Alois Hába: Expanding the Scale

Available for 13 days

Kate Molleson and Gillian Moore present BBC Radio 3's series exploring the pivotal 'modern' musical works of the 20th century, the groundbreaking composers who created them, and the radical cultural and artistic movements which gave rise to them. In this episode, Kate explores the microtonal music of the Czech radical Alois Hába, leading to a performance of his String Quartet No. 5 from 1923. Along the way, we’ll find a Russian composer leaving his country because of his belief in the importance of abandoning equal temperament; discover why microtones might qualify as anti-bourgeois; and find a model for modern music in the Czech language itself. Produced by Sam Phillips A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3 To listen on most smart speakers, just say “ask BBC Sounds to play 20th Century Radicals”