A New Dissonance

A New Dissonance: Translating Ben Johnston’s 10th String Quartet
2007-2008 ICE Project Grant
Jon Roy
Graduate Candidate
Lamar Dodd School of Art

A New Dissonance will document the preparation, rehearsal and performance of Ben Johnston’s 10th String Quartet, providing insight to the creative process of Johnston and his unique notation methods. Ben Johnston was born in Macon, Georgia in 1926 and studied with music legends Harry Partch, John Cage and Darius Milhaud. Johnston is currently Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Illinois, where he taught composition and theory from 1951-1983. Jon Roy, an MFA candidate in Art, will combine his background in visual art, film and music to enable a historic staging of the composition by the Kepler Quartet in Madison, Wisconsin. Performed only once before, the 10th String Quartet has been developed further by Johnston using computer-generated MIDI realizations. Roy will translate the composition’s microtonal acoustical principals to other disciplines, such as film and color theory, making the the results available via the Web and DVD.

For more information visit: http://newdissonance.com/

Ben Johnston