Artist Statement
As a composer and pianist my works blend the classical music traditions of Europe and North India, while forging a new approach to composition through just intonation. This ancient form of pure tuning is constructed from musical intervals of perfect mathematical proportions and is considered the universal foundation for harmony. Throughout much of the history of Western classical music, just intonation was subsumed by the convenient and homogenized system of equal temperament and hierarchical staff notation. Just intonation survives today with a cappella music and in Indian ragas, engaging acoustically rich harmonies and nature-based time cycles. I seek expressions of universality via the physics of sound – music that brings one into a state of concentrated listening as a meditative and even mind-altering experience. My ongoing discoveries with just intonation have provided the foundation and inspiration to compose numerous works for re-tuned piano, string instruments, chamber ensembles, vocals, orchestra, and electronics, many of which explore the harmonic colors, special resonances and acoustical effects that are only available in extended just intonation. Just intonation further reveals and maximizes natural resonance and somatic listening, amplifying our beautifully complex acoustic universe. Fascinated by these qualities as well as possible new applications for sound, I often collaborate with filmmakers, visual artists, architects, and choreographers. As the world becomes more complex in this era of social and climatic acceleration, my work aspires to contextualize humans in ever-expanding space and time.
Michael Harrison at The Menil Collection, Houston, TX, 2022; all artworks © The Estate of Walter De Maria