Audio Examples for Kyle Gann's book
The Arithmetic of Listening:
Tuning Theory and History for the Impractical Musician
Chapter 9: The Seven LimitBarbershop Quartet
Here is the Barbershop Quartet Society's official recording of "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" (1918 - the example in the book starts at 0:27):La Monte Young: The Well-Tuned Piano
Scale of The Well-Tuned Piano:
The main theme of The Well-Tuned Piano is called the Theme of the Dawn of Eternal Time:
Theme of the Dawn of Eternal Time:
The Subtractive Variations of the Theme of the Magic Chord (Ex. F.6):
Theme of the Lyre of Orpheus in the Elysian Fields (Ex. F.7):
Transition from the Opening Chord to the Magic Chord (Ex. F.8):
The Cadence of Paradise (Ex. F.9):
For a fuller discussion of The Well-Tuned Piano read my article in Perspectives of New Music.Ben Johnston: String Quartet No. 4, "Amazing Grace"
From the recording by the Kepler Quartet on New World
The opening theme played in Pythagorean pentatonic (Ex. G.1):
Variation 2, with the parts in nested 3:2 rhythmic ratios (Ex. G.2):
Variation 5 in septimal tuning with a 35:36 rhythm accompaniment (Ex. G.3):
Variation 6, with the inversion of the theme played as a septimal utonality (Ex. G.4):
Variation 8 with the entire 22-note scale (Ex. G.5):
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