source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 07:42:06 -0800 Subject: Varese GRAPHS AND TIME From: Johnny Reinhard Since the French political scene has calmed, I will be visiting Paris to conduct the 2e2m Enemble directed by Paul Mefano. This ensemble is 23 years in operation and focuses on microtonal performances and recordings. They have available CDs of Giacinto Scelsi, Alain Bancquart, and Ivan Wyschnegradsky, among others (mostly quartertonal). The Varese work in this discussion was composed in 1957 as an "experiment" by the composer who had been frustrated by his attempts to have orchestral musicians simulate the glissando of the siren. In the attempt to attract Jazz musicians like Charlie Mingus, Teo Macero, Paul Motion, Earle Brown, and others, an 8-part 16 measure chart was created which I orchestrate and devise a from of about 8 minutes. There have already been 3 performances of this work (named by Teo Macero for obvious reasons, and where the original hangs). Due to "new music" performance expertise, performers can now do things that Varese could not imagine. For more on Varese's ideas on microtonality read: "The Liberation of Sound" in *Perspectives on American Composers* edited by Benjamin Boretz and Edward T. Cone (W.W. Norton & Co., NY, pp.25-33). Sound contiuum is a powerful force. Here it is used sans explicit "shaped" intervals and the effect on the listener - even with different instrumentation choices each time - has been of Bebop/New Music fusion. The New York Times wrote of an AFMM performance that the Varese work had "oddly joyful dissonances." Does anyone out there have any ideas of people for me to meet in Paris between Jan. 21-31? The concert is Jan. 28th at 8 pm at the Pompidou Centre. 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@styx.ios.com Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 17 Jan 1996 19:44 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id KAA24892; Wed, 17 Jan 1996 10:44:49 -0800 Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 10:44:49 -0800 Message-Id: <9601171842.AA03302@abacus.bates.edu> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu