source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 3 Dec 1995 16:45:48 -0800 Subject: RE: more Bach From: MORGAN ELLINGTON SMITH > I am afraid, at times, that the intellectual theory of non 12 music > takes precedence over the making of great music...perhaps when that > changes, non 12 music will find a place in people's hearts, which is > where all great art eventually winds up...Hstick I think that is due in large part to the fact that writing in alternate tunings is still in a stage of experimentation. Bach mastered the tonal system, but few composers today can say that they have mastered any non-12 tunings. (If you have, congratulations!) There's so much to be learned about it; entire worlds of possibilities exist. The intellectual systems of a medium in an art form must be internalized before they can produce really great art. I think it was Dennis Eberhard who said that a composer must learn the musical past so well that he can internalize it and not think about it consciously. Whatever system of tuning (or compositional method, for that matter) a composer is using, it must be learned so well that he doesn't have to think about how the system works. Then the humanity and emotion can be communicated through that system. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morgan Ellington Smith | When all else fails, smithme@hiramb.hiram.edu | lower your standards. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 4 Dec 1995 04:22 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id SAA09289; Sun, 3 Dec 1995 18:22:44 -0800 Date: Sun, 3 Dec 1995 18:22:44 -0800 Message-Id: <951204022010_71670.2576_HHB43-2@CompuServe.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu