source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 06:54:46 +0200 Subject: scary micromusic From: Aline Surman An interesting thing happened today...I was playing, on my stereo, some music by a rather well known microtonalist. My daughter was also listening, and asked who it was. I told her, and asked what she thought of it (I already knew, though). She said she didn't like it, that it reminded her of two very frightening people who used to be in her life, and that it sounded like music that they used to play. She asked if I would turn it off, and I did...fact is, this music DID sound weird and scary, and I can understand why it would frighten a little kid. And, this is a little kid who has, indeed, heard a lot of music, and much of it pretty out there. What is the point? Well, I guess it has something to do with the message one is putting across in their art. This music sounded creepy to me as well, and I cannot imagine ever playing it for anyone in the world, at any time. I see absolutely no value in this music, no matter what tuning system it is in...the sad thing, of course, is where is the person coming from that wrote/performed it? I truly believe that this person is reflecting their inner state, and that is too bad, indeed. By the way, this is the 2nd time this scenario has occured lately...in the other incident, I was at a friend's house, who is an avant garde sort of (12 tone) keyboard player. I was playing yet another prominant microtonalist's music, and was asked to take it off of the stereo because this fellow couldn't take it...it made him feel very depressed. Again, I had to agree...it was not music that I would play for anyone else. It's tricky...I certainly think music should express the full range of human experience. On the other hand, music that reminds a little kid of certain perverts (they are that) is not, to my way of thinking, a good thing. Again, it makes me sad for the artist in question as well. I have long felt that much micromusic focuses on too narrow a band of feelings, sort of a cerebral, weird melange of bleeps, bloops, and noodling. I still do. There is a sort of (hate to say it) unhuman, removed, detached kind of music that I feel is totally invalid as meaningful art...this is the stuff that my kid was responding to today (and, a piece that gives me much the same feeling is Schoenberg's Violin Concerto...it's like being in a padded cell with white walls and a lot of Prozac)...of course, as they say, opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one...Hstick Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 11 Jun 1997 07:38 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA12464; Wed, 11 Jun 1997 07:37:59 +0200 Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 07:37:59 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA12465 Received: (qmail 23086 invoked from network); 11 Jun 1997 05:37:52 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 11 Jun 1997 05:37:52 -0000 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu