Tuesday, 31 January 2017
5.00pm–6.30pm, Recital Room, Faculty of Music
Lecture-recital – Microtonal Guitar Music: in Sound and in Tune
Tolgahan Çoğulu
Istanbul Technical University and Turkish State Music Conservatory; CMPS Visiting Fellow
Whereas the standard guitar has fixed frets which are adjusted to the 12-tone equal-temperament system, recent innovations in guitar design allow microtonal music to be played, as a result of which microtonal pieces have been added to the guitar repertoire in the late 20th- and early 21st-centuries. The ‘Adjustable Microtonal Guitar’ is one such instrument; it was designed by Tolgahan Çoğulu in 2008. All the frets on the fretboard are movable along the channels under each string; in addition, any number of frets can be inserted into or removed from the fretboard. Since 2008, more than thirty composers have written microtonal pieces in various tunings for this guitar. In this lecture-recital, Tolgahan Çoğulu discusses microtonal music, the history of microtonal guitars, adjustable microtonal guitar design, and compositions and arrangements of polyphonic microtonal Turkish makam music for this guitar. He also performs some microtonal guitar music pieces.
TICKETS: Admission free
