source file: mills3.txt
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 20:16:02 +0200

Subject: Re: pop in microtones

From: DFinnamore@aol.com

Johnny Reinhard writes:

> Perhaps microtones is -- and has already been -- part and parcel of pop.
>  Without getting too specific at first about what _pop_ is, comtemplate the
>  following if you will.
>
>  Blues, heavy metal, rap, and much of music for commercials (unusual
>  music needed for quick sell).
>
>  Beach Boys and Pink Floyd are regularly in just intonation.  Whitney
>  Houston and Albert King and Odetta and Louis Armstrong are regular
>  practitioners of microtones.

I'd contend that they're thinking 12-tET but their good ears pull them out of
it and into tune.  For instance, David Gilmore (of Pink Floyd) certainly uses
a great deal of the pitch continuum through string bends and slide usage, but
I doubt that he intentionally or knowingly uses, say, a 5/4 instead of 400
cents.  I'm a big Floyd fan and I don't remember ever hearing them use any
harmonies that could not be implied by 12-tET - with the exception of purely
intentional dissonance.

There's a southern gospel group called The Gaither Vocal Band whose four-part
harmonies on the last 2 or 3 albums have been _very_ nicely tuned - beats the
Beach Boys all to pieces; so much so that a 7th overtone can often be clearly
heard being generated by a major triad.  It's really beautiful singing.  But
I don't think any of the guys understands what JI is.  They blend
intuitively, by ear.  They're still thinking 12-tET.  The same would go for
the Beach Boys.

That doesn't qualify as microtonal composition as far as I'm concerned.
 12-tET roughly approximates 5- or 7-limit JI, and good musicians tend to
correct that approximation whenever their intrument and the pacing of the
music allow it, even without knowing about or understanding the mathematical
beauty they're participating in.  I believe that's all there is to it.

> Microtonal distinction is part of what
> gives that special sound to a new musician or a musical group.  Time to
> stopping looking into the books and smell the coffee.  Microtones are here
> to stay. :)

Of that I have no doubt!  Ummmm... smells good!  Still, though, one can read
a book and sip coffee at the same time.



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