The Poetics and Politics of Ambiguity: Overtone Structures and Equal Temperament in Works by Julian Anderson and Rand Steiger

Abstract

The use of the harmonic series as a pitch-generating resource is a significant trend in twentieth- and twenty-first-century composition. While the principle of equal temperament prioritizes an additive understanding of intervals, the harmonic series implies a ratio-based approach to pitch relationships. Despite these philosophical differences and the sometimes polemical debates that have attended to them, the works of Julian Anderson (1967–) and Rand Steiger (1957–) draw simultaneously on overtone-based and equal-tempered harmonic thinking. These two composers are part of a significant group of musicians who have proposed various hybrid approaches to harmonic construction, and their works are also remarkable for playing out interactions between these influences in ways which reflect the composers’ political concerns. In this paper, I combine examinations of Anderson’s and Steiger’s characteristic harmonic strategies with close analyses of two quartertone-based works: Anderson’s Eden (2005) and Steiger’s Post-truth Lament (2017). I use these discussions to consider the pieces’ diverse political resonances and argue that their hybrid harmonic systems give rise to a range of musically generative and politically suggestive notions of ambiguity.