Xenharmonic Music Bulletin*
by Jacob Barton
*Xenharmonic Bulletin was the name of Ivor Darreg's newsletter and the Xenharmonic Alliance was the term he used for his group of correspondents. This periodic column by Jacob Barton uses the term to honor and continue Ivor's effort to facilitate communication among Microtonalists and to announce events and resources.
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October 2026
I should do these bulletins more often.
Microtonal University, a program of the American Festival of Microtonal Music, kicked off its sixth season last Sunday with a discussion of Quantum Music. Sessions are held Sundays at 1 PM (Eastern Time) from now until November 22, breaking for December and January, and resuming for a second 'semester' Feb. 7 - June 6. It costs a mere $130 to attend the entire series, can you believe that?!
In the very same weekend, the 2026 Small is Beautiful International Symposium Mikrotöne occurred at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Photos and paper abstracts are perusable over here.
Now and Xen, now in its eighth year, has crossed the 100th episode mark on June 30. Congratulations to Stephen Weigel and all the interviewees and contributors!
Gordon Wery is hosting a contest for music compositions in 31 equal divisions of the octave. Entries must be 5 minutes or shorter, tuned in 31-EDO, and submitted before October 31 (Halloween). The finalists will be judged live on Gordon's livestream channel, @xenpilled on youtube, and the winner will receive a TS41 Microtonal MIDI Keyboard made by Tristan Bay. Start yer xengines!
The xenharmonic wiki (xen.wiki) is ever a project under construction, brimming with constant constructive activity. For example, there is discussion currently about how to consistently and clearly name scales that are formed by taking segments of the harmonic or subharmonic series. A poll was taken, and 30 people voted. Maybe you were one of them! If you feel the call to have your voice reflected in the wiki, the invitation is always open—join as an editor yourself, or reach out to current editors with your concerns and ideas.
"And then there were two..." Last fall, a new wiki project began. Xenharmonic Reference (XR, xenreference.com) is "a place for documentation and sharing of xenharmonic music and theory, dedicated to the development of xenharmonic practice. As a result of being focused on compositional theory, it aims to be accessible to the interested beginner while also containing niche compositional theories that may become a new established compositional approach."
This past May saw Untwelving, a 3-day convention in Münich! Lectures, instrument exhibitions, roundtable discussions, and of course performances featuring Maddie Ashman, FastFast, Tolgahan Çoğulu & Ayşegül Aykaç, Stephen Weigel, Anna-Maria Hefele, Elaine Walker, Dolores Catherino, Embryo, Tachy Bunker, Catherine Lamb, Philipp Gerschlauer w/ Buchteln-Trio feat. Georg Vogel, Hear Between the Lines, Johannes Keller, Marc Sabat, Robin Hayward, Lore Amenabar Larrañaga, Sohui Jeong, ****&c., Asra3, Beni Brachtel, Rodrigo Sena, Peter Jung, Edward Clijsen, Krzysztof Kicior, Todd Ian Harrop, diskopeter, Ed Williams, and more.
A initiative for producing vividly xenharmonic vocal music, spearheaded by Thomas Scheurich and tentatively titled Xenharmonic Bonanza of Practice (XBOP), is seeking organizing help and feedback on design from anyone interested in the project. Read more and add comments here.
Lots of new microtonal music software is being developed and released. I will save an overview of that for the next bulletin.
I should really do these bulletins more often.
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March 2025
My View from Here
Every day I am humbled by my smallness and relative irrelevance in the multiverse of microtonality. There are so many interesting things going on that I can't keep up, and this is truly a blessed problem to have. This is my view from here. -Jacob Barton
Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival 2025
Music on the Edge in Pittsburgh, PA presented a 5-day festival of microtonal music last month. Did you go? Let's hear how it was for you. Peruse the program here!
Microtonal Instruments Competing for the Guthman Prize
The Guthman Prize is a yearly cash prize for new musical instruments. I thought I would offer a brief description of the microtonal capabilities of the ten finalist instruments. My own Udderbot is microtonal in the glissando sense. Nic Bras's Double Hacked Trumpet is tuned to the overtone series of whatever lengths of tube you put in, so inherently xenharmonic even if the fundamentals 12-tuned. Mulatar boasts moveable bridges. Sophtar and 3-Axis MIDI Guitar look to be fretted in 12, but theoretically refrettable without much modification to their design. The Petika is an explicitly microtonal keyboard project, as is the ModμMIDI. Chromaplane, Living Strings, and Dinosaur Choir rely on advanced digital audio synthesis in ways not locked into 12-tone equal temperament. So, all in all, the future looks pretty microtonal. Cool!
Tuning of the Moment?
A Tuning of the Year club is forming on the Xenharmonic Alliance Discord server. Internal voting has determined 22-EDO as the chosen tuning, but a contingent will also be at work on 23-EDO, the chosen "weird" tuning. Tuning of the Year club is an opportunity to dive deep into one tuning, collaborate on the collection of resources supporting work in that tuning, support one another in meeting goals by juggling roles.
Meanwhile, two Tuning of the Month clubs soldier on: The Xenharmonic Alliance Discord's Tuning of the Month Club has just wrapped up Valentine temperament (basically, the system generated by 2\31) for February, and the candidates for March's tuning, which concluded on March 1, 2025 at 7:07 AM, included 15edo, 7-tone Persian, Penslen, Chair lattices, 39edt, Fendo, Miracle, Pajara, 28ed3, Sensi temperament, 35edo, 23edo, Straw, and "the Union of all other nominations".
Meanwhile, the Facebook Group "XA - Monthly Tunings" is now voting neck-and-neck between an extension of this month's 55-EDO, or 56-EDO. Voting will stay open until March 4th 20:00 UTC+1 for the Facebook group. So, wherever you like to hang out, get in there, vote for your fave, and nerd out every month.
The 9th International Microtonal Guitar Competition is underway, with entries due on May 27, 2025. Instruments are being offered as prizes.
Now and Xen Podcast Cont'd
The Now and Xen Podcast is a podcast about contemporary microtonal and xenharmonic music, launched by Sevish and led by Stephen Weigel. It is released sporadically (least until its subscriber base reaches a threshold of 60 patrons—join now!) and Stephen has just last week released two new episodes (83 & 84) featuring Richie Green and Subhraag Singh! Listen