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5 Canons
5 Canons (1997), for solo harpsichord, was written for Kevin Bowyer who is internationally known for his interpretations, at the organ, of the music of J.S. Bach. He was beginning (in the 1990s) to give harpsichord recitals and this piece was commissioned as part of this new venture. To my mind, something of Bach had…
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Birthday Dedication
To mark the birthday of our late friend Donald Bousted on 21st November, duo Contour, are releasing three movements of 19.5, recorded live to video, which were originally one online performance made as part of the ‘Mikrotöne: Small is Beautiful’ Symposium hosted by the Ekmelic Society in 2021. 19.5 (nineteen point five) A 12- movement,…
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ISPILU
My Time is Your Time (2020) for quarter-tone accordion NEW! CD Recording of My Time is Your Time on ISPILU by Lore Amenabar Larrañaga, quarter-tone accordion available now! In his last years, Donald Bousted was, perhaps ominously, dealing with the issue of ’Time’ in two works—Time Dreaming (2017-20) for three 19-division(s of the octave) trumpets, and My…
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A Tribute and Review of 19.5
The composer and author Patrick Ozzard-Low met Donald through the violinist Mieko Kanno in the late 1990s. Later, Donald was appointed Leverhulme Composer in Residence (2001-2) at the Centre for New Musical Instruments—which was founded and co-directed by Patrick—at London Guildhall University. On Don’s passing, Patrick kindly agreed to expand a facebook review he wrote…
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Dance of Leilah: Dance of Lilith
Some notes on: Dance of Leilah: Dance of Lilith for solo piano (1994, c. 11 mins) Dance of Leilah: Dance of Lilith is a solo piano piece inspired by Angela Carter’s powerful novel ‘The Passion of New Eve’. In the book, Leilah and Lilith are the same character transformed – physically, emotionally and intellectually – an…
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Notes on A Woldgate Requiem
A Woldgate Requiem for organ solo (c.8 mins) A Woldgate Requiem is a solo organ piece, extremely virtuosic in it’s orientation. It was written in response to a tragic road accident close to my home, when I was living in the East Riding of Yorkshire. A school coach carrying school children from Woldgate School, Pocklington crashed…
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The 4 valve microtonal trumpet
I have described in the blog, Developing the Microtonal Trumpet and its Pedagogy how The Microtonal Trumpet project developed from an exploration of a three-valve instrument using ‘natural’ deviations of pitch from the 12-div equal tempered standard. The first 5 to 10 of the 24 Microtonal Studies for trumpet were written with the idea that – more or…
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24 Microtonal Studies for Trumpet
24 Microtonal Studies for trumpet were written as first material for the replaceable valve mechanism microtonal trumpets developed by Stephen Altoft (although the first five to ten studies can be played on a standard trumpet as is described in the blog Developing the Microtonal Trumpet and its Pedagogy). They are pedagogical studies in that they: demand…
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Developing the Microtonal Trumpet and its Pedagogy
The trumpet is microtonal by its very nature because different pitches, which are made by overblowing a length of brass tubing, produce a harmonic series and are therefore not equally tempered: In the example, pitches are shown as sounding in open position on a C trumpet. Open position refers to there being no valves depressed: the trumpet player…
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DONALD BOUSTED Edition 