Label: Sub Rosa

大大大推薦!!希少楽器を使った名曲集!!微分音音楽のパイオニアであるAlois Habaの委嘱で作られた特殊楽器Sixth-Tone Harmonium。1世紀近くチェコ音楽博物館に展示されていた貴重な楽器であり、本作は世界で唯一のプレイヤーであるMiroslav Beinhauerが演奏を担当、Alois Habaの1928年の楽曲と現行の作曲家達による2022~2023年の新たな楽曲を演奏した面白企画音源2CD。ハイライトはやはり全44分に及ぶPhill Niblock御大の強靭クラスター・ドローンですが、Klaus LangやMilan Gustarといった面々も興味深いコンセプトにてハードコア且つ珍妙な持続音を創出しています。







Until recently, the sixth-note harmonium was just one of the many exhibits in the Czech Museum of Music. After almost a century, however, it is enjoying a renaissance and attracting the interest of the professional public, musicians and composers.
The first model of the sixth-tone harmonium was created in the 1920s on the basis of a commission from the pioneer of microtonal music, Alois Hába, whose visions for its construction convinced the company August Förster. The improved model of the harmonium dates from 1936 by the same company. The first Czechoslovak president Masaryk supported the purchase of the new instrument by contributing ten thousand crowns, and the same amount was added by the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment at the time. The only example of a working sixth-tone harmonium in the world belongs to the collections of the National Museum and is permanently exhibited in the Czech Museum of Music in Prague.
Pianist Miroslav Beinhauer (*1993) is recently the only musician in the world who can play this unique instrument. In 2018, he participated in the premiere of Hába's sixth-tone opera Come Thy Kingdom, followed by the staging and recording of Alois Hába's opus Sixth compositions for sixth-tone harmonium, op. 37, which was the only solo composition for this instrument for more than ninety years. In the last three years, new repertoire for sixth-tone harmonium has been written by renowned Czech and foreign composers.
New compositions were written by Phill Niblock, Klaus Lang, Bernhard Lang, Milan Guštar, Judith Berkson, Idin Samimi Mofakham and Ian Mikyska. The premiere of these compositions took place in August 2023 as part of the Ostrava Days contemporary music festival.