source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 23 Jun 1996 09:33:58 -0700 Subject: Post from McLaren From: John Chalmers From: mclaren Subject: a purportedly "serious error" -- John Chalmers posted the following in Tuning Digest 718: "I want to correct a serious error in one of Brian McLaren's recent posts. While not a peer-reviewed journal, XENHARMONIKON welcomes contributions from academics." -- John Chalmers John's "correction" of my purportedly "serious error" is itself in error. The statement which John characterized as a "serious error" was: "...Xenhamonikon is published and vetted completely outside academia." -- mclaren, Tuning Digest 717 This statement is true as it stands. The journal Xenharmonikon is not published under the auspices under any academic institution. No faculty peer review committee scrutinizes the papers submitted to Xenharmonikon. John Chalmers does not have an appointment in the music department of any university. Whatever Xenharmonikon's origins, it is not now affiliated with any institution of higher education. All of these facts remain facts. Therefore John Chalmers was incorrect when he claims that my above statement is a "serious error." I will repeat my factual statement for the record: Xenharmonikon is published and vetted entirely outside academia. Please do not take this to mean that Xenharmonikon is any less scrupulous in checking its facts than a so-called "serious" new music journal. In my experience, John Chalmers does a superb job of fact-checking. On occasion Your Humble E-Mail Correspondent helps out. Moreover, Xenharmonikon is more interesting IMHO than the so-called "serious" new music journals (many of which cannot be taken seriously) because Xenharmonikon accepts articles on areas of tuning theory and microtonality which are truly adventurous and imaginative. John *is* correct in pointing out that academics often publish articles in Xenharmonikon, primarily because the 12-TET-obsessed "new music journals" have traditionally seldom accepted articles which venture outside the Sacred Twelve Tones. Bear in mind that I never said that Xenharmonikon doesn't publish articles by people in academia. What I said was that Xenharmonikon is not published under the auspices of any university and does not have a faculty peer review committee to vet submissions, and both of these statements remain factually correct. However, with Musical Quarterly and 20th Century Music and Perspectives of New Music having recently printed articles about non-12 music, this "12-TET only" policy in the so-called "serious" new music journals might be breaking down. Only time will tell. --mclaren Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 23 Jun 1996 18:35 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id JAA06913; Sun, 23 Jun 1996 09:35:10 -0700 Date: Sun, 23 Jun 1996 09:35:10 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu