Microtonal Drone
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Drone that steps outside twelve-tone equal temperament, using just intonation, meantone or custom tunings so that sustained tones create pure or deliberately warped intervals whose beating overtones become the whole musical event. Retuned synthesizers, organs, strings and electric harpsichord hold long unbroken sonorities in which tiny frequency relationships produce shimmering acoustic phenomena. Production is exacting and analytical, often documenting a single tuning across a long piece with no rhythm and minimal change. The mood is otherworldly and psychoacoustic, drawing the ear into the fine grain of pitch itself.
History
The idiom grew directly from La Monte Young's 1960s Theatre of Eternal Music, where just-intonation sine tones and bowed drones set the template, and from Tony Conrad's tuned violin. Catherine Christer Hennix's 1976 The Electric Harpsichord, built on retuned oscillators and Pran Nath–inspired intonation, became a cult landmark, while Arnold Dreyblatt developed his own overtone-rich "excited strings." A contemporary generation, Ellen Arkbro, Kali Malone, Catherine Lamb and Marc Sabat among them, revived the practice with meantone organs and precisely tuned ensembles, championed by Blank Forms, Important and specialist tuning collectives. Microtonal drone remains a research-driven wing of experimental ambient, feeding sound-art installation and just-intonation composition.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- The Electric Harpsichord(1976) — Catherine Christer HennixSpotifyYouTube
- From the Side of Man and Womankind(1972) — Tony ConradSpotifyYouTube
- The Well-Tuned Piano(1987) — La Monte YoungSpotifyYouTube
- For Organ and Brass(2017) — Ellen ArkbroSpotifyYouTube
- Sacer Boletus(2019) — Kali MaloneSpotifyYouTube
- Nodal Excitation(1982) — Arnold DreyblattSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Kyle Gann, essays on just intonation
- Blank Forms editions on Catherine Christer Hennix
- Artforum feature on The Electric Harpsichord