Joel Mandelbaum

Joel Mandelbaum

Joel Mandelbaum (born in 1932) is an American music composer and teacher, most well known for his use of microtonal tuning (notably the Just intonation tuning and the 19ET and the 31ET). He also has written the first Ph.D. dissertation on microtonality, in 1961. He is married to stained glass artist [http://www.emglassart.com/ Ellen Mandelbaum] , and is the nephew of Abraham Edel.

Life & Music

Mandelbaum received his Ph.D. from the University of Indiana in Music Theory in 1961. His thesis was focused on the 19-tone equal temperament. [J. Mandelbaum, "Multiple division of the octave and the tonal resources of the 19-tone equal temperament", PhD thesis, University of Indiana, (1961)] . He was teacher at Queens College of the City University of New York from 1961 to 1999 and was chairman of the music department.

It has been claimed that Mandelbaum became interested in microtonality after listening to a lecture by Paul Hindemith in which Hindemith inadequately debunked various alternative forms of tuning. [ [http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/english/mandelbaum.html Stichting Huygens-Fokker: Joel Mandelbaum ] ] He began a correspondence with Prof. Adriaan Fokker which led to a six-week stay in Haarlem in 1963, during which he composed to Euler's genera under Fokker's tutelage. The result was "10 Studies in 31-Tone Temperament" premiered at the Fokker organ in Haarlem.

Mandelbaum's motivation to use the 31-tone temperament arose from its close approximation to just intonation; Mandelbaum preferred the equal temperament to exact just tuning out of convenience, as it produced one tuning of a keyboard with which it was possible to explore approximations of chords to just tuning in any key. In spite of being well-known for exploring alternate tunings, Mandelbaum still uses conventional tuning in about 80% of his music. Mandelbaum attributes his use of conventional tuning to his reluctance to use keyed instruments (such as woodwinds) in tunings other than those that they were designed for. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-6016%28199124%2929%3A1%3C176%3ASACONT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G "Six American Composers on Nonstandard Tunnings: Douglas Keislar; Easley Blackwood; John Eaton; Lou Harrison; Ben Johnston; Joel Mandelbaum; William Schottstaedt" Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 29, No. 1. (Winter, 1991), pp. 176-211. ]

References

External links

* [http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/english/mandelbaum.html A page about Mandelbaum on the Huygens-Fokker Foundation's website]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Mandelbaum — is the surname of: Fredericka Mandelbaum (1818 1894), New York entrepreneur and fence operator Frederic Morton (born Fritz Mandelbaum) (born 1924), Austrian writer Kurt Mandelbaum, Development Economists (1905 1995) Allen Mandelbaum (born 1926),… …   Wikipedia

  • Joel Lebowitz — (1975) Joel Leb …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Microtonal music — Composer Charles Ives chose the chord above as good possibility for a fundamental chord in the quarter tone scale, akin not to the tonic but to the major chord of traditional tonality.(Boatright 1971, 8 9)   …   Wikipedia

  • 31 equal temperament — In music, 31 equal temperament, which can be abbreviated 31 tET, 31 EDO, 31 ET, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 31 equal sized steps. Each step represents a frequency ratio of 21/31, or 38.71 cents.Division of the octave …   Wikipedia

  • 19 equal temperament — In music, 19 equal temperament, called 19 TET, 19 EDO, or 19 ET, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 19 equally large steps. Each step represents a frequency ratio of 21/19, or 63.16 cents. Because 19 is a prime number, one… …   Wikipedia

  • Abraham Edel — (6 December 1908 ndash; 22 June 2007) was a North American philosopher and ethicist. He was the younger brother of North American literary critic and biographer Leon Edel, the uncle of composer Joel Mandelbaum. He was married three times; the… …   Wikipedia

  • Harmonic seventh — Inverse Septimal major second Name Other names Septimal minor seventh, Subminor seventh Abbreviation m7 Size Semitones …   Wikipedia

  • Ekmelik — Mikrotonale Musik arbeitet mit mikrotonalen Intervallen, die unterhalb eines Halbtons bzw. die zwischen den Halbtönen liegen. Derartige Töne werden zwar stetig auch in klassischer Musik oder in Pop und Jazz eingesetzt (in Trillern, Glissandi,… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ekmelische Musik — Mikrotonale Musik arbeitet mit mikrotonalen Intervallen, die unterhalb eines Halbtons bzw. die zwischen den Halbtönen liegen. Derartige Töne werden zwar stetig auch in klassischer Musik oder in Pop und Jazz eingesetzt (in Trillern, Glissandi,… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Mikroton — Mikrotonale Musik arbeitet mit mikrotonalen Intervallen, die unterhalb eines Halbtons bzw. die zwischen den Halbtönen liegen. Derartige Töne werden zwar stetig auch in klassischer Musik oder in Pop und Jazz eingesetzt (in Trillern, Glissandi,… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”