Jonathan Snead

Instrumentation: microtonal viola da gamba, live electronics, voice
Duration: varies, ca. 25 minutes
Year: 2022

Click here to read the complete thesis, including full score and performance instructions

Program Note:
Untune the Sky is a collection of ten short pieces for viola da gamba tuned in 7-limit just intonation with voice and electronics. It combines elements of early music, traditional Irish dance music, and tuning practices derived from Harry Partch and Ben Johnston into a cohesive work: music that is simultaneously novel and familiar. The score contains minimal “editorial” markings, offering performers freedom to interpret, ornament, and improvise. The title comes from John Dryden’s 1687 poem “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day,” which depicts harmony as a fundamental thread of the fabric of the world, governing both its creation and its destruction:

So when the last and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour,
The trumpet shall be heard on high,
The dead shall live, the living die,
And music shall untune the sky.