source file: mills2.txt Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 12:23:21 -0700 Subject: RE: Randy WInchester's remarkable collec From: PAULE I'd love a copy! Also how can I get a copy of Darreg's collection? I can't get enough of my Blackwood CD, but variety would be nice! I'm looking forward to the re-release of Beauty in the Beast. P.S. After constant exposure to Blackwood's CD, I am left with the impression that melodic acceptability is more important than harmonic acceptability. The diatonic scales in 19 and 17 are equally acceptable to my ears, though possessing very different characters. The level of harmonic tension is very high in 17 and very low in 19 (except for dominant seventh chords), but that does not seem to affect the melodic beauty. The diatonic passages in his 15- and 22- note pieces have failed to capture my interest -- they just sound out-of-tune, despite the good triads and dominant sevenths. Blackwood himself comments on the unsettling effect of a succession of two different-sized whole tones in his PNM article. Where the purity of the 19-note triads comes naturally as a result of the scale, the same quality in 22 has a slimy effect: the impression is that the individual voices sacrifice their integrity in order to blend. Additionally, the dominant-to-tonic progression is unsettling in 22 -- perhaps this is because the dominant seventh is so pure, it does not want to resolve (an analogous situation would be a triad progressing to an open fifth in 19tet). I greatly enjoy the 14-note piece, particularly the pentatonic scales based on 7tet, which sound effective whether harmonized in consonant perfect fourths or in dissonant neutral thirds. I even like the 16-note piece, where I think the fact that the main scale has only two step-sizes is a big plus for projecting the melody. However, I don't like the 21-note piece, which sounds like a lousy performance of a lousy baroque suite. The unique modulational possibilities of 21tet are intellectually interesting but do nothing for me musically. I think pentatonic scales based on 7tet would be the way to go in 21tet, where chromatic passages would be based on groups of 3 notes. Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 13 Jun 1996 22:30 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id NAA25873; Thu, 13 Jun 1996 13:30:29 -0700 Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 13:30:29 -0700 Message-Id: <40960613202904/0005695065PK1EM@MCIMAIL.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu