source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 10:14:34 -0800 Subject: Academics and Microtonality From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@CompuServe.COM> There is another possibility that Brian M. might be failing to consider in his suggestion that academia is preventing progress in microtonality. I don't know if the people I've addressed the topic with would qualify as academics as such. Two that I can recall right off the bat hold MM degrees, and a third has I think "only" a BA. The BA in particular is about 82 years old, and played bassoon for many years in various orchestras around the world. (Her husband, Alfio Pignatti, although he didn't record a lot, was a very highly-regarded violinist.) She now teaches piano mostly. The MMs are your typical, four-gig-a-week wind-instrument performers, giving private lessons the rest of the time. Of the three, the BA is almost certainly the most stereotypically academic. Her reaction to microtonal music is essentially of the nature of, "that's interesting; I'm glad you're studying it", but she herself probably won't pursue it. The MM trombonist probably has the most positive reaction of the three. (The MM "Master of Music" degree, for those who dont' know is mostly an "applied", performance-oriented degree.) When I mentioned that I was into unusual tunings, his response was "wow, amazing that you'd say that, because I've been thinking about getting into microtones recently!" He hasn't though; he's barely had time even to return my phone calls. The other MM, my saxophone instructor, hasn't shown terribly much interest in nontraditional tunings at all. But I certainly wouldn't characterize his reactions as negative by any means, just not terribly interested. So what is this other possibility that Brian may not be considering regarding Academia's attitude toward nontraditional tunings? "Interesting but Unproven" in short. They need more evidence that exploring it will pay off, mostly figuratively speaking, but also quite literally as well. Any thoughts on that? Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 24 Nov 1996 05:30 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA05613; Sun, 24 Nov 1996 05:31:35 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA05681 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id UAA17889; Sat, 23 Nov 1996 20:31:26 -0800 Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 20:31:26 -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