source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 10:59:07 -0800 Subject: A call to action? From: John Starrett All- Now that we have addressed Brian M's style, I would like to examine the legitimate and important question implicit in his posts of last week. ---> What should we be doing to facilitate the understanding and ---> appreciation of microtonal music? It is obvious that the more tuning savvy individuals we have in the population, the better off subscribers to this list will be. Why? 1) There will be more people to listen to (and buy) our music. 2) Synth manufacturers will think more of the microtonalist when designing a synth than they would otherwise. 3) Some of us might get jobs teaching where previously we could not. 4) Discussion of musical ideas may become more commonplace, meaning more fun for you and me. 5) Young people will start to play and compose microtonally, bringing fresh ideas to their contemporaries, causing a positive feedback loop. And of course the list goes on. Brian bemoaned the lack of a good microtonal primer on the web. I'll be the first to admit that my microtonal tutorial is shallow and slipshod. David Doty's excellent book "The Just Intonation Primer" is a model of clarity of exposition. I would love to link to it instead of offering my crude efforts. Does an abbreviated version exist on the web to which I could link? I have searched the web for microtonal sound files and have found slim pickings. I am sure I am not alone in the belief that we need to bring the sounds of alternate tuning systems to the people, and the web seems to me custom made for this purpose. I have a few microtonal sound samples and some just interval sine wave samples on my home page. Does anyone have any ideas on the best ways to make our ideas heard on the web? I went to Tower Records yesterday and spent $65 on microtonal CDs. I felt like I got about $20 worth of music, not because the music was bad, but because the music I bought was mostly "new age", a style of which I am not particularly fond (but, as Jerry Seinfeld would say "...not that there's anything wrong with it"). Tower Records has a completely separate room for world music. Wouldn't it be nice if they had at least a bin for "microtonal" music, calssified minimally by style? The Catler Brothers are quite different from Harry Partch, and neither is "new age". I also was frustrated by the lack of exterior liner notes on the CDs. Many that I knew were microtonal had no indication of that on the outside of the package, and I wonder how many others I missed because of this. Maybe we could have an icon for "microtonaliy" that we could include in the cover art. Although those in the know can find good dicographies on the web and order from the Microtonal Music Source, we need to have this stuff available where everyone can find it. I know Neil Haverstick does music in the schools programs through the Denver Musician's Union. Are we all doing what we can to bring our music to young ears, and in a way that will be engaging and encouraging to young musicians? I'd love to hear what others in this forum do along these lines, as I can use all the new ideas I can get. Finally, there is probably a core set of microtonal masterpieces on which many subscribers will agree. It would be helpful to know what these works are in order to intelligently direct the neophyte (and seasoned neophytes like myself) to some appropriate introductory pieces. Nothing will hurt our cause (ouch! 60s) more than to extoll the virtues of xenharmonia to a fresh ear, only to have the possible convert turned off by a silly recording of microdoodling. I think Brian listed his top 20 masterpieces a couple of months agoin response to a Haverstick post...any other nominations? Sorry for the length of the post, but I think we should consider some of these things. John Starrett (www-math.cudenver.edu/~jstarret) Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 17 Nov 1996 20:46 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA15006; Sun, 17 Nov 1996 20:48:12 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA14791 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id LAA19079; Sun, 17 Nov 1996 11:48:09 -0800 Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 11:48:09 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu