I went to hear a concert of the music of the Austrian composer Georg Haas at Miller Theatre. It was extraordinary. I was unfamiliar with his music before this concert, and now I am eager to hear more. The most distinguishing feature of his music is the use of all kinds of microtones; just intonation, overtone series, quarter tones, you name it. But all of this is in service of obtaining some absolutely beautiful sonorities; you really feel like you have landed on some other, different planet where they never were limited to the tempered scale. His sonic imagination is truly amazing. But Haas' sensibility is a very traditional one, though; these sonorities are used to build up great masses of sound and climaxes which are almost Wagnerian in expression. In texture, the music most closely resembles that of Scelsi; sonorites are sustained and juxtaposed, and the language is basically harmonic and timbral.
The major work on the program, "Atthis", a cantata for mezzo and eight instruments, is a moving work in the European art music tradition. Using texts from Sappho, it is extremely expressive in a very traditional sense. Usually, microtones sound like out of tune playing to me; but, in this music, it all seems very natural and convincing. Needless to say, the piece is extremely difficult to perform, especially for the singer. I thought the performances were fantastic. Brad Lubman conducted the Ensemble Signal, and the singer was Rachel Calloway.
The first work on the program "tria ex uno", for small ensemble, starts as a straightforward arrangement of a short fragment from Josquin. The second short section turns that fragment into something like Webern's arrangement of Bach. The third, and longest part takes the Josquin into Hass' microtonal world in an entirely convincing and expressive manner.
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