Music Listening, Music Therapy, Phenomenology and Neuroscience

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In the model Fig. 8.1, Micromodulation is included as the ninth listening

dimension.

Fig. 8.1. Nine listening dimensions

The Musical Timespace

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Vibrato, tremolo, interference, distortion

Various kinds of micromodulation are heard in the music of Xenakis,

Ligeti, Lutoslawski, and Coleman Hawkins,

discussed in the previous chapters. Some examples are the following;

In Lutoslawski's Livre pour Orchestre, interference arising in polyphonic

glissandi and bundles of gliding quarter-tones create impressions of

fluctuating sound color and multidimensional motion. In Ligeti's

Continuum, fluctuating harmonic colors emerge from the micromodulating

interaction of timbre and pulse.

A section of Xenakis' Metastasis, 1'37-2'18 in the recording, is characterized

by eruptions of penetrating noise. Several kinds of micromodulation are

heard here, tremolo, noise-colored tone produced by strings playing near the

bridge of the instrument, flutter-tongue and quarter-tone pitch bending.

Metastasis, 1'37-2'18

During the whole passage, the strings play tremolo, alternating

between subito piano (measures 58, 64, 68 and 77) and subito forte

fortissimo (measures 59, 65, 69 and 77). The fff passages are played sul

ponticello, near the bridge. The trombones add deep noisy timbre from

measure 60 and glissandi from measure 69. Trumpets enter in measure

73 with sharp flutter-tongue tones; in measure 77 the horns join in, first

horn playing loud quarter-tone pitch bendings, second horn playing

flutter-tongue.