Well Tuned Brass

Zinc & Copper's sound and approach to music is summarised by the term "well tuned brass" - which is also the name of their self-organised series in Berlin. Well Tuned Brass 2020 featured works by Ellen Arkbro, Cenk Ergün, Robin Hayward, Hilary Jeffery and Duane Pitre. The series continues in 2021 with performances of music by Hayden Chisholm, Hanna Hartman, Christoph Herndler, Catherine Lamb, Michał Libera, Barbara Kinga Majewska, Phill Niblock, Éliane Radigue and Kasper T. Toeplitz.

The microtonal playing of the tuba developed by Robin Hayward for the entire range of the instrument, as well as the Tuning Vine software he developed, form the starting point for the ensemble's exploratory exploration of microtonal tunings, creating a characteristic and harmonically rich ensemble sound. The connection between timbre and microtonal tunings requires a profound understanding of overtones and undertones, which is both theoretically imbued and acquired through listening and playing.

The central research subject of intonation also opens up connections to other musical parameters, epochs and cultures. In the ensemble's collaboration with the French composer Eliane Radigue, for example, microtonal beats between overtones play an important role. Here, the speed of these beats forms a direct link between intonation, timbre and rhythm.

In the collaboration with the Swedish composer Ellen Arkbro, a bridge to Renaissance music is created via the church organ's mean tone tuning. A similar connection is evident in the collaboration with Simon Martin, who uses the Hayward Tuning Vine both in composing and generating the sine waves for his piece.

The ensemble's focus on intonation also opens up connections to other musical cultures and other art forms, for example in the projects "Maqam / Brass Resonance" with Amir ElSaffar, "Winter's Welcome" by Keith Tippett, or the collaboration with visual artist Leonor Antunes, in which the length relations of Antunes' pipe sculptures were transferred to the instruments.

tuningvine.com