| The Western tuning system divides the octave into 12 equal steps. The smallest step is called the half-tone. On the piano keyboard the smallest interval between keys is this half-tone. What if we take an electronic keyboard - whose sound color has more inharmonic, or bell-like overtones than a piano - and tune this a quarter tone higher than an identical keyboard. The smallest distance between notes would then be a quarter tone, half of a half tone. We have 2 “bell-ish” sounding electronic keyboards, tuned a quarter tone apart. The 10 partitas on this album which add up to 33 minutes and 33 seconds, were all recorded with this micro-tonal system. |
