Choan GálvezIt's Donald Bousted's birthday and I miss his genius, his humour, and his advice.
This is I Wish You Were Wearing a Hat, a tribute piece I wrote for solo #flugelhorn, performed by his friend Stephen Altoft.
YouTube
And, for something completely different, he was always interested in #microtonal music. Bousted wrote for a variety of tunings and instruments, including #quarterTone #accordion.
(Warning: this music is not apt for every audience.)
Donald Bousted: My Time is Your Time - Lore Amenabar Larrañaga
He also enjoyed experimenting with the #ukulele capabilities.
Modernism Is Dead Long Live Modernism.
Modernism is Dead Long Live Modernism (after Alfredo Jaar)
Donald was also an interesting #multimedia artist.
Sand Walking, #polyrhythm and #quarterTone reunited.
Sand Walking (No. 2 of 'Six Times One')
When Donald Bousted tuned his baritone in #fifths he asked me to write some music for the instrument.
I wrote Santa Orosia, a suite of seventeen brief pieces inspired by Aragonese folk tunes. He recorded it fully for the Barry Tone's Fantastic Adventure album.
https://donaldbousted1.bandcamp.com/album/barry-tone-s-fantastic-adventure
Barry Tone’s Fantastic Adventure, by Donald Bousted
31 track album
El Coplé for ukulele in 5ths tuning by Choan Gálvez
Donald honoured me with a few other renditions of my music. Entranced (until the end of the closing credits), for #baritoneUkulele, is a personal favourite.
Entranced (until the end of the closing credits)
And thanks to him, I came to contact a few fabulous composers.
I'm quite fond of Gilbert Isbin's music.
First Light by Gilbert Isbin
And Jim Dalton's
The Comsos Speaks to us in Patterns by Jim Dalton for tenor ukulele
This is Donald playing Donald's (from my Waltz in Progress collection).
'Donald's' Waltz in Progress No.11 by Choan Gálvez
This is A Big One, for #ukuleleInFifths performed by yours truly.
I was working on this piece (for him) when Donald told me he could not keep playing anymore.
He was, he is, A Big One.
A Big One - Choan Gálvez, ukulele in fifths tuning
Note from Stephen Altoft: "To mark the birthday of our late friend Donald Bousted on 21st November, we, duo Contour, are releasing three movements of 19.5, recorded live to video, which were originally one online performance made as part of the 'Mikrotöne: Small is Beautiful' Symposium hosted by the Ekmelic Society in 2021."
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsCN6IYqMsDiOuOYm4jbIGcZetThQyqrh
19.5 by Donald Bousted
Kevin Dalley@choanmusic
Here's another recording of the same Bousted piece in an album consisting of Lore Amenabar Larrañaga playing on a quarter tone accordion she designed, with pieces she commissioned
How does this accordion compare to Arabic quarter tone accordions?
@AccordionBruce
AccordionBruce@kevindalley @choanmusic
I’m partial 😌 to what I’d call more rhythmic or maybe melodic #accordion with alternate tunings
They seem to be based in dance or ritual, rather than intellectualized or more performer/audience dualism
More a regular group village dance or wedding than a well-prepared one-time solo competition piece
I’d rather hear loose group improv than a stressed-out soloist
Taste
I don’t know enough about the Egyptian, Azeri, and other regional 🪗 styles to say many specifics
@kevindalley @choanmusic
Honestly, I don’t have a good enough ear to be able to recognize a microtonal #accordion just by hearing it
And I don’t believe you can always know within the tradition who is using one or not
Retuning one may be a desire for many, but an expensive one to achieve
@kevindalley @choanmusic
So to me in something like Arabic or other traditions, the microtonal tunings seem more integral and less confrontational and intellectualized
https://youtu.be/otMP9x8Qmx0?si=yxuwSUYztt_lZOD6
I appreciate Elias Lammam’s explaining how they tune some of the reeds to get the effect here — clever 🪗
https://youtu.be/o8u7PFCrDvk?si=mb8mCn7eZQ4UbT5e
#accordion #microtonal #musicTheory #WorldMusic #ethnoMusicology
