source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 15:42:27 -0700 Subject: Re: notations From: Johnny Reinhard If one is writing music down prescriptively (e.g. for another musician to play from), it is important that the player fully understand the tuning. At some point reference must be made to cents (@ 1200 cents per octave). Using straight forward quartersharp and quarterflat in addition to traditional notation, and by indicating finer pitch differentiation by numbers above noteheads. Only numbers from 1 up to 49 are necessary, and they need a + or a - before them to show the direction to take. String players quickly learn this by sight. Woodwind players must develop fingerings anyway which they place even further above the noteheads. Vocalists can navigate these basic deviations from a 12-tone ET grid with assurance because there is always represented the "exact" note in theory. When working with microtonal scales in diversity, a notation that applies to all notations makes great sense for its value. 1200 cents is surely a fair threshold to the numbers necessary. Honestly, this is the fastest notation to speed rehearsals. Johnny Reinhard 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 ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 24 Oct 1996 00:46 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA11232; Thu, 24 Oct 1996 00:48:50 +0200 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA11241 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id PAA08743; Wed, 23 Oct 1996 15:48:47 -0700 Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 15:48:47 -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