microtonal music for the midwest and beyond
NEWS!
2011-11-7
REGISTRATION for the 2011 (3rd annual) UnTwelve composition competition is now open! Please see the main competition page so you can peruse the rules. From there you will be led to an online email registration form, and you email will contain further instructions on how to upload your information and music!
2011-10-3
NOTE:THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED
We are having a listening party on Sunday, Oct. 9th, 2pm at the home of Randall West. Please see the events page for more...
2011-8-2
Check out the new JavaScript animated Stern-Brocot tree! New features will be added bit by bit, but for now it's an interesting fun animation that also serves to illustrate a little bit of the intersection between number theory and tuning theory.
2011-6-28
We are proud to announce that positions and limited scholarships are still available for the ODDMUSIC-Urbana/Champaign Xenharmonic Praxis summer camp, from July 25-August 5th, co-sponsored by UnTwelve and the School for Designing a Society. The event will be a workshop on 320-acres of pristine mountain beauty in West Virginia, and special guest instructor Toby Twining will be a huge reason to participate. See the dedicated page for more info...
2011-5-24
UnTwelve announces phase two of a magical event: the merging of musical and astronomical forces. Join us for the Summer Solstice musical event, which will feature piano music in Centaur tuning, kalimba jams, and participatory vocalisation and celebratory wine-glass ringing!
This event is on June 18th@7pm. Please check out the events page for more details.
2011-4-4
UnTwelve will host a microtonal music listening session on Saturday, April 30th @ 8pm (with a 7pm social hour) at the home of new board member Randall West. We will be listening to, studying and discussing Toby Twining's monumental choral masterpiece, Chrysalid Requiem. More info on the events page. The event is free and open to the public, but if you can, kindly RSVP and consider making a small cash donation at the event to cover food costs, etc.
2011-3-18
Presentation of the 60x60 UnTwelve mix in video collaboration with Patrick Liddell. Today at 12pm - Lewis University, Romeoville, IL.
2011-1-14
May we present the winners of 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize of our 2010 composition competition. From the link page, you can access audio files of the submitted pieces from the contestants, read their program notes, and read interviews with the 3 winners. The finalists for the competition had their works premiered to the public on Jan. 29th.
2011-1-29
A reminder that the dark concert is happening tonight...the program will include all the finalists of the 2010 composition competition. See the events page for more information.
2010-12-15
The 2010 competition stopped accepting submissions today, so judging is officially underway...
2010-10-07
There is another presentation TONIGHT at 7pm at the West Gym of Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA, of the 60x60 UnTwelve Mix
2010-8-27
We are proud to announce the 2nd annual composition competition. Please see the dedicated page for more details, and for instructions on how to apply
2010-8-6
The first full-length udderbot concert will be happening in Urbana, IL on 2010-8-20 @ 8pm. More info here.
2010-7-23
Another 60x60 UnTwelve presentation will happen tonight in Kansas City, Missouri. See the events page...
2010-7-5 @ 7pm
Aaron Krister Johnson, founder of UnTwelve, will be presenting a lecture on the history of tuning and tuning systems tomorrow evening. See the events page for more info.
2010-6-2
UnTwelve continues its collaboration with 60x60 via the UnTwelve Mix...this time it's a concert in Charlestown, Massachusetts, at the Charlestown Working Theater, Wednesday June 9th @ 8pm. If you are in the area, come out and hear the mix!
2010-6-1
We wish to welcome our new intern, Jared Grebner to the UnTwelve team! We are thrilled that he will be able to take on many tasks and administrative duties which will make our organization run like a swiss clock! Learn more about Jared at his UnTwelve page.
2010-01-06
Check out the events page....there is an upcoming private concert of electronic music by Aaron Krister Johnson which will take place on January 30th, 8pm.
2009-10-29
We are excited to announce a collaboration with 60x60 and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago on April 27th, 2010.
Mark your calenders, spectators! Check out the events page!
If you are a composer and would like to contribute, please see this page.
2009-10-23
We proudly announce the winners (a tie) of our 1st competition: Andrián Pertout (Australia) and Petr Pařízek (Czech Republic)....stay tuned, in the coming days, we will post information and audio for their works and the finalist/contestant info as well....
2009-10-01
The final day of our COMPETITION has arrived! We are excited to review all the entries. Stay posted for updates as judging progresses.....
2009-09-16
Besides our composition competition being in process, what UnTwelve really needs now are INTERNS!!! Are you studying arts administration? Perhaps you want to then work for us and get credit for your school? Perhaps you have a passion for all things microtonal and microtonal music and you want to volunteer your time to help our mission? Or maybe you have an area of expertise that you can help us with? PR? Web design? Flash programming? (we'd like to do some cool webapps) Contact
us by reading these words: interns AT untwelve DAAHT org
2009-08-20
Our composition competition is underway...due date for submission is OCT 1st. Please see the 2009 competition page for more details.
Also, please note that we are still selling our 2009 compilation CD. It is a truly remarkable and enjoyable collection of fine microtonal music, and we hope that you will purchase it to both enjoy the music and support our organization!
Finally, we are thrilled to be a part of the Museum of Contemporary Art concert series: we are a featured guest on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010...mark your calendars! We will be performing and explaining all the different varieties of un-welveness, including just intonation, microtones and microtonal music, temperaments, non-Western scales and tunings, etc.
2009-06-20
Guitarist Dante Rosati will perform in Chicago for an UnTwelve concert, June 6th @ 8pm
New York City master guitarist and Julliard faculty member Dante Rosati's guitar compositions are steeped in a thorough absorption of the great Spanish classical guitar tradition, with more than a nod to beauty for beauty's sake and reflective passion and sensuality; yet they are also innovative in terms of extending the possibilities of both technique and tuning. He will perform selections of his guitar works live at the Palette & Chisel, surrounded by the beautiful works in the exhibit Serene la Femme.
Mr. Rosati uses custom refretted guitars to accomodate a pure intonation tunings system, utilizing the ancient knowledge of relationships in the overtone series. The end result is a sound which is both satisfyingly new as it is elegant and sensual. He will also demonstate and answer question about his guitars, the tuning systems used and his compositions. A unique evening not to be missed!
Please see our events page!
$10-You can order tickets to reserve a seat for this event here
2009-03-28
Please join us for a private event on Saturday evening.
Details on the events page.
2009-01-03
Happy New Year, everybody!
Please join us in on Sunday, Jan 11th, in Champaign-Urbana, IL for an instrument building summit and concert event...please see the EVENTS page HERE for more info.
2008-11-10
It's been a while since there has been news posted.
Check out some video footage from the July 31st event here and here.
We are now an official Illinois non-for-profit organization, a significant symbolic milestone has been passed! Plans are underway to start a nice season of activities and concerts, and we have already contacted some high profile artists, who were very enthusiastic about eventually appearing on our series.
We wish to say thanks again to all those who came out to support the cause, and/or those who contributed money in the form of checks or online donations. Your belief in the power of our music and presentation is inspiring. We hope you will continue your support in this, the crucial early stages of bringing the vision to life. This brings us to the next point--dollars. Although our July 31st event was a great success as a concert, it basically left us breaking even as far as fundraising. We need a coherent plan, and that is what we, the board, are scheming.
To eventually bring out-of-town artists into the fold of this series, we have drafted a 3-tiered plan:
1) With a limited budget in mind, we play any shows in the immediate future ourselves with our growing core ensemble of musicians, educating and entertaining our local audiences with our compositions, improvisations and educational musings on the art.
2) Bring in our friendly colleagues who are passionate and sympathetic to our cause who are willing and able to play for us without breaking our bank. We have 1 or 2 such artists in mind for the next year.
3) All the while, we generate momentum and interest and dollars through fundraising, and --- membership!
Regarding the last point, the board of UnTwelve is still in a planning stage working out a fundraising and membership path. What will future events look like? What will membership cost, and what will it offer?
Stay tuned for more details!
2008-6-20
There will be a benefit event on July 31st at the new venue in Evanston, IL called SPACE. Tickets will be available for sale by Monday, June 23rd.
2008-5-27
MidwestMicrofest is now UnTwelve. The new name reflects our desire to increase the scope of our project beyond any kind of geographical bounds, to make the name reflect broad ideas, including a concert series as well as educational components and web presence, as well as to simply make the name a bit more 'hip' and able to sum up a rather complex topic rather briefly.
2008-3-06
We had a preliminary 'proto-board' meeting in March, and are planning the rest of the series, and getting down to the business of making this a working and continually active organization
Older news:
Listen to an interview with co-founder Aaron Krister Johnson on Chicago Public Radio, October 19th, 2007, between 9am-10am Central Time.
Mission Statement
The dimension of pitch in music (how high or low a certain musical sound is) remains largely tied to a standardized set of 12 notes.
UnTwelve is dedicated to exploring the current and historical frontiers of music beyond that 12-note tuning system. We have made it our mission and vision to commission and perform musical works which display the excitement and beauty available to those who venture into this new territory, both for audiences and musicians.
In addition, we seek to set up musical education programs that highlight the wide-open expressive possibilities of such systems, and to promote and foster their usage by the current and next generation of musicians and composers.