source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 10:07:02 -0800 Subject: MicoFest West, physics From: John Chalmers I'd like to second Neil's comments on MicroFest West. Actually, I was hoping someone would write a general review of the concert, but I'll do it as I think the List should contain more than just discussions of theory, though I'm one of the prime offenders in this regard. As it happened, I drove up to LA last Saturday to meet with Erv Wilson, Marcus Hobbs, and Stephen J. Taylor at Marcus's home for a pre-concert demo of their recent work implementing Erv's theories in Kyma. Bill Alves also joined us there and we all enjoyed a Thai dinner before proceeding to Pierce College. The program began with three pieces by Lou Harrison -- "Avalokiteshvara" (from La Kora Sutro?), "Waltz," and "Sonata in Ishartum" (a Bablylonian diatonic mode in "Pythagorean" tuning, equivalent to the the Greek Dorian as I recall). Harrison's music is always a treat to hear and the "Just Strings" ensemble of Schneider (just guitar), Susan Allen (retuned harps), and Gene Sterling (pitched and unpitched percussion) did not dissapoint. Sasha Bogdanowitsch joined the ensemble for the next set, three movements from his "Atom turning in the Sun of Eternity." Of these pieces, I especially enjoyed "Peace Yearning," in Archytas's 7-limit enharmonic in which Sasha accompanied the ensemble with his voice. I forgot to ask him about the text, alas. Just Strings then performed Harry Partch's "Letter from Hobo Pablo," in the orginal version for plucked strings. John played adapted guitar and intoned the text while Susan and Gene simulated the Kithara part on a harp and three restrung and retuned guitars. While I missed Harry's somewhat gritty and ethoxylated voice, John did the vocal part very well. The guitars amazingly captured the Kithara sound; when I shut my eyes, I could easily visualize myself hearing the Kithara itself. I found this to be an interesting experiment and a truly corporeal experience. George Zelenz and Louis Johnson performed "Moment Condensate," a suite of four pieces on a orchestra comprising a large array of justly tuned metal tubes (Tubulongs), a rack of hanging metal slabs and several smaller instruments. Of the movements, my favorite was "The World is not mystical, THAT the world is, is the mystical" (sic). I'd like to hear more of George's music; despite a few phone conversations in the past, this was my first meeting with him. Rod Poole performed "The unfathomable loneliness of the Light year man" on a guitar fretted to a just intonationof 17-tones. This was a wonderful piece and Rod is a superb performer. It was a pity that due to a schedule change, we did not get to hear him play bowed guitar as well. Carter Scholz's piece "Rhythmicon" wasinspired by Henry Cowell's mechanical instrument. The performance was realized by John Schneider on justly tuned guitars and presented from tape. It was a fascinating experience as various melodies organized themselves out of rhythmic processes based on the first 17 members of the harmonic series. The first half ended with a stunning performance of "Micronesia" by Neil Haverstick on 19-tone electric guitar. Haverstick is demon guitarist and seems completely at home in the 19 and 34-tone equal temperaments. He was accompanied by Gene Sterling of "Just Strings" on a drum set. After af intermission, we were treated to Yoko Ayaya on the Koto and a performance of Midare, a 17th century piece by Yatsuhashi Kengyo. This piece made use of the major third-minor second pentatonic scale, of which the Greek enharmonic is a variant. Kraig Grady then performed one of his "Anaphoria Island" pieces on a group of tuned aluminum slabs suspended over large, tall wooden resonators. Kraig wore a wonderfully weird mask with a long, curved snout while he performed virtuosically on this instrument. The slabs were tuned to JI, a bass subset of the eikosany + 2 scale that he uses in much of his music. Neil astonished us again with a solo performance on the 34-tone guitar. Neil also gave a moving tribute to Larry Hanson, who is hospitalized and could not attend the performance. Hanson is responsible for constructing the 34-tone guitar and making it available. Hanson also collaborates with Erv Wilson. The concert closed with Terry Riley's "In Just C" by the whole ensemble. Needless to say, this was an unusual and eclectic mix of timbres and forces, but it worked. I might also add that it was a temporally abbreviated performance due in part to the late hour. Afterwards, we and most of the performers repaired to a nearby restaurant for conversation and food until about 2 AM. It was a great evening and John Schneider deserves our congratulations and appreciation for putting together such a successful program of microtonal music. Let us hope it becomes an annual event. To change the subject, I think Paul Erlich has eloquently presented the case for contemporary physics, making my planned discussion unnecessary. I might add that if one wants to study the use modern physics makes of vibration in QM and cosmology, consider supersymmetric superstring theory where fundamental particles appear as vibratory modes of "strings" in a hyperspace of up to 26 dimensions. I will end with the statement that sounds in air are not analogous to gravitational or EM waves in a hypothetical "ether" (QM vacuum?" Sound consists of macroscopic longitudinal waves in an elastic medium. Gravitational and EM radiation are transverse waves whose physics and mathematical description are entirely different. --John Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 22:54 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA25330; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 22:54:47 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA25329 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id NAA12284; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 13:52:27 -0800 Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 13:52:27 -0800 Message-Id: <199703151650_MC2-12A6-99E3@compuserve.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu