source file: mills3.txt Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 07:04:58 +0100 Subject: Reply to Kris Peck, in Hopes of Converting Him to the True Faith From: Gregg Gibson Kris Peck said: > Every once in awhile I get > gullible and respond to things that are so obviously ridiculous it should > really be beneath me. I really shouldn't reply to this, but on my vacation, what the hell... You attempt to paint me as a fanatic or a crank with delusions of paranoiac persecution. I have no objection; ad hominem attacks are the first response of those who are afraid to deal in specifics, or who honestly feel they are dealing with... a crank. I have never much cared for the music of Partch. He apparently possessed some talent, almost wholly vitiated by his perfectly absurd tuning. This is, by the way, the response of the overwhelming majority of people who have ever heard Partch's music. The album that I found at the local library is laughably bad, but perhaps there are better performances. His book Genesis of a Music is wonderful reading, although again, his utonalities, enthusiastic disquisitions on 2-cent differences and the like betray more the amateur than the savant. Partch's music does have the merit of opening a few people's minds to new possibilities, which is all to the good. But usually, his music closes minds tighter than ever before. Partch, you know, was also a bit of a... crank. You qualify my support of 19-tone equal as 'militant', and seem to imply that most of what I say is already common knowledge. This is not correct. Certainly no one to my knowledge has noticed that the 19-tone equal, because of its characteristic tuning degree near the melodic limen, is peculiarly apt to express virtually all (not _all_) melodies, certainly a far greater number than other systems, or indeed, all other systems combined. If I have repeated this a number of times, always with additional information to explain why this is so, it is not because I am a crank who rambles on, but because I am very conscious that the statement sounds extreme, and indeed ridiculous to the uninformed person. Five years ago, before my descent into Crankdom, I would have been the first to laugh at such an assertion. Salinas, one of the half-dozen greatest minds who have ever graced the discipline of musical theory, briefly noticed the aptitude of the 19-tone equal (or rather, of the 1/3 comma mesotonic) to the expression of the enharmonic, long before I did. I do not believe that I referred to the "latest scientific research". Your knowledge of what a crank sounds like, does not prove me to be one. But really, those who imagine I am devoting my life to The Cause, are very much mistaken. This is merely one of the matters to which we devote Our Imperial Attention. (Cranks typically have many causes, don't they?) I do hope that you take this in the spirit in which it was written, as a bit of innocent fun with another Outraged Reader, and do not consider this a 'flame' in any way. SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: Gregg Gibson Subject: Mckyyy's LCMs PostedDate: 20-12-97 07:14:24 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: 20-12-97 07:12:15-20-12-97 07:12:16,20-12-97 07:11:51-20-12-97 07:11:51 DeliveredDate: 20-12-97 07:11:51 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 C1256573.002212DA; Sat, 20 Dec 1997 07:14:06 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA22537; Sat, 20 Dec 1997 07:14:24 +0100 Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 07:14:24 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA22509 Received: (qmail 14506 invoked from network); 19 Dec 1997 22:14:17 -0800 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 19 Dec 1997 22:14:18 -0800 Message-Id: <349BC4A7.4F11@ww-interlink.net> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu