle in this piece. The chords and continuous chorus do not sound like piano performance. The listeners could be aware of the resonance of the piano. I could notice that the music reaches the end of the work. However, the song could go on moreover, if the composer would keep playing the music. Although this is somewhat long duration compared to other music that listened before, the segment of the piece is played repeatedly so that I used to observe this music. The pinches in this work are unfamiliar to the audiences because they are not standard chromatic scale, which is equal temperament. The unique tuning system and the performance style increase the tension of the

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