source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 08:08:57 -0800 Subject: from Brian McLaren From: John Chalmers From: mclaren Subject: items of recent interest -- [1st paragraph deleted because of style and content --JC] -- Luanne Eris Fose has published a criticial translation and commentary on the "Musica practica" of Bartolemo Ramos de Pareja. Her work is available in a 538 page PhD dissertation from University of North Texas, UMI No. DA9300609. The UMI number means this document is available from University Microfilms. Not cheap, but worthwhile if there's no alternative. =20 Ramos was one of the primary tuning theorists of the early Renaissance and his 1482 work illustrates the transformation from Pyt $=D0rean-Boethian-Guidonian theory to theory based on the use of new intervals--specifically, the 5/4. Johnny Reinhard has mentioned that the 5/4 supplanted the 81/64 throughout the European continent during hte 15th century, and this is correct (as usual) albeit scant of detail. The full story is there's good reason to believe that 5/4s were used as thirds as early as the 12th century, but it took a long period of theoretical and politcal struggle to force the hidebound Pythagorean-Boethian hierarchy to accept the new intervals. The struggle was pretty much over by the 15th century, when these "new" 5/4 intervals had become so commonplace that not even the textbook writers tried to pretend that musical practice was based on Pythagorean paradigms. Reminiscent of the struggle which goes on today to get the hidebound post-Webern serialist/aleatorists like Daniel J. Wolf to recognize that 12-tet serialism is dead, modernism has discredited=20 itself, and it's time to move on from 12-tet. As in earlier eras, it'll=20 take a while for the new intervals to be accepted by the ossified=20 musical oligarchy in the universities and the conservatories. -- For those of you who want to revive the "Bach wars" (What tuning did Bach use? ...as though anyone could possibly decide at this late date) Harald Vogel has an interesting article called "L'interpetazione dell'opera organistica di J.S. Bach su organi construiti nello stile della Germania del targo XCII secolo" [The inteprertation of bach's organ works on organs built in the North German tradition of the late 17th century], in "Informazione organistica: Bollettino quadrimestrale dell'Accademia di Musica Italiana per Organo di Pistoia, Vol. 3, No. 3, Sept-Dec. 1991, pp. 22-29.=20 Alas, the translation is from German...into Italian. Those of who don't read that language may find yourselves high and dry. -- William Sethares published an interesting article call "Tuning for 19-tone equal tempered guitar" in EMI, Vol. 6, No. 5, April 1991, pp. 9-11. This is an intriguing change of pace from Bill's usual psychoacoustic & signal processing articles. -- David Paul Goldman published an interesting article called "A new look at Zarlino's theory and its effect on his counterpoint doctrine," Theory and Practice, Vol. 16,1991, pp. 163-177. -- Mark Lindley and William Drake have an article about 18th century organ intonation: "Gorvernor Chapel and the 18th-century English organ," Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, Vol. 15, 1991, pp. 90-117 -- Christopher Kent has a similar article with a wider focus: "Tuning and temperament and the British organ, 1750-1850: A century of change viewed through the repertoire," Journal of the British Institute of Organ studies," Vol. 14, 1990, pp. 21-34. -- A particularly provocative article is David Courtney's "Tuning the tabla: A psychoacoustic perspective," Percussive Notes, Vol. 29, No. 3, February 1991, pp. 59-61. The bibliography at the end of the article is especially useful. -- Miroslav Karel Cerny has an article which will appeal to those microtonalists who read Czech:=20 "K otazce realne podoby a zformovani starooeckych stupnic a organizace tonoveho materialu," in Hudebni veda, Vol. 28, No. 3, 1991, pp. 207-219. The title of the article, by the way, means "The actual shaping and forming of ancient Greek scales and organization of tonal materials." Anyone want to publish an English translation? -- Coralee Rockwell has published a translation of the original=20 of Cheng Yingshi's "A report on Chinese research into the Dunhuang music manuscipts," Musica asiatica, Vol. 6, 1991, pp. 61-72. Since you are scholars, the importance of the Dunhuang manuscripts in determining Chinese 10th century pip'a tunings is obvious. -- Antonio Corona-Alcalde has another take on the inimitable Luis Milan's Delphic lute-tuning instructions. "'You will raise a little your 4th fret:' an equivocal instruction by Luis Milan?" Galpin Society journal, Vol. 33, March 1991, pg. 2-45. Mark Lindley has opined at length on this subject in "Lutes, Viols and Temperament," but another viewpoint is always=20 useful. -- Those microtonalists who read Czech should also check out Pavel Cip and Joseph Rezney's "Ceske dudy: Vyroba, sdobeni, ladeni," in Straknoce-Zubi: Blok, 1991. [The Czech bagpipe: building, decoration, tuning] -- Asante Darkwa has an article on "Sengeya dance music: Its instrumental resources and performance," in African Music, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1991, pp. 48-54 -- Gerhard Stradner has an article "Stimtonhohe, Tonarten- und=20 Klangcharakter," [Tuning standard, key and tonal characteristics] in: Die Klangwelt Mozart. Wien: Kunsthistrische Museum, 1991, pp. 109-122. If the historical museums of Vienna are starting to recognize that Mozart may not have used strict 12-tet, well, lord a'mighty--we ALL bein' xenharmonized now, chilluns! -- Peter Bavington and Miles Hellon chip in with their bid in the historical tuning sweepstakes in "Evidence of historical temperament from fretted clavichords," FoMRHI quarterly, No. 64, July 1991, pp. 55-58 -- In the same journal, Felix Raudonikas has an article called "Essays of Pythagorean system. I: Primary concepts. II: Two-dimensional syntax; III: three-dimensional syntax," FoMRHI quarterly, No. 64, July 1991, pp. 44-54, no. 65, October 1991, pp. 25-40. -- Franz Josef Rattner has an PhD thesis called "Die Temperatur der Clavierinstrumnete: Quellenstudien zu den theoretischen Grundlangen und praktischen Anwendungen von der Antike bis in 17. Jahrhundert," available from the University of Munster, 1987. NO UMI number, so probably *not* available on university microfilm, alas.=20 The title of thesis means: "The temperament of keyboard instruments: source studies in the theoretical principles and practical=20 applications, from antiquity to the 17th century." Sounds fascinating and invaluable. Anyone want to publish an English translation? -- Those of you in Tashkent may want to pick up a copy of Abduvali Abdurasivi's PhD disseration in Ethnomusicology, at the Institut istorii iskusstvo im. Hamza Haquim-Zade from 1991. Title is=20 "Tanbur i ego funcija v izucenii ladovoj sistemy sasmakoma." Since you're scholars, you already know that the title means "The tanbur and its function in the study of the modal system of sasmaqam." -- The redoubtable Manfred Stahnke has another interesting entry: "Ornung and 'Chaos' in komplexen musikalischen Stimmsystemen auf der basis naturreiner Intervalle," [Order and 'chaos' in kcomplex musical tuning systems based on just intervals] in Musikalische Gestaltung im=20 Spannungsfeld von Ordnung und Chaos. Wien: Universal, 1991, pp. 136-148. -- Vincent Dehoux has a fascinating follow-up to Frederic Voisin's pioneering studies of central african tunings: "Typologie et modalites de jeu des xylophones centrafricains," [Typology and modalities in Central African xylophone playing] Analyse=20 musicale, no. 23, April 1991, pp. 36-41. This articles offers yet more evidence against any kind of use of small-integer-ratio intervals in Central Africa. -- Martin Vogel has authored several notable titles and put them out using his Orpheus publishing house: "Musiktheater. V: Stucke fur Salzburg," no. 50 in the Verlag fur systematische musikwisscenschaft. Also "Die Enharmonische Gitarre" [The microtonal guitar], No. 45 in the series from 1986. Martin Vogel is a highly overlooked exponent of 7-limit just intonation, and he's built quite a few diferent instruments to realize his system of just intonation. Someone should pen a detailed article about him for 1/1... -- Those of you who read Japanese (are you listening, Mayumi?) will find an article in that lingo about quartertone microtonalist Alois Haba: "Alois Haba no 'atarashii ongaku-yoshiki:' Gengaku shijusokyoku 12 no baai," in Musashino ongaku daigaku kekyo kiyo, Vol. 24, 1992, pp. 17-36. The title means, of course, "Alois Haba's new music style in the string quartet op. 12." (This was the quartertone string quartet performed at the first Donauschingen new music festival in 1921, and represents Haba's definitive break with conventional intonation.) -- For another Japanese morsel on xenharmonics, try=20 Chikako Katayama's "Theinred of Dover ni okeru kyowa-gainen," in Tokyo geijutsu-daigaku ongaku-gakubu kiyo, Vol. 17, 1991, pp. 21-44. [Theinred of Dover's concept of the degree of consonance] -- Of course not all of you will read Japanese; some will doubtless prefer Slovenian. For those readers, try Bruno Ravnikar's "Tartini in kombinacijksi toni," [Tartini and combination tones], in Musikoloski zbornik, Vol. 28, 1992, pp. 41-46. -- Especially noteworthy is John Noble Moye II's PhD thesis "The psychoacoustics of musical sound: An annotated bibliography." PhD disseration, Florida State University, 468 pages, UMI No. DA 9124629. This one *is* available on University Microfilms! -- For more about Alois Haba (gee, for a composer whose music was described by one zipperhead 'modern music expert' as 'having insufficient inner life to prove=20 interesting,' well....gosh, there are sure a lot of articles about and performances of his music, aren't there?) try "Svoboda, struktura a forma v hudhe Aloise Haby," in Opus Musicum, Vol. 23, No. 3, 1991, pp. 81-84 [Freedom structure and form in the music in the music of Alois Haba]. The article is written in Czech, naturally. Or Czestina as they say over there. --mclaren =20 Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 1 Dec 1996 17:20 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA13499; Sun, 1 Dec 1996 17:21:47 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA13371 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id IAA27022; Sun, 1 Dec 1996 08:21:44 -0800 Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 08:21:44 -0800 Message-Id: <199612011718.RAA27029@teaser.teaser.fr> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu