source file: mills3.txt Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 00:31:22 +0200 Subject: Re: What Is Microtonal Music? From: alves@orion.ac.hmc.edu (Bill Alves) David J. Finnamore writes: >It seems logical in a sense, but still a bit restrictive to me, to limit the >term to intervals smaller than a particular size. That doesn't seem to make >for a very musically-useful definition since lots of music uses larger >intervals that are none-the-less different from what some might expect by >small-but-significant amounts.... >So microtonal music may be, to a given listener, any music whose >compositional/performance model includes pitch relationships that the >listener finds to be beyond his own range of perceived normalcy. Perhaps you and Daniel or others on the list are at semantic cross-purposes here. I won't speak for Dan, but I consider music that uses intervals smaller than a semitone to be microtonal not because they sound strange, but because that's what the word's etymological basis is. Personally, I do NOT consider slendro, Iranian music with 3/4 tones, 7TET, or mbira music to be microtonal. I DO consider Carrillo and Partch to be microtonal (most of the time). If you are looking for a word that refers to the "strangeness" of the sound, perhaps a better term would be "xenharmonic" (xen = foreign). Personally, I've never grown attached to that neologism because of that connotation, which, as you point out, is culturally and personally relative. I happen to like Ken Wauchope's term "allotonal," meaning "alternate" tuning, but it doesn't seem to have caught on. One cannot deny Johnny's point that definitions change over time, but I don't think it's likely that his extreme broadening (which, if I'm reading right, is microtonal = pitch-based) will catch on. People intuitively take "micro" to mean "very small" because it's used that way in so many words. I think it is useful to have a word that refers to music with small intervals, just like it's useful to have terms like "just intonation," "equal temperament," or "pitch-based." Bill ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ Bill Alves email: alves@hmc.edu ^ ^ Harvey Mudd College URL: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ ^ ^ 301 E. Twelfth St. (909)607-4170 (office) ^ ^ Claremont CA 91711 USA (909)607-7600 (fax) ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ SMTPOriginator: algo-comp-owner@serial.music.uiowa.edu From: Warren Burt Subject: Re: Classification of Instruments PostedDate: 08-10-97 22:56:45 SendTo: Jerry Swan CopyTo: algo-comp@serial.music.uiowa.edu $MessageStorage: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 09-10-97 00:45:17-09-10-97 00:45:18,08-10-97 23:43:49-08-10-97 23:43:50 DeliveredDate: 08-10-97 23:43:50 Categories: $Revisions: BlindCopyTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2 9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C125652A.007CFC75; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 00:45:10 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA11669; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 00:45:49 +0200 Received: from serial.music.uiowa.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA11646 Received: from localhost by music.uiowa.edu (8.5-A/1.1) id VAA21894.35B89 on Wed, 8 Oct 1997 21:28:57 GMT. Organization: Received: from melbourne.dialix.com.au by music.uiowa.edu (8.5-A/1.1) id UAA21829.35B89 on Wed, 8 Oct 1997 20:58:10 GMT. Received: (from waburt@localhost) by melbourne.dialix.com.au id GAA04424; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 06:56:46 +1000 (EST) Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 06:56:45 +1000 (EST) From: Warren Burt To: Jerry Swan Cc: algo-comp@serial.music.uiowa.edu Subject: Re: Classification of Instruments In-Reply-To: <199710081021.LAA11456@carlton.innotts.co.uk> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-algo-comp@serial.music.uiowa.edu