source file: mills2.txt Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 05:08:48 -0800 Subject: Re: TUNING digest 880 From: "Adam B. Silverman" Re: Johnny's Lingua Franca Notation >I like the idea of a Lingua Franc, especially since I have always >believed that all music is microtonal from a cross-cultural >perspective. No, one should change the notation for Charles Ives, for >example, because Ives wanted flats "flatter" and sharps "sharper" (his own >directions fully corraborated by Kirckpatrick and in several palces by Ives). Notation is, to me, a topic on equal footing with visceral topics in the tuning discussion, since I believe that microtonality will never become widespread nor will it develop a significant repertoire without some kind of standard notation. When a standard is established, then music can be raised to the level of sonic discourse, just as the emergence of Western common practice music was marked first by the establishment of our standard notational system, followed by the development of standard forms like the da capo aria, sonata form, symphony, and other frameworks upon which composers can comment and impress their own styles. In this regard, the notation debate ties in strongly with last year's "what is JI" thread, a heated topic which emphasized our divergent styles and approaches across the world of tuning. Don't get me wrong--I don't think that all music should be homogenized for the sake of so-called "progress", but it is aparrent that when people band together, great things can happen. We don't need to worry about this; it will happen effortlessly as long as we continue to pass around tapes and books. What we should work on is continuing the innovation and the debate about how to create a musical framework and notation which will accommodate the widest range of styles, and adopt it as "standard". Then, the next wave of innovators can exand upon it and take the next step. -Adam _________________ Adam B. Silverman 153 Cold Spring Street; A3 New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 782-1765 abs22@pantheon.yale.edu Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 31 Oct 1996 19:04 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA26447; Thu, 31 Oct 1996 19:05:27 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA25544 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id KAA18081; Thu, 31 Oct 1996 10:05:23 -0800 Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 10:05:23 -0800 Message-Id: <11961031180511/0005695065PK3EM@MCIMAIL.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu