The Court of Two Sisters
for 19tone guitar and vibraphone
Description
The Court of Two Sisters was previously a shop owned by two Creole sisters who according to “A Guide to the Historic Shops & Restaurants of New Orleans” were quite in demand: “when it came time to stock their arsenals of evening gowns for carnival season, aristocratic ladies of the 1890’s turned to Emma and Bertha Camors”. I have long imagined the scents and hot nights in the southern states, the cool breezes, the dresses, the manner and the drama. This piece has no drama, no statement, no undertow of hostilities. It has none of the drama of a Tennessee Williams play, though the colours, imagery, and richness come from him. It is just a conversation: a conversation of two sisters in the final evening glare in the blooms of lavender and scents of jasmines and olive trees, that moment when the sun has barely gone down and the earth still breaths of the day gone past, sitting outside, resting, in wait under the wisterias for the cicadas to begin. The pieces is for 19tone tempered guitar and vibraphone, I felt that the combination of a strict tempered grid instrument, the vibraphone – as well as bringing out the colours of the long sustained tones, and the Jazz connotations it brings (we are in New Orleans after all), also brings out the overly lush sweetness of the harmony which has no need to develop. Its combination with another strict tempered grid instrument, the 19tone guitar again brings about a lush sense of place within the tonal material. The harmony is based on four scales; two for each instrument, with some shared tempered tones, this is due to the shifting nature of the 19tone scale and the nature of the guitar itself, causing the grid to slide effortlessly over the octaves and strings. The piece is not an exploration into the 19tone tempered scale, but rather a peaceful conversation of old friends, of tone colours and harmony which shift in and out of each other to the point where one cannot be sure which speaker is speaking which language, not that it even matters when both understand each other quite sufficiently. With regard to notation: the score gives no real indication of actual pitches for 19tone guitar, this is something that cannot be fixed due to the nature of the temperament and standard notation, the shift is (if A=440 and A=5 when tuned in all fourths) about 10cents a string, so open F=1 is approximately a quarter tone higher than in 12tone temperament. Standard notation suffices to indicate which notes are to be played on guitar as sharps and flats are different pitches: though Esharp and Fflat, Bsharp and Cflat are enharmonic, but as mentioned the notation does not indicate the actual pitches sounded. I think this is one of the main flaws in 19tone temperament, especially if it is incorporated into the ‘normal’ 12tone tempered instrumentation repertoire.
Instrumentation Category
Chamber Works
PDF for promotional useArchive number
MF36339
