Manfred Stahnke: Die Vogelmenschen von St. Kilda (2008)
Manfred Stahnke uses in his “Birdpeople of Saint Kilda” the possibilities of (close-to) “Just Intonation” in the tempered BP scale (13th root of 3), see example. On the other hand, the 146 or 292 cents relations of fundamentals are explored, as well as chains of 146 cents steps, mostly in fast, bird-like figures. The “bird” aspect plays a major role in this piece: Please do NOT expect a well-balanced piece, neither in the sense of avantgarde music, nor in the sense of well-formed “songs.” It is more a music from a dreamed-of old community of people, as was the case with the isolated people from St.Kilda in the remotest part of the British Isles. When they communicated with people from the mainland of Scotland, they always talked in a “choir” of voices. This community made a life together with the gulls, from which they took the eggs. The community was destroyed in the 30′s of the 20th century, when a mirror was taken to the island, and people started to recognize themselves as individuals.
