3 Quarter-tone Pieces for Trombone, Op. 21 (2024)

I recently felt the desire to experiment with quarter-tone or 24-EDO music, and this is the result. The first piece uses quarter tones mainly as passing or chromatic notes, and bears the closest resemblance to music in "normal" 12-tone equal temperament. The second takes a Schoenberg-style 24-tone row and constructs a series of short variations on the 5-bar theme. The last piece is a waltz in rondo form, with each recurrence of the main theme in contrasting tonalities - subminor, neutral, and supermajor.
1. 0:00
2. 2:55
3. 5:05
Created with Dorico Pro 4 and NotePerformer 3

[@harrison7723]

Have you thought about writing quarter tone pieces for multiple trombones? I think there is a lot of potential there, but I have very little experience composing. I love the sound of microtonal chorales though and would love to try playing one

[@bmjessep]

Thanks for the comment! That definitely sounds like a cool idea. The problem arises with chords containing both "regular" notes and quarter-tones - they're really hard to get in tune. Think about how hard it can be to get just the right spot for 5th position, then consider how difficult it would be to play a note in 5.5 position while trying to tune an unfamiliar interval. I might try something like that to get experience with 24-TET chords; I don't know if I would try another tuning system because I wouldn't know where to start - I can't use them in Dorico and frankly I don't think they sound that good. But I think it's great that technology has recently allowed us to explore tuning systems that were, even 20 years ago, mostly theoretical.
Even if you don't have experience composing, I would definitely give it a shot if it's something that interests you. Just start fooling around and you might come up with something good or at least interesting, and you'll probably have fun along the way! If you write anything, send it over to me and I'll give it a listen.