Magic chord
The Magic Chord is a chord and installation (1984) created by La Monte Young, consisting of the pitches E, F, A, B♭, D, E, G, and A, in ascending order and used in works including his The Well-Tuned Piano and Chronos Kristalla (1990).[1] The latter was performed by the Kronos Quartet and features all notes of the magic chord as harmonics on open strings.[1] The quartet has been described as, "offer[ing] perhaps the ultimate challenge in performing in a just environment."[2]
Described as, "complex and throbbing," the chord does not contain its fundamental (see root (chord)),[3] E♭, and is a subset of the Romantic Chord.[4] "When the Magic Opening Chord is obtained by playing the Opening Chord at one end of a room while the Magic Chord is played at the other (as Young set it up for me), the feeling-changes of the stereo effect as you move back and forth[-]are dazzling."[3] The opening chord consists of E♭, B♭, C, E♭, F, B♭ (ratios 4:6:7:8:9:12),[5] adding C[6] and E♭ to the magic chord when combined as the magic opening chord.
The Well-Tuned Piano is based on a pitch lattice of perfect fifths and harmonic sevenths, and the tuning of the magic chord is as follows:[7]
| Note | Note | (E♭) | E | F | G | A | B♭ | (C) | D | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Johnston notation | (E♭) | F7++ | F+ | A7b+ | B7b+ | Bb | (D7b) | E7b+ | |||||||||
| Ratio | (1/1) | 567/512 | 9/8 | 21/16 | 189/128 | 3/2 | (7/4) | 63/32 | |||||||||
| Audio (from C) |
(<phonos file="Unison on C.mid">E♭</phonos>) | <phonos file="Five-hundred-sixty-seventh harmonic on C.mid">E</phonos> | <phonos file="Major tone on C.mid">F</phonos> | <phonos file="Twenty-first harmonic on C.mid">G</phonos> | <phonos file="Hundred-eighty-ninth harmonic on C.mid">A</phonos> | <phonos file="Just perfect fifth on C.mid">B♭</phonos> | (<phonos file="Harmonic seventh on C.mid">C</phonos>) | <phonos file="Sixty-third harmonic on C.mid">D</phonos> | |||||||||
| Step | Ratio | 567/512 | 64/63 | 7/6 | 9/8 | 64/63 | 32/27 | 9/8 | |||||||||
For example, G (21/16) is the harmonic seventh of the perfect fifth (7/4 * 3/2 = 21/16):
(C )G D A E (Eb)Bb F
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Grimshaw, Jeremy (2011). Draw A Straight Line and Follow It: The Music and Mysticism of La Monte Young, p.176. ISBN 978-0-19-974020-8.
- ↑ Strange, Patricia and Strange, Allen (2001). The Contemporary Violin: Extended Performance Techniques, p.160. ISBN 978-0-520-22409-4.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Duckworth, William (2009). Sound and Light: La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, p.187. ISBN 978-0-8387-5738-3.
- ↑ Potter, Keith (2002). Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, p.86. Cambridge. ISBN 9780521015011.
- ↑ Duckworth (2009), p.168.
- ↑ Potter (2002), p.87.
- ↑ Gann, Kyle (1997). "La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano", La Monte Young Web Page.
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