source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 4 May 1997 17:45:58 -0700 Subject: Re: Bela Bartok and Microtonality From: Johnny Reinhard In explaining how atonal music treats each tone independently of the other, Bartok writes in a 1920 essay published by the University of Nebraska Press (p. 459, 1976): "The time for a further splitting of the semitone (perhaps an infinity?) will ultimately come, perhaps not in our time but in future decades or centuries. But it wil have to surmount immense technical difficulties, such as the modification of the structure of keyboard and percussion instruments, not to mention the intonation difficulties for the human voice and all those instruments whose tones are partly produced by fingering. These difficulties will in all probability prolong the life of the semitone system for a greater length of time than will be artistically needed." Bela Bartok Works for me. :) Johnny Reinhard American Festival of Microtonal Music - MicroMay '97 (May 16, 21-23) 318 East 70th Street, Suite 5FW New York, New York 10021 USA (212)517-3550/fax (212) 517-5495 reinhard@idt.net http://www.echonyc.com/~jhhl/AFMM/ Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 5 May 1997 03:32 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA04610; Mon, 5 May 1997 03:32:56 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA04631 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id SAA15590; Sun, 4 May 1997 18:31:15 -0700 Date: Sun, 4 May 1997 18:31:15 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu