source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 10:18:25 -0700 Subject: tunings on the march From: Aline Surman There's a great article in the April 97 issue of the International Musician, the monthly publication of the American Federation of Musicians, on the "Gravikords, Whirlies, and Pyrophones" CD project. It was written by Jeff Potter, and he was very enthusiastic; he also got the details right, and mentioned Erv Wilson to boot. Write him, and get a dialogue going about tunings. It's encouraging to see such articles, and I believe there's been a trend lately...there's been a lot of good press in the last few years about tunings. This article, Catler's recent spot in Guitar Shop mag, some wonderful concert articles from Denver, El Paso, Los Angeles, and New York, all say to me that our labors have not been in vain. The word is spreading, and I am sure this is just the beginning. The Neanderthal flute debate is also very timely. Personally, since I believe that the Harmonic series is such a natural part of the Creation itself, it would not surprise me at all if "early" people sort of naturally gravitated to it in their music. I also think that we get a bit carried away trying to date everything...it seems to be a risky venture, at best. And, more importantly, how "old" is old, anyway? The Hopis, and I'm sure many other "old" cultures, have spoken of previous worlds and civilizations, long destroyed by ancient disasters...they say this is the 4th world, with more to come. This seems pretty likely, to me...I think the Universe is far, far older than contemporary "science," which seems to think it's only 10-18 billion years since the "Big Bang." That ain't much, I think...so, there might be flutes, and God knows what else, buried or destroyed long ago...it is a valid path of study to speculate about such things, and could lead to some incredible art...Hstick Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 7 Apr 1997 20:19 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA01505; Mon, 7 Apr 1997 20:19:21 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA01503 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id LAA15387; Mon, 7 Apr 1997 11:17:17 -0700 Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 11:17:17 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu