source file: mills2.txt Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 03:06:16 +0200 Subject: Re: et/ji discussion From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison) I strongly agree with Neil that what's most interesting in the JI/ET debate is discussing what tunings are best for what styles. And I'd also add to that what styles are best for each individuals' level and nature of skill, and of course most appropriate for the immediate circumstances. In my fascination these past couple years with 88CET tuning, I've come to realize what sorts of musical styles are worthless to try to pursue in that tuning. At one time I had the beginnings of a Minuette scored for wind-ensemble. Big mistake - a minuette is much too civilized for such a wild tuning! The sorts of compositions that seem to do best for 88CET are either: A. Raucous, in the sense of a dixieland or marching band, or B. Dreamily exotic and eerie sort of piece, perhaps a little like what would have come of Debussy writing a mystery- or horror-movie score! Ivor Darreg made a lot of assessments along those lines as well, like the idea that 17TET was best with bright, brassy music, whereas 22TET was best for mellower, easy-going compositions. 31TET works great for the "Renaissancy" sound of quarter-comma meantone, with which it is synonymous. I also agree with Neil - I can't ring out my "hear hear" too many times - that we all need to practice our trades a LOT. And not only instrumental performance, but also compositional, production, and teaching skills as well. Microtonal musicians have to be super(wo)men. Our music has to be exciting for all of the same reasons that any music needs to be exciting: Compositional brilliance, performing finesse, clean recording, powerful emotion, and clever underlying ideas. And all of that in spite of the fact that we're also pioneering the basic underlying capabilities of a new tuning as we go. It's a very difficult task. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Fri, 16 May 1997 03:14 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA03396; Fri, 16 May 1997 03:14:31 +0200 Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 03:14:31 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA03394 Received: (qmail 26768 invoked from network); 16 May 1997 01:14:27 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 16 May 1997 01:14:27 -0000 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu