Tom Johnson: Plucking

Featuring

Alison Bjorkedal
Kozue Matsumoto
Ric Alviso
Paul Livingstone
Pirayeh Pourafar
Richard Valitutto

Eric Ederer
John Schneider
Tom Peters
Just Strings
Tom Johnson

Did you know?

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Composer's Artistic Vision

For his work "Plucking," Johnson intentionally left the instrumentation open to any plucking instruments from diverse cultures, believing the physics of plucking a string is universal.

Performer Biography

John Schneider, a Grammy-winning guitarist on this album, holds a Ph.D. in Physics & Music and has released over twenty albums.

Compositional Technique

The piece "Plucking" is based on mathematical "tilings," where different rhythms combine to cover each point of a line or loop exactly once, allowing solo instruments to play polyphonic canons.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Tom Johnson, the composer, often uses formulas, permutations, predictable sequences, and mathematical models in his music, distinguishing him from most minimalists.

Compositional Technique

Johnson's piece "Failing: a very difficult piece for solo string bass" is self-explanatory, with the performer narrating the piece's structure and offering commentary.

Recording & Production

This recording of Tom Johnson's "Rational Melodies" uniquely tunes each piece to a particular Just Intonation, where every interval is expressed as a frequency ratio of whole numbers.

Compositional Technique

Johnson's "Doublings," a cycle for solo double bass, generates each phase by doubling the length of the previous one, with the piece ending when the performer loses their way.