 |
|
||||||||||||
| Concerts & Events | Revelation | CDs & Ordering | Photo Gallery | Reviews | Works | Contact Us | Links |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| Michael Harrison Reviews | |
| "...Revelation" creates its entirely new world of musical expression by embracing possibilities in tunings that no early music practitioner would seek or even countenance." more>> Stuart Isacoff, New York Sun |
"Michael Harrison, a composer and pianist who lives here and co-owns a restoration company in Irvington, finds as much inspiration in the inside of a piano as in the sheet music that rests above the keyboard." more>> Brian Wise, New York Times |
"Michael Harrison's "Revelation" is a caressing, cataclysmic, monumentally over-the-top ode to a comma. It lasts 90 nonstop minutes. It is played on a piano curiously tuned. The piece was finished this year, and Joshua Pierce's astounding performance of it at Los Angeles Pierce College (no relation) on Saturday night as part of this year's MicroFest was a local premiere..." more>> |
"Harrison believes that by embracing the irregularities of a harmonically tuned piano, he has taken the next step in what Schoenberg described as "the emancipation of dissonance." In Schoenberg’s case, he threw the tonal system of composition away and focused on intervals and the dissonance it created. In Harrison’s case, he has rejected equal temperament tuning in order to achieve a similar goal." more>> Amanda MacBlaine, New York Press |
| "Revelation shows a broad range of Harrison’s unique
and highly developed musical personality.” Philip Glass |
“… huge golden balls of vibrant sound.” Paul Griffiths, The New York Times |
| “… he seemed to free an angelic
choir above.” Stuart Isacoff, Temperament (Knopf) |
“… an indisputable landmark in
Western tuning’s circuitous history.” Kyle Gann, The Village Voice |
| “If the walls of an ancient European cathedral or Middle
Eastern monastery
could sing, this is what you’d hear.” C.W. Vrtacek, Advocate |
“… glorious clouds of harmonics, …divine thunder,
angel choirs, celestial
bells.” Sandy McCroskey, The Nation |
| “… a new harmonic world began to
assert itself, to grow on one.” Paul Griffiths, The New York Times |
“… the kind of finely shaded spectrum
we might achieve in the third millennium.” Kyle Gann, The Village Voice |
| “ Harrison reconfigured the piano… and in doing so
joined the company of
La Monte Young and Terry Riley.” Paul Griffiths, The New York Times |
“ Harrison will bring the beauty of just intonation to
all lands.” La Monte Young, composer |
| “… inventive and marvelous new
works which are bound to profoundly influence the
musicians of his generation.” Terry Riley, composer |
“ Harrison stands the best chance yet
of becoming the groundbreaker who moves just
intonation into the mainstream.” Stephen Hill, NPR |
| “ Harrison has perfected a way of playing in just intonation
at the piano… such celestial resonance that it captures your attention
from the first note.” Linda Kohanov, contributing editor, CD Review |
“ The science of music has taken a significant step forward…” Deedee Finney, New York Post |
| “… a devoted and developing artist
in an age of empty virtuosity and show bizness-as-usual.” Ed Strickland, Fanfare |
“ The tuning system and modified strings transform the piano’s
sound, creating
a strangely ‘Eastern’ timbre, with sustained overtones.” |
| “ Harrison gives the keyboard a versatility of sound never
heard before, ranging
from harp to guitar to sitar.” Annie Bergen, WNCN, New York |
“ An inventive composer whose works contain echoes of contemporary
and Oriental
music all in the service of an engaging melodic gift.” John Schaefer, New Sounds, WNYC, New York |
| “ With the tones stirred on the scale,
totally different colors glowed red-hot… the crashing of a gong,
bells, the plucking of a harp or sitar, the sound of a horn -- the resonance
nearly reaches one’s abdomen.” Von Elisabeth Elling, Westfalischer Anzeiger (Germany) |
In the final chapter of Temperament (Knopf),
author Stuart Isacoff describes Harrison’s Revelation: "It sounded like a jumble at first--a drone, or a room full of drones. Then, from within the din, high-pitched sounds seemed to rise and float toward the ceiling. The deeper Harrison played into the bass end of the instrument, the more he seemed to free an angelic choir above. Were these sympathetic vibrations? I wondered. Overtones? The clashing of strings just slightly out of tune? I couldn’t tell. Now the texture changed. The pianist’s fingers engaged in a furious rhythmic interplay, and a groaning mass of sound in the low end of the piano gave birth to more phantoms above. Musical concords seemed to emerge and shake hands above the fray." |
|
Home • Introduction • Biography • Cds
& Ordering • Photo Gallery • Reviews • Just
Intonation ©2003 Michael Harrison Music • Web Design Pixels With Purpose |