source file: mills3.txt Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 18:07:22 +0200 Subject: Re: Cross cultural From: Johnny Reinhard 1200 cents is an invention by a Westerner to decipher the distinctions of different cultural tunings. It need not emphasize the 12ET points: that is a grid only of the mind. Ethnomusicology was developped as an alternative to Historical Musicology, which tended to ignore non-Western musics. First ethnomusicology was originally called "Comparitive Musicology" but the comparisons were with a decidedly Western bias. The name change to ethnomusicology certainly didn't erase Western bias but did help towards a more level playing field. One of the principles to come out of ethnomusicology is the concept of "emic" versus "etic." Emic is the point of view of the "other" culture and etic is the Western surmise of a foreign culture. 1200ET is an etic attempt to gague the unique distinctions of other musics. It is not always successful. Non-pitched percussion music certainly is inappropriate. So is Tibetan music that is in constant glissando. Sapmi (Lapp) music -- or Joigenen -- intentionally avoids the exact precise repetition of intervals in their non-texted vocal music. As a scholar studying other music, emic data is vital to the understanding of the musical concepts and materials of a foreign music. This fact does not negate the value of having a 1200ET "yardstick" to get closer to an understanding of that music. It certainly aids in the internalizing of new interval for original compositions by us Westerners. Johnny Reinhard Director American Festival of Microtonal Music 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/ SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: James Kukula Subject: PostedDate: 10-10-97 18:19:56 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.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: 10-10-97 18:19:30-10-10-97 18:19:31,10-10-97 18:19:59-10-10-97 18:20:00 DeliveredDate: 10-10-97 18:20:00 Categories: $Revisions: 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 C125652C.0059A8CD; Fri, 10 Oct 1997 18:19:19 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA13466; Fri, 10 Oct 1997 18:19:56 +0200 Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 18:19:56 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA13454 Received: (qmail 22444 invoked from network); 10 Oct 1997 09:19:47 -0700 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 10 Oct 1997 09:19:47 -0700 Message-Id: <199710101616.JAA05359@sunatg3> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu