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We are
pleased to announce that Cris Forster’s
book,
Musical Mathematics: On the Art and Science of
Acoustic Instruments,
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Musical Mathematics is
currently available at more than 100
university libraries and other educational
institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
The British Library, Juilliard, Harvard,
Dartmouth,
Yale, Columbia, MIT, New York Public
Library, University of Chicago,
Stanford University,
California Institute of Technology,
five U.C. campuses, etc. |
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Musical Mathematics is the
definitive tome for the adventurous musician.
Integrating mathematics, music history, and
hands-on experience, this volume serves as a
comprehensive guide to the tunings and scales of
acoustic instruments from around the world. Author,
composer, and builder Cris Forster illuminates the
mathematical principles of acoustic music, offering
practical information and new discoveries about
both traditional and innovative instruments. With
this knowledge readers can improve, or begin
to build, their own instruments inspired by
Forster’s creations shown in the 16 color plates. For those ready to
step outside musical conventions and those whose
curiosity about the science of sound is never
satisfied, Musical Mathematics is the map to
a new musical world. |
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Release Date: July 14, 2010 |
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Hardcover, cloth case, and dust jacket |
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Sewn binding |
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8¾
x 11⅛ x 1.9 in |
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944 pp |
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16 color
plates |
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249 figures |
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105 tables |
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4 bibliographies |
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8 appendices |
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● Comprehensive index |
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Table of Contents
[PDF] |
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Look Inside!
[PDF] |
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Bibliography
[PDF] |
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Index
[PDF] |
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Seven Reviews + 1
[PDF] |
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Cris Forster with Chrysalis (1981) |
Photo by Norman Seeff |
We
are pleased to announce the release of our
30th anniversary documentary:
A VOYAGE IN MUSIC
A film by Eli Noyes and Heidi Forster, 2006
This film is a retrospective of Cris
Forster’s work over the past thirty years. It presents an
overview of the creative life of this prolific musical
instrument builder, writer, composer, and performer, and
features insightful interviews with Mr. Forster and Chrysalis
Ensemble musicians. The documentary also includes detailed
chapters and performances on all seven original instruments
tuned in just intonation, descriptions of all the music he has composed to
date, and a discussion of his book, Musical Mathematics: On
the Art and Science of Acoustic Instruments. The film is a lively mix of history, theory,
philosophy, and thoughtful commentary on the field of acoustic
music.
The Chrysalis Foundation
is proud to support the work of this modern musical master. We
will use A Voyage in Music as an educational tool and
for audience development. This documentary substantiates the
importance of raising funds to support the self-publication of
Musical Mathematics and the production of Ellis
Island/Angel Island: A Vision of the American Immigrants,
Mr. Forster’s current work-in-progress.
A Voyage in Music
runs one hour. In addition, it includes another hour with full
performances of eight pieces and a slideshow.
A Voyage in Music,
a film by Eli Noyes and Heidi Forster.
DVD:
$10.00.
Shipping and handling (in the U.S.): $5.00.
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REVIEW FROM THE BERLIN MUSIC FESTIVAL:
A Bard With Two Lyres
Cris
Forster with “For Eyes and Ears” at the Academy
Berlin, January 25, 1980 — Der Tagesspiegel
The fascination with Walt
Whitman, the singer of America, of mystical nature, of democracy, equality and the central poetical
“I,” the avower also of homosexuality in the age of the American cult of manhood,
the fascination with this poet of the nineteenth century has taken hold of the
twentieth. Although long recognized as world literature, he is to this day
difficult to grasp and fully comprehend, although he was and is beloved, a poet who
makes disciples, and yet the experts cannot agree on a definitive critical edition
of all his works. Since the experiences of the Second World War, Walt Whitman’s
idealism, his humanity, his transcendental and emotional lyricism, has again
brought him close to many people. Among musicians, he has been set to music by such
diverse natures as Paul Hindemith (“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed”),
Leonard Bernstein with a poem in the “Songfest,” and now — Cris Forster.
In the musical program of “For Eyes and
Ears,” a persuasive exhibition in the Academy of the Arts, Cris Forster’s
performance, an art of stillness and concentration, succeeded in overcoming a not
too insignificant daytime handicap: noise from the lobby, during free admission to
a very popular exhibition, penetrated loudly into the foyer despite a closed
sliding door.
Here they stood — Forster’s instruments/works
of art, which he himself designed and built in San Francisco and San Diego: one,
dominated by a rotating spruce wheel with 82 strings on each side, which he calls
“Chrysalis,” as well as a rectangular one with 48 strings; both instruments tuned
according to mathematical principles to achieve desired melodies and harmonies.
Cris Forster, born in 1948 in Brazil, lived
for a time in Berlin during the fifties, then went to the USA. He has been a
musician, piano tuner, and finally coworker of Harry Partch, whose instrumentarium
he built, tuned, repaired, and supervised. He is self-taught in mathematics and
acoustics.
From Walt Whitman’s life work, Leaves of
Grass, which grew from twelve poems privately published in 1855 to nearly 400 in
1891–92, Cris Forster selected for his performance eleven from the third book,
“Song of Myself.”
A modern bard, perhaps also a Whitman priest,
whose interpretation constitutes a nexus between the centuries, Forster begins and
ends with, “I celebrate myself,” and the whole is naturally a self-celebration of
the artist (as is probably the interesting, if debatable, concept of “service to
the work”), but with a strong artistic impression as well. Because the singer has
nuances (intoning, Sprechgesang with outbursts, a critical questioning character in
dynamic forte, a kind of rhythmic chanting, pure speech), that illuminate,
elucidate, and revere Whitman’s word and thought in a most captivating manner.
In addition: a mysterious set of strings,
stroked with bare hands; changes in pitch within a narrow range, scales in which
voice and instrument proceed in paced uniformity, chords with stressed keynotes,
dissonant arpeggios (“Enough,” No. 38), or such that melodically conjure up a
sphere of dreams (“Happiness,” No. 50.). As if from a distance come the quiet
bright sounds in the song of poem No. 6, which imparts the following about
Whitman’s conception of the world: “A child said What is the grass? fetching it to
me with full hands. How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more
than he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff
woven. Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord…”
Sybill Mahlke
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SONG OF MYSELF
Intoned Poems of Walt Whitman
A
Composition by Cris Forster, 1976
● Privately published performance score for Chrysalis and Harmonic/Melodic Canon
tuned in just intonation, and
Voice.
● High quality printing on archival paper; 11 × 14 in
● Laminated cover.
● Wire binding.
● pp. i–xi: Detailed tuning charts for Chrysalis and Harmonic/Melodic Canon;
and detailed descriptions of instrument notations and performance
practices.
● pp. 1–73: Musical score of the following eleven poems from Walt Whitman’s
Song of
Myself:
1. I celebrate myself, and sing myself
6. A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands
7. Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?
18. With music strong I come, with my cornets and my drums
19. This is the meal equally set, this the meat for natural hunger
21. I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul
34. Now I tell what I knew in Texas in my early youth
38. Enough! enough! enough!
50. There is that in me ― I do not know what it is ― but I know it is in me
51. The past and present wilt ― I have fill’d them, emptied them
52. The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my
loitering
Score: $35.00.
Shipping and handling (in the U.S.): $10.00.
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Song of Myself:
Intoned Poems of Walt Whitman, performed by Cris Forster.
CD: $10.00.
Shipping and handling (in the U.S.): $5.00.
