| In Old English, via Latin from the Greek, humnos is an “ode or song in praise of a god or hero.” However, in the case of our “Four Hymns” it appears that the god or hero have gone missing. Perhaps they took off as soon as they heard the term “Quarter Tone Microtuning,” because if melodic and harmonic lines are so close together, to the quarter tone of a note to be precise, then the distance between notes is so tiny that there is no space for a god or hero. Even if there were space it would be unfit for god or hero, because gods and heroes are mighty and large. On casual listening to these “Four Hymns” here, it is clear that something got squeezed out, because everything is too close for comfort. The melodies and the harmonies don’t fit together. No, it really appears that a parallel universe co-exists with our current one, a universe where everything is the same except all the notes are tuned a quarter tone higher than in ours. |
