Seamus Cater — A History of Musical Pitch

A History of Musical Pitch is a three-track journey into very lulling & softly drifting modern classic sonic waters from Amsterdam-based composer Seamus Cater. As the release title suggests all the pieces here revolve around slowly shifting & gently altering pitches.

The CD release appears on the always reliable Another Timbre. It comes presented in the label’s minimal house-style mini white gatefold- for its cover we get a painting of an autumnal forest, where the trees are set closely together. Inside we get a short write-up about Victorian polymath Alexander J. Ellis- the release is a tribute to. He was the inventor of the musical cent,  and a tireless measurer of the precise pitches of musical instruments.

The three pieces here date from between 2019 and 2021- with different instrumentation for each. We open with “Checking”- this comes in just shy of the fourteen-minute mark- it’s for double bass, concertina and four tuning forks. It is built around a pattern of slowly wavering ‘n’ warbling fork chimes- these are gently bayed by the very subtle double bass twang &  crawling concertina wail.

Track number two is the wonderful entitled “Tree Space: the trees they do grow high”. This is for clarinet, Rhodes piano, double bass, trombone, and duet concertina. It runs dead on the thirteen-minute mark, and is all about gentle hoover & points merging instrumental pitches- with the track has a rather forlornly rural quality to it, feeling akin to the sonic equivalent of watching leaf’s slowly fall from a series of trees as icy rain gently descends from the heavy lead grey skies.

Finally, we have the title track which takes up the lion's share of the release at just shy of the thirty-seven-minute mark.  It’s for flute, e-bowed acoustic guitar, and four tuning forks. This track creates a feeling of very slowly drifting almost in a stasis-like state- as the slow fork strikes are blended into the other instrument drone and hover. This really is a track you have to sit with, and slowly but surely become one with its gentle lulling and drifting state- and when you do it’s a wonderful spellbinding experience.

As a release A History of Musical Pitch will appeal to those who like the modern classical genre at its most sparse, deeply lulling, and droningly hovering. I believe this is my first encounter with Mr Cater’s output, and I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for future releases from the composer.