Ivan Wyschnegradsky: 24 Preludes in quarter-tone system (excerpts) (1934/1970)

[@dan81685]

"You miss 100% of the tones you don't create." -Wyschne Gretzky

[@j.lombardo]

Fredrich Applesauce -Michael Scott

[@cruxofthecookie]

This _may be_ my favourite YT comment ever. Bravo.

[@yaggayaggaya9918]

Me googling Wyschne Gretzky 😭

[@dan81685]

@@cruxofthecookie To be honest, I didn't think anyone would get this hahahaha

[@coosoorlog]

good man

[@RasberrySkittle]

Finally a composer utilizing quarter tones with musical understanding of their proper place.

[@guillermomezaluzuriaga3700]

Had you listened Carrillo? Wonderful! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZnSf3yMn9lrfpI

[@MegaCirse]

Wyschnegradsky brought a little light, wonder and humor into a period of obscurity and weariness in my life. Listening to it many years later, my sensitivity and admiration I felt for it grew. A difficult listening at first, he lends the orchestral direction of his flayed intelligence, until he draws you inevitably into his universe. Each listening reveals a little more of its mystery, its magic, so this work becomes ineluctably timeless “Imperial”

[@brucedavies8154]

The 3rd (V) prelude is one of the most harrowing pieces I've ever heard. Makes me feel completely alone in the universe, wandering for some kind of company or understanding. Absolute genius.

[@sergioscibilia]

Never commented on youtube before as far as I remember, but I wanted to thank you for pointing that piece out, I would’ve missed it if it weren’t for you. Thank you gratefully

[@primeraconsultamedicasanfa8451]

Debussyean...

[@danielfishkin6968]

bruce...i feel you and yet this music connects me to the universal thread of human longing, despite lack of understanding, we've been gifted with the shared dilemma of endless pursuit

[@ntonzagarov3162]

Это замечательная музыка!

[@lukesandroni3436]

Parts IV and V are so fucking amazing. I gained chills the entire time and teared from their beauty. This man was very okay with his brokenness. I love it thanks for posting

[@whoe_whate8487]

XIV is by FAR my favorite piece. Its unsettlingly eerie but enchantingly peaceful… I can’t really describe it.

[@chuparipaguitar]

It's great.. This is one of microtonal works most creative I've ever heard.

[@doltifantara]

quartertone music is fascinating and the Wyschnegradsky Preludes show a deep musical understanding

[@brucedavies8154]

At least some people appreciate the genius of Wyschnegradsy and not just dismiss him as a hack. Takes a lot of courage to go with an idea even if no one else believes in you

[@steveegallo3384]

Wyschnegradsy's certainly no "hack." That said, it takes even "more courage" to forge ahead with a musical idea that's not inherently beautiful....or understood by just 0.001% of creditable listeners.....

[@teddydunn3513]

I disagree with you. Wyschnegradsky's music demonstrates that he has essentially no understanding of how harmony works.

[@craiganderson8081]

@@teddydunn3513 maybe he did, but just didnt implemented it, or maybe you arent used to 24 TET.

[@capncommie4362]

@@teddydunn3513That's probably like the most ignorant thing I've heard in several months.

[@PurpleZebras150]

2:10 I love this one, it's like a lonely house in the middle of winter.

[@жизненный_опыт]

I'm obsessed! It's marvelous! Well done. Brilliantly harmonic in its own idiosyncratic way!

[@IAmisMaster]

IV, V and XIV are freaking amazing

[@thefxbip315]

Wow.This is something else.

[@pianomanhere]

Thanks so much for sharing these !

[@gnikcohs]

Powerful

[@limaromeo8745]

Different cultures use quarter tones in their music. That’s why Indian or Arabian traditional music may sound “out of tune” sometimes. It’s all about the culture you grew up in.

[@eilatan2540]

You're right

[@Gollas4k]

They're still more mixed into the more common tonal intervals though, there's similar common harmonies and scales found in music from all kinds of cultures, the microtones are often more of a nuance... I'm sure wyschnegradsky sounds weird to all cultures

[@limaromeo8745]

@@Gollas4k fair point

[@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms]

Black Metal is all in tune confirmed.

[@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms]

Unironically though,or in different moods or ways of using notes or sequences to present certain moods.

[@magicianNevar]

eerie

[@pirsabel]

It is a fairly good rendition of the preludes and a nicely representative selection

[@Davscomur]

Amazing-thanks!

[@johnsmith-ch7fg]

If anyone doesn't like this don't dismiss microtonality or even quartertone; it can sound very different; one main advantage and reason for it adoption is it keeps the normal system imbedded and can be access through two normal instrument but but it isn't the most easy or appealing tuning and doesn't add much good harmony and modern composers are generally using other systems (and contexts) which arguably sound better, which isn't to say quartertone is rubbish but not always the best introduction to the field

[@petretepner8027]

Quartertone is quite hard to work with, harmonically. It brings with it most of the disadvatages of 12edo without very much in the way of compensation. Something like 31edo offers more interesting possibilities for the composer, and if handled right can (I think) be more accessible to the listener too. I agree with Adel about just intonation, but remember Wyschnegradsky had to work with both the technical limitations and the musical prejudices of his time. I think he made a pretty good job of it in the Preludes.

[@rmsv]

Brilliant.

[@stalmeseto]

I can't stop listening to this! AHHHH!!!!?!?!11!!!!one!!

[@lukesandroni3436]

Courtney Riley haha I used to use that with the ‘one thing.

[@nikol4y.l]

The falling suspensions in #20 are to die for

[@udomatthiasdrums5322]

love it!

[@kuang-licheng402]

very good

[@erikgeiger6601]

So good. No. XX is like listening to a Gloria Coates quartet.

[@luisuriashermosillo6804]

No doubt eslav russian peoples created some of the most important music in the last century, that we couldn't know about because of egocentric, ethnocentric nationalistic blindness. Braking the musical traditional scale, in a sort of fractal procedure, creates smaller sound waves that generate in our bodies quite new effects. So, this music must be heard, even just as a sound bath for our body health, and soon we will be able to enjoy its different beauty. This author created some pieces for our Mexican genius Julián Carrillo, who developed a whole system he called Sonido 13, 13th Sound, creating pianos and instruments for 3rd, 6th and 12ths of tones. He is also almost forgotten.

[@EpifanesEuergetes]

Thank you for mentioning Julián Carrillo. I wasn't familiar with his work but I just listened to Preludio a Colon and I loved it. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

[@jesuscruz6426]

@@EpifanesEuergetes If you like this, try "Balbuceos para piano metamorfoseado" from Carrillo as well. All his music is great, even his tonal music like his Symphony no 1 in D major.

[@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms]

The CIA intentionally suppressed its beauty.

[@regpharvey]

Music by Russian and other Soviet composers was widely performed and loved throughout the world as it was being written in the 20th century. There is simply no truth to the first sentence of your comment. Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Katchaturian, Gorecki, Part, et al. were widely performed outside of the Soviet Union while they were still alive. In truth, the only suppression of music such as this was done by the governments these composers labored under. Read the biographies of Shostakovich and Schnittke if you have any doubts.

[@luisuriashermosillo6804]

@@regpharvey You are right, but I never meant that the Soviet government supressed the music diffusion. What I said is that in our countries, mainly in America, people fell jnto the fantastic phantom belief that Comunism was satanic and they never had interst in listenintg to Soviet or russian music, or knowing their culture. The strong campaign against "comunism" has canceled a lot of cultural important relations among peoples in the world..

[@StealthArt]

an octave in this music contains 24 notes now instead of 12? im new to this

[@johnsmith-ch7fg]

sort of - it's more a semitone is split in two equal parts rather than a wholetone - a normal piano each note is a semitone and two equal a wholetone - here we have quartertones and two equal a semi and four equal the wholetone - three equal a 3/4 tone.

[@BudCharlesUnderVlogs]

Yes, all the normal 12 notes, plus notes exactly halfway between each of those :)

[@kristianalexanderpedersen7382]

@@johnsmith-ch7fg not sort of, that's exactly what it means

[@ohadnativ]

The painting looks like a cubist Perry the Platypus

[@cammysmusicalsketchbook]

at 3:40 there's some really cool stuff

[@yagiz885]

That 4th etude is gas asf

[@stanislavbichenko2563]

Is anyone else's cat terrified of this? My Ginger got all puffed up and crawled under the bed on variation IX. Not kidding! Feeling kind of disappointed by my cat's primitive musical tastes.

[@PetriBass]

100 likes and no dislikes? Yep. I think I like Wyschnegradsky. XD

[@blueschase11]

Is there any way I can listen to all 24 preludes?

[@bdfdttrststj3109]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qnXVoJRrjLmIaZY

[@Vladimir_art]

После Долина?

[@sietevolta]

It sounds exactly like me when I play my grandmother's piano

[@TomorrowSalad]

I feel like it’s gonna give me a panic attack

[@moog5260]

Amazing

[@luisuriashermosillo6804]

Sin duda los eslavos rusos crearon gran parte de la más importante música del siglo 20, que no hemos podido conocer por las cegueras egocéntricas, etnocéntricas y de tontos nacionalismos. Dividir la escala musical tradicional, en una especie de fractales,, crea ondas sonoras más pequeñas que generan efectos muy nuevos y diferentes en nuestros cuerpos. Esta música debe ser escuchada, aunque sea solo como un baño sonoro para la salud del cuerpo, y pronto se puede desarrollar un gusto para disfrutar esta nueva belleza. Este autor creó varias piezas para los instrumentos que construyó nuestro genio mexicano Julián Carrillo, de modesto origen indio, en su sistema que llamó Sonido 13, con 4os, 3os, 6os y 12os de tono. Un autor y una música casi olvidada y poco disfrutada.

[@FrankenPC]

Wait. How has this system not been leveraged in the metal music arena? I guess Primus sort of has this flavor.

[@daadadada]

FrankenPC It has, but not always brightly. M.A.N. are famous for this gimmick, but they are like a bad version of... Powerman 5000 perhaps? If you want great 24-tone metal, check out the band Jute Gyte, they make awesome black metal.

[@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms]

Not much of a theory guy but I'm pretty sure European Extreme Metal Bands have.

[@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms]

At least used non-conventional systems several times over.

[@lovaaaa2451]

Does anyone know where i can listen to all of them? I know there are recordings of at least some of the ones that aren't included here

[@melamino]

+Lova aaa www.discogs.com/Charles-Ives-Ivan-Wyschnegradsky-Josef-Christof-Steffen-Schleiermacher-Quarter-Tone-Pieces/release/1590541

[@bdfdttrststj3109]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qnXVoJRrjLmIaZY

[@chrisgaming3373]

Hi! Could you send me the link to a video of just Wyschnegradsky's 4th prelude in quarter tone? Thanks!

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

thats like: no that i found this complicated stuff, lets play as it where tonal again and make a funny charicature of romantic preludes, yeah

[@xijinping4418]

The commenters here are the worst, I think they do demonstrate something quite well though. Closed-minded (and thus often ignorant) people are always going to lash out against things they can't understand.

[@fitch9782]

gay comment

[@dragmio]

@@fitch9782 Better gay than moron.

[@brucedavies8154]

@@dragmio Agreed I would take a lot if things over being a moron

[@Gollas4k]

The way the comment section polarizes says a lot

[@jasonodonnell6444]

his son died back in June :(

[@panpropal2404]

Если есть кто русский, объясните плз, это пианино строится как-то иначе или это можно в стандартном строе сыграть? А на гитаре я в стандартном могу сыграть? Звучит очень оригинально, за 20 лет увлечение разнообразнои музыкой не слышал ничего, что сильно было бы похоже на это. Не назвал бы эту музыку атональной, но она однозначно очень выбивается из множеств произведений.

[@imatthew]

Пианино перестраивается. Можно на скрипке сыграть. А на гитаре - убрав лады.

[@panpropal2404]

@@imatthew уже узнал за это время такую же информацию. Благодарю за ответ :)

[@BradyMelberg]

@@panpropal2404 ну что получилось поэкспериментировать? Интересная тема)

[@panpropal2404]

@@BradyMelberg поэкспериментировать именно нет, но достойное изучения это точно!)

[@stueystuey1962]

No missing this piece, that is for sure. From the first measure it is immediately recognizable. Not even Ben Johnston does it better. Only listenable every so often - works well if streamed deep into a mix of avant garde and more traditional compositions. Listened to repeatedly it devolves into eccentric gesturing.

[@PaulCaruso53]

I’m adding this to my list of “ just because you can doesn’t mean you should”. That being said it is eerie and interesting. I’ve heard some piano music with just intonation which has a similar but not as extreme effect. The human brain at least musically seems to seek resolution and when not hearing that either through prolonged dissonance or atonality no matter how the sound is produced perceives an unpleasantness or disorientation from the unexpected. Creative ingenuity opens us to limitless possibilities not all of which are comfortable perhaps, but interesting nonetheless. Thanks for posting this music.

[@intervalkid]

The thing about this kind of stuff is it is written from a standpoint of knowing tertiary Ionian prodominate harmony and 12 tone atonal music, with that ear and approach but including quarter tones, but without any real knowledge or ear for the intervals. It is a matter of course though since we have only scratched the surface of possibilities within 12 tones and their scales, modes, reflections, polytonal usages, clusters etc. and if you go to 24 tone with limited knowledge of 12 tone it is probably because you weren't creative enough to find new things to do with 12 tones, so you are going to be thinking and hearing from a very limited standpoint. I don't discourage studying 24 tones or writing in them, but I don't think we need to move on to 24 tone piano's just yet or we will never get anywhere with it but detuned sounding atonality. Let's finish learning to walk first then fly and then try to go another dimension of space. Now some people use quarter tones fairly well, but those are few and far between in the western systems and those usually are innovative and well able to do so in 12 tone. It is a rash and impatient thing to do at this point when there is still at least 95% of possibilities within 12 tones unused. If you cant figure out 12 tones to completion you sure as fuck ain't gonna figure out 24!

[@intervalkid]

The potential for scales and chords in 24 tone is extremely vast and the different character that can be gotten out of them for expression should be studied. We should not just skip all the possibilities of interval relationships and sounds available and take an "atonal approach" because hey man "that's the most advanced music" because it will ruin the capabilities and possibilities of our minds and ears to express thought the systems of tones more acutely and with varying characteristics. The intervals should be studied and grouped, named and learned by ear before we start feeling like we are masterful 24 tone composers using atonality and being all psuedo spooky with it. The middle easterners have a wealth of knowledge some 1000 years old of micro tones and they know them and are raised in them. They are currently studying western harmonic structures. This is a good thing as they can begin to apply harmony with their knowledge of them. There is as I said much more to do within 12 tones that has not been done (at least 95% of theoretical possibilities have not even been attempted or studied) so we should try and complete that first or we will cheat the future of a vast amount of possibilities. And there is plenty in 12.

[@NateSassoonMusic]

"The intervals should be studied and grouped, named and learned by ear before we start feeling like we are masterful 24 tone composers using atonality and being all psuedo spooky with it." this

[@NateSassoonMusic]

but where did you get the "95%" figure. seems oddly specific.

[@FACEGRINDproductions]

Lol. The very reason that we can hear pitch intervals so well in a 12-tone system is that we humans are decent at adapting to seemingly random sequences and creating order and harmony from them. Diminished 5th intervals sound awful to some and gorgeous to others, so I'd imagine a similar thing would happen in regards to our varying reactions to music like this, especially until we become familiar with it and create a coherent system. Then, these lazy people that can't understand the 12-tone system may just be major innovators. And I say "may be" because other cultures already utilize microtonal intervals in systematic ways.

[@moderkakor]

Why 12 tones? Have people mastered every single sound of a pentatonic scale? What about diatonic? How will we know when 12 tones have been figured out to completion?

[@NBogdanov]

эт вам не техно

[@rudbeckie1]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ♫♪♫ PP (Y)

[@tomasseeber]

This people should learn that having quarter tones to play with, doesn't mean you can't make a good pure pleasing chord; which after all this crap (except a few coincidental beautiful instants), would be great.

[@dragmio]

You should learn to stick to Justin Bieber.

[@tv5202]

НЕ ВКЛЮЧАЙТЕ ЭТО! ОПАСНО ДЛЯ ЗДОРОВЬЯ !!!

[@williamwilson6203]

This music is very disturbing and I like it but I are an exxxentric who dont care none fr spellin r grammer ..................do you see my point? .................dont worry .................you will [cue evil laughter and thunder strikes] Liking or not liking a thing is an important evaluative criterium but not the only one It is the first that we learn as children and remains with us throughout life. As we grow other evaluative criteria present themselves as our knowledge expands [originality, fx, or virtuosity, fidelity, power of evocation etc etc etc] Sometimes, however, we lose ourselves in these new and expanded criteria and alienate ourselves from the primum moblile of our aesthetic understandings Some times even to the point that we are turned upside down and believe that something MUST revolt us in order to meet our approval or otherwise menace the public taste in order to be thought good That is foul enough of a state of affairs but it is made worse when we trasfer this way-of-understanding to the world at large and [either] insist that the entire world adapt and adjust to a "higher" criteria [or] sink beneath the sneering of the steering committee of Public Taste Here is the central question: Truth: is best to be found in Simplicity or Complexity? Beauty? Good? Is this and either/or proposition? or a both/and proposition? How does that apply to above observations, esp as they pertain to like/not like and then the complexities that arise as we grow? Is any point on the paths of our personal development at which we may say that we are "complete"? and that our aesthetic vision is the best and highest for all? (are other people who dont "get it" necessarily beneath us?) (and is this the reason we took up expanded evaluative criteria in the first place?) Let us re-contextualize the whole matter and look at it as though it were Theology Let us ask ourselves if Cardinals with PhD.´s are more beloved of God? or PhD/Phil. necessarily implies Wisdom? Does it? Is it possible that sometimes our perceptions can become overly refined and thereby, brittle and of little use ..........................................................If the primary function of music is the transmission of Joy * then this function is undone by excessive refinement and Rarification Sometimes music is murdered by overly acute dissection Sometimes it is better only to listen and like or not like Also Sprach Wyschengradsky . . . *sum total of Beauty/Truth/Goodness

[@AEMachinas]

Charles Ives still did it the best, trick is I think, you have to have something to say/illustrate.

[@primeraconsultamedicasanfa8451]

Wait. Are you the same guy leaving the same comment in every microtonal music video on YT?

[@igorgetmeabrain]

This is what happens when the piano tuner's business card gets lost inside the piano.

[@dagdamon1856]

You've mistook this piece for one of Cage's Piano Sonatas.

[@tjaruspex2116]

Good one!!

[@breather2787]

tom and jerry music

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

1. This is incredibly interesting and important 2. This sounds incredibly ugly and forced, why be so coward with the texture after being bold with the tones. It sounds funny and absurd actually. The no3 would be very good for a Woody Allen movie no? You see at the last cadence how he is convinced that he is still playing a wonderful palestrinian perfect chord... I appreciated the uploader, the dedicated composer, and the score, but not the music.

[@galek75]

All I have to say is, pick a gamut of tones and stick with them! I don't see any point in expanding the number of tones in an octave.

[@perfectmason690]

He did pick his tones! Only 24 in an octave? Could've opted for far more :)

[@davidezucca1990]

bad drugs

[@saccharineserf7316]

*drukqs

[@DJAnthrocide]

LULZ, it sounds like an out-of-tune upright piano...

[@psylence101]

I've done about as interesting things with a piano that had stood out in a shed for 20 years. Sorry to be so DISmissive but for my ears this is just terribly unsexy music. Like VR porn unsexy.

[@xijinping4418]

Sucks to suck.

[@pouffywall68]

try michael harrison - revelation. it's probably a bit more palatable to most people

[@septuleptum]

It's not about untuned old piano, it's about finding new, somehow mathematically based, music theory and use it like no one can. Wyschnegradsky was a top dude and a great composer, whose music is full of emotions despite all the oddities for an untrained listener.

[@kakehavata]

This is a joke :D and a misconception of the fundamental relations in music

[@ThePowerExcess]

I sincerely hope that you aren't making fun of Ivan Wyschnegradsky.

[@kakehavata]

sorry, it's not Wyschnegradsky, it's these particular preludes I can't understand...

[@tchecky444]

If your spirit can't catch this beauties, nobody can't do anything for you...kakehavata

[@kakehavata]

ok, man! peace

[@landonwk3]

+tchecky444 It's just basic melodies with some off-key pitches thrown in. You're a pretentious little shit, aren't you?