The harmonium is a thing of beauty: simple, hand (or foot) operated, coaxing pure lamentation out of the reeds of its pre-electronic guts. Left-field, microtonal pioneer and theorist, Alois Hába (1892–1973) thought to create a version of this plaintive unit based on a sixth-tone scale, which probably requires some explanation, but that is well beyond my area of competence. Suffice it to say that the sixth-tone is a fraction of a fraction of something otherwise understood to be whole. In other words, it’s a microtonalist’s dream. Fast forward to the year 2021 when new pieces were written for this idiosyncratic instrument and we get two works written by Ian Mikyska & Fredrik Rasten respectively, performed and collected here on Music for Sixth-tone Harmonium.
There are other sounds thrown in the mix, but the focus is on the harmonium, which really only makes one sound, or two, maybe. It requires some finessing to tease out the windy potential in its rudimentary design, aided by electronics and other ephemera. Mikyska’s contribution, “In”, divided into 12 parts, begins with a kind of sustained drone – moody, dark, and unapologetically monophonic. Gradually, pieces are added, until some sources – like water on “Part IV” – can be identified. Overall, the pace is slow and feels incredibly unified despite the putative focus on microtonality. Headphones are a must here.
Rasten’s piece, “Concord”, broken up into 6 parts, begins more discordantly, emphasizing the broken wailing that is the foundation of the harmonium’s sonic blueprint. Like Mikyska, Rasten leans toward sustain rather than the cut, effectively attenuating the back-and-forth movements required to “play” this instrument, making each breath extend into the temporal horizon of electrification. In “Part I”, there is a noticeable layering of the harmonium, aided by what must be a looping device, where the background fundament of a stretched-out drone provides a backdrop for shorter pulses of the harmonium. Occasionally, the pitches of these loops align, and for a moment, the clarity of this humble device shines, expanding on the sonic potential of Hába’s original invention, while bringing its footprint squarely into dialogue with contemporary media, enabling a respectful concatenation with the present. This approach is something altogether different from what gets passed off as a “dialogue”, in which two things are apparently conversing with one another. In both compositions collected on Music for Sixth-tone Harmonium, there is a process of discovery and investigation at work that pays tribute to the latency of the instrument, both routing and resting it in its own auditory language.
Music for Sixth-tone Harmonium will appeal to microtonal geeks as well as those with a penchant for the longue durée, whether that is new music classicists or drone enthusiasts. It is classical music, I suppose, but you do not need a course in scales and music theory to appreciate what is going on, even if that might be helpful. Highly recommended!
