source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 29 Oct 1995 01:04:04 -0800 Subject: Re: Denver MICROSTOCK From: Johnny Reinhard Allow me to make a report on Neil Haverstick's unqualified success in Colorado. It seems as if the entire state was participating, including printed press, radio (NPR and a local), university, classical musicians, citizens... The audience was warm, full, and comfortable enough to enjoy a 3 hour program. On a personal level I enjoyed premiering *Miles High* which allows me to create a trumpet sound on the bassoon by removing the reed and buzzing my lips on the bocal while breathing in. Presto changeo, the bassoon is a "trumpetoon" and the jazz played with cellist David Eggar and bassist Guy Tyler made for progressive jazz. Guy premired his own *Three on the Floor* which comes out of his rock band Texas Firewimmen and is in fast quartertones with an improv section based on glissandi. (All pieces were graciously received by this audience, regardless how new.) Mayumi presented 3 works - all using Harmonic-13 just intonation and skirted all stylistic categories, other than thorough-composed. Through the klezmer-sounding *Knishtet* quartet, the inward *Bassie* trio (remarkably akin to Eric Dolfy's *Eclipse* we realize since purchasing the CD in Denver), and *Peach* with its instrumental viruosity: all was clear and described as "heartfelt" by an NPR reviewer. My solo *Dune* opened our set the way it was meant too. (A bassoonist in the audience told me afterwards that I did 80 things on the bassoon that she had never imagined possible. And I intoned Harry Partch's *A Dream* complementing John Schneider's *Barstow*. It was a complete joy seeing and hearing John Schneider perform on his multiple fingerboards. His solo *Barstow* was corporeal in the most exciting way (notable was his turning around to look at the cross of the church intoning "Jesus was God in the flesh." The Lou Harrison work was scintilating and people hung on every consonance. John's own composition, which he re-arranged in just intonation "in order to liberate it from 12-ET" was more "sturm und drang" than any of the other works on his 45 minute set, refreshingly so. Special thanks to John's care about the acoustics of the sound space regarding curtains, placement, grandfather clocks, amplification, etc. But leader of the team was Neil Haverstick who set the stage for a grand event. His band with John Starrett (perhaps the grandfather of the Denver microtonal movement since he made the first 19-tone guitars and gave one to Neil) is a solid bassist with the mathematical and construction know-how to guide those interested in idiosyncratic microtonal pursuits, and drummer Ernie Crews (who came to my master class at UC at Boulder instructing microtonal bassoon to the bassoonists of the President of the International Double Reed Society class, and who has been a Partch disciple in study), is dynamite! New works by Neil in 34-tone ET and variety to the 19-tone Blues basis of the ensemble, and word has it that Neil is soon to be playing fretless in just intonation tunings... Check out his recording THE GATE, only you won't get to hear his new fast-picking country tune. Neil has captured the imagination of the Denver/Boulder region which is growing economically and microtonally. Somehow it seems amazing that there has been no comparable concert in California. Talking with Jon Catler, he thought I should spell out on this forum that the AFMM Ensemble can present music in a myriad of styles on the highest level (e.g. Partch and pioneers, imrov, original works, requested works, and rock throught the Microtones Band). John Schneider just represented American in Japan playing Partch and with Walter Mondale addressing it in the program! Couldn't we drum up enough activity in the USA to have concerts of the sort just witnessed in Denver? A little money and grass roots organization, combined with a clear artistic aim could bring St. Louis, Boston, Chicago, Gainesville, and other cities into a time when microtonal music is the music of the next millennium, but it's going on right now - in real time! Johnny Reinhard Director American Festival of Microtonal Music 318 East 70th Street, Suite 5FW New York, New York 10021 USA (212)517-3550/fax (212) 517-5495 reinhard@ios.com Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 30 Oct 1995 02:35 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id IAA14253; Sun, 29 Oct 1995 08:35:42 -0800 Date: Sun, 29 Oct 1995 08:35:42 -0800 Message-Id: <9510291635.aa29720@cyber.cyber.net> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu