Schlieren Listening

In this piece, quarter tones frequently “collide” with standard equal-tempered pitches. Employing this technique induces distortion in the sound. For many years, I have composed works centred on the collision of quarter tones as one method for realising a musical concept rooted in the “ambiguity” of sound. Whereas I previously applied this to linear motifs, in recent years I have been exploring ways to extend this distortion by applying it to chords. This work is one such example.

The title derives from the Schlieren phenomenon. This refers to the distortion of scenery caused by refraction variations in light occurring within transparent gases or liquids, arising from differences in density, temperature, or fluid type.