Search - Kyle Gann, __ :: Gann: Hyperchromatica

Kyle Gann s Hyperchromatica is a work in seventeen movements, lasting two hours and 35 minutes, for three microtonally tuned Disklaviers (computer-driven pianos). It would be more accurate, actually, to think of this not as music for three pianos, but for one piano with 243 keys. In addition to the microtonality, most of the pieces also use polytempo structures and other rhythmic difficulties that would make performance by human players impossible. The fusion of microtonality and polytempo that Gann began in his work Custer and Sitting Bull reaches a second climax here.Kyle Gann, born 1955 in Dallas, Texas, is a composer and was new-music critic for the Village Voice from 1986 to 2005. Since 1997 he has taught music theory, history, and composition at Bard College, where he is the Taylor Hawver and Frances Bortle Hawver Professor of Music. Gann studied composition with Ben Johnston, Morton Feldman, and Peter Gena, and his music is often microtonal, using up to 37 pitches per octave. His rhythmic language, based on differing successive and simultaneous tempos, was developed from his study of Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo Indian musics. His music has been performed on the New Music America, Bang on a Can, and Spoleto festivals.