source file: m1552.txt Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 15:51:29 -0700 Subject: Re: Joe Monzo's book From: monz@juno.com >From: Gary Morrison >> I would like to offer my book to anyone who is >> interested, at its current stage of completeness >> (about 90 - 95% finished), for $43 US ($40 for >> the book and $3 postage). > > I guess I may as well ask: What's your book about? Wow -- guess I've been away from the List longer than I thought. My book is called "JustMusic: A New Harmony -- Representing Pitch as Prime Series". It's been about 14 years in the works. It gives first a mathematical explanation of how ratios can be factored into the series of prime numbers, each prime raised to a different exponent (where any prime to the 0th power = 1), and then these products are multiplied together to give the ratio. The rest of the book shows how my lattice diagrams are designed by making use of this prime factorization, with the diagrams becoming more and more complex as I give an overview thru both increasing prime limits and historical chronology. The historical aspect gives all of the different just-intonation tuning systems I have found in doing my research, presented from one viewpoint, which I have found makes it easier to understand how different tuning theories have evolved and interacted with each other. It goes back to ancient Greek and Indian systems, and progresses all the way up to present-day composers such as La Monte Young, Ben Johnston, Ezra Sims, and others, with special emphasis given to Harry Partch and Arnold Schoenberg. As you would think by my inclusion of Schoenberg, I have also given some reference to some of the more popular equal-temperaments, especially 12-equal, and how some theorists have "justified" or explained the use of these temperaments by emphasis on their good or bad representation of particular ratios. Notably absent from the book (as it stands now) is coverage of meantone and well temperaments. Part of the reason behind my cross-country trip was to meet with west-coast microtonalists and put info about their work into the later chapters. Any of you using a particular or unique tuning system are welcome to submit a representative score with an explanation of the tuning. My living situation in San Diego has not yet been stabilized, so email me for a mailing address at: joe_monzo@hotmail.com For more information, with examples of lattice diagrams and lots of MIDI audio examples, visit my website at: http://onramp.uscom.com/~monz ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]