Matthew Rosenblum: Möbius Loop (2013)

performed by Kenneth Coon (sax), Lisa Pegher (percussion), Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose (conductor)
composed by Mathew Rosenblum

The earlier works of Pittsburgh-based composer Mathew Rosenblum featured a microtonal scale of his own development, with 21 (or 19) pitches to the octave. The works on this release (written between 2000 and 2012) still make use of microtones. To that feature, however, Rosenblum has added a careening mix of other influences, including jazz, rock, abstract contrapuntal forms, Latin music Rosenblum encountered as a high school student in New York City, and more. It sounds like an example of annoying postmodern pastiche, but ... Read More

The earlier works of Pittsburgh-based composer Mathew Rosenblum featured a microtonal scale of his own development, with 21 (or 19) pitches to the octave. The works on this release (written between 2000 and 2012) still make use of microtones. To that feature, however, Rosenblum has added a careening mix of other influences, including jazz, rock, abstract contrapuntal forms, Latin music Rosenblum encountered as a high school student in New York City, and more. It sounds like an example of annoying postmodern pastiche, but what holds it together is that there's a consistent structural principle as all the different sounds go by. That principle is tonality, and annotator Andrew Druckenbrod likens Rosenblum's use of it to Berg's in his Violin Concerto: the tonality is "built into" the music's basic technical device (twelve-tone organization in Berg's case, the microtonal scale in Rosenblum's). Another way to look at it would be that the microtones deepen the harmonic shading as a work proceeds here, and... Read Less