“Steps To The Sea”
By Julia Werntz

My manual “Steps to the Sea: Ear Training and Composing in a Minute Equal Temperament” is now a Frog Peak Music publication, and is available for purchase on Amazon, here. “Steps to the Sea” contains microtonal ear training and compositional exercises, and analysis. It was the text used in my Microtonal Composition Composition and Performance class at the New England Conservatory until I stepped down from that position in 2022—and it continues to be the text for my course Microtonal Ear Training and Composition at Berklee College of Music. The process of ear training, understanding, and beginning to compose is broken down into manageable steps. Numerous audio examples are provided—the composition exercises beautifully performed by violist Mat Maneri, and the simple ear training drills with midi.

(See slideshow below for sample pages.)

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“Steps to the Sea” is also available together with several other excellent articles on microtonal music, in the book 1001 Microtones, published by von Bockel Verlag in Hamburg, Germany—edited by Sarvenaz Safari and Manfred Stahnke. Note: “Steps to the Sea,” and four other articles in the book, are in English, while the remaining four are in German.

Click here to order 1001 Microtones.

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