Some of the harmonics on the series would be quite out-of-tune if played on a regularly tuned, equal-tempered guitar.Tenney obviates this problem by retuning a couple of strings on the guitars responsible for each harmonic—and restricting the musical material for that guitar only to those notes that can be sounded accurately in tune.
The repertoire of American composer James Tenney (1934-2006) is among the most diverse and stimulating in experimental music.
He studied with, amongst others Chou Wen-Chung and John Cage.Tenney’s work deals with perception (For Ann (rising), see Shepard tone), just intonation (Clang, see gestalt), stochastic elements (Music for Player Piano), information theory (Ergodos, see ergodic theory), and with what he called ‘swell’ (Koan: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion for John Bergamo), which is basically arch form.