Microtonal Music by Samuel Pellman

Selected Planets

for digital sounds

The pitches of the principal sounds in the texture are tuned in a 5-limit just intonation based on the harmonic series of a Thunder Tube.

Click to hear a 35 second audio clip from the middle of the piece: mp3 file (556K)

Click here to go to YouTube to see the video by Lauren Koss!

for digital sounds

This piece employs a large amount of pitch bending and pitch motives based on a scale comprised of nine equal divisions of a just major third.

Click to hear an audio clip from the piece:

• from Phrase 3, an mp3 file (1 MB, 66 seconds)
• from Phrase 4, an mp3 file (948 K, 60 seconds)
• from Phrase 5, an mp3 file (460 K, 29 seconds)
• from Phrase 8, an mp3 file (1.2 MB, 82 seconds)
• from Phrase 9, an mp3 file (1.4 MB, 95 seconds)

Click here to go to vimeo.com to see the video by Lauren Koss!

for digital sounds

This Csound piece is tuned in a 7-limit just intonation.

Click to hear a 22 second audio clip from the middle of the piece: mp3 file (352K)

Click here to go to YouTube to see the video by Lauren Koss!

for digital sounds

This piece is for the most part constructed of pitches in 12-TET. However, there are occasional microtonal embellishments, as heard in this 68 second audio clip: mp3 file (1 MB)

Click here to go to vimeo.com to see the video by Lauren Koss!

for digital sounds

The pitches for this piece are those found in a scale based on twenty equal divisions of a perfect fifth, with middle-C as the tonic. Each of these divisions is slightly larger than an interval of 35 cents, and the result is very similar to Wendy Carlos's gamma tuning. A special property of this scale is that it can be used to form very pure major and minor thirds, and so the tertian harmonies used in this piece are therefore quite clear and beautiful.

Click to hear a 66 second audio clip: mp3 file (1 MB)

Click here to go to YouTube to see the video by Lauren Koss!

other microtonal music:

for digital sounds in two channels

The pitches for this piece are those found in a scale based on nineteen equal divisions of octave (i.e., 19-TET). A special property of this scale is that it can be used to form very pure minor thirds and major sixths. As this movement illustrates, it also provides more than the usual complement of chromatic embellishing pitches.

Click to hear a 10 second audio clip: mp3 File (189K)

"Midnight Madness" from the
Suite from "MacBeth"

for digital sounds in two channels

This movement is certainly xenharmonic! Its most salient feature is an apparently endlessly descending set of glissandi (an example of an aural illusion known as Shepard tones).

Click to hear a 53 second audio clip: mp3 File (819K)
or 19 second audio clip: mp3 File (315K)