This article examines the relationship between orchestration and microtonality in the music of Marc Sabat through a score-based analysis of two recent works, Asking Ocean (2016), for string quartet and large ensemble, and The Luminiferous Aether (2018), for large orchestra. Excerpts from these two compositions are discussed to highlight the challenges of composing for orchestral forces in a musical style that demands a high degree of microtonal pitch precision. Through retuning, alteration, and a sensitivity to the construction, techniques and performance practices of orchestral instruments, Sabat has developed a unique manner of orchestrating that is at once timbrally rich and uncompromising in pitch precision. After a brief introduction to the extended just intonation framework that Sabat employs, his concepts of ‘fixed microtonal pitches’ and ‘tuneable intervals’ are discussed and connected to orchestration in his scores. Drawing upon this analysis, connections are made between the microtonal system with orchestration and musical aesthetics broadly.

中文翻译：

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MARC SABAT 管弦乐中的管弦乐和音高精确度

本文通过对最近两部作品的基于乐谱的分析，探讨了 Marc Sabat 音乐中的管弦乐和微调性之间的关系，问海（2016），为弦乐四重奏和大型合奏，以及发光的以太（2018），为大型管弦乐队。讨论了这两个作品的节选，以突出在需要高度微音音高精确度的音乐风格中为管弦乐队作曲所面临的挑战。通过对管弦乐器的结构、技术和演奏实践的重新调音、改变和敏感性，Sabat 开发了一种独特的管弦乐方式，这种方式同时具有丰富的音色和毫不妥协的音高精度。在简要介绍了 Sabat 使用的扩展准音调框架后，他的“固定微音调音高”和“可调音程”的概念被讨论并与他的乐谱中的配器联系起来。根据这一分析，在微音调系统与管弦乐和音乐美学之间建立了广泛的联系。