source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 07:02:19 -0800 Subject: Comments on "On a couple of subjects..." From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@compuserve.com> > Seriously, I don't think most folks listen to what tuning a piece > of music is in, they listen, on whatever level, to the music, and > that should come first. If it piques them somehow, they'll buy it. > If what piques them is something that can't be reproduced in 12, > *then* you might have a "convert". I think that Steven is right here with three caveats: 1. There are other musical markets than pop, not to suggest for a moment that addressing the pop market isn't deadly critical. For example, one other market I personally think also very valuable to pounce on is film music. 2. Within the pop market there's a 2-5% or so residual that would find even moderately subtle differences (like strictly diatonic music implemented in 19 compared to 12) curious-sounding. A valuable strategy, I believe, is to use the other 95-98% to bouy up a xenharmonic song's popularity so that it can propagate to the attention of the target 2-5%. Within other markets, where subtlty is more of a way of life (like classical, jazz, or the assorted "artsy" forms) there is a much bigger % awareness. Obviously in the case of movie music the awareness would be mostly subconscious. 3. It certainly is possible to make xenharmony very difficult to miss. Microtonal chromatic runs (e.g., successive 34ths of an octave) make unusual tunings a whole lot harder to miss than sticking with diatonic melody. For example, starting on a diatonically-credible leading tone and then delaying resolution through several intermediate upward microtonal steps, will get a lot of peoples' attention! Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 15 Jan 1997 16:47 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA11423; Wed, 15 Jan 1997 16:50:53 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA11419 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id HAA01653; Wed, 15 Jan 1997 07:50:46 -0800 Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 07:50:46 -0800 Message-Id: <34970115154143/0005695065PK2EM@MCIMAIL.COM> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu