source file: m1377.txt
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 23:22:42 -0400 (EDT)

Subject: Re: micropop

From: Johnny Reinhard <reinhard@IDT.NET>

On Mon, 6 Apr 1998, Gary Morrison wrote:

> the most intriguing microtonal music
> uses tunings built upon a fundamentally different paradigm from 12-tone.

I understand, I think, the excitement of working with a new constellation
of musical tones.  Getting away from conventional relationships in sound
is clearly exciting on many levels.  It's pioneering, it's mind expanding,
it's aesthetically thrilling, and it's increasingly popular.

However, to separate microtonal music from music proper is, I think, a
mistake.  12ET is only a cultural norm.  It is not divine by definition.
To overreact in the opposite direction of our cultural norm is not a
requirement to work with microtonal intervals.  There are all sorts of
useage allowable in music proper.  

Pigeonholing by systems seems myopic to me in view of the many different
tuning cultural norms available in the world.  The tabula rasa seems the
best canvas for musical sound, especially as it is being mapped in the
last decades of the 20th Century.

Johnny Reinhard
Director
American Festival of Microtonal Music
reinhard@idt.net