Re Yoish

Jeff. Yes. Silence here could hint that everyone's off working xenharmonic wonders, or
it could imply that people weren't going to do anything but talk anyway and now have
resumed their dreary lives. From the looks of it these are equally probable.

Regarding instrument design. I had a Bart Hopkin book, lost it. Very sad. Was kind of
hoping the internet was a good place to exchange ideas and get help building
instruments. Obviously not the point of this list, but maybe out there somewhere.
And do you know where I could find ethnic instruments at obscenely low prices?
(Lower than Lark in the Morning?)

Regarding more "unimportant" stuff like notation. I am straddling your world and that
of the classical institutions. I hope to lure them in this direction, and to do so must
speak their language, which also happens to be mine. Or something like that. I'll
report back in a month regarding my success getting college string players (and
musical sawists) to hit 11-limit intervals. And you can judge from hearing.

Questions for Brian McLaren (and whomever else):

1) Is it more important for microtonal music to get the greatest exposure possible, or
for microtonal music makers to make as much money as possible? The middle
ground, of course, is having a website that gives away some but not all. Enough for
those looking just to get some microtonality in their ear ASAP (which is a good thing,
right?); enough to convince someone that a CD is worth buying. But not enough to
cheapen the CD or whatever. Like XJ's or Sethares'.

2) Is the Internet any good at all? How does the Internet compare with libraries for
microtonal education? From my experience: my library has sufficent introductory
texts to get someone thinking (Partch, Moreno, etc.), and as far as CDs go: 1
Wyschnegradsky, 1 Ezra Sims, a few compilation CDs with quartertone pianos and
harpsichords, a few Kronos CDs with some Partch and Johnston...that's it. Online, I
find enough theory to kill a man, FREE retuning software so I can hear things for
myself, an applet that bends timbres to scales, applets allowing me to play a tonality
diamond, a bosquanet lattice, etc., and 11+ hours of free music in various ET, JI, and
non-octave scales. On top of that the Internet is open 24 hours daily and does not
charge me $20 when I am one day late returning CDs.

3) Is it a contradiction both to talk and do? You have talked plenty; yet you claim you
do. Obviously there is some overlap. For me, talk is play, music making is work. I
confess I have been neglecting work too much of late; therefore I retire from talking
until I have produced something I am happy with. Goodbye.

www.shakuhachi.com Monty makes amazing instruments, and seems to have all the Bart Hopkin books in stock, if you want a replacement.

>Was kind of
>hoping the internet was a good place to exchange ideas and get help >building instruments.

Partch took an adult education woodworking class to build his first Kithara, as you probably know. They(the classes)'re harder to find nowadays but around.

Kraig Grady and Alison Monteith are amazing, and would probably help as much as [virtually] possible.

I say, To hell with recorded music, go visit these people if you can, play with them, have coffee, tacos, and more endless actual paper sheets of scales and formulae--BUT...you got them from out of someone's very own file cabinets, so they're permeated with the air of that person's home, and they personally explained to you what and why and coughed in your ear.

I won't ever forget the afternoon I spent at Ivor's house, and it's not cluttering my 'hard-drive' in the least...

Cheers,

Pete

PS as to enticing players: College kids LOVE doing gamelan, and they don't feel like they're in the ear-training class from hell. Quite the opposite!

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Ivor Darreg stands as a shining example of how to create hand-built
instruments on a shoestring, and produce vividly memorable microtonal
music.
Jeff Scott also stands as a shining example of how to create vividly
memorable microtonal music, albeit in a different way with software
instruments.
All Bart Hopkins' back issues of the journal Experimental Musical
Instruments are still available from Bart himself.
If your interest centers around acoustic handbuilt instruments, also
try getting in touch with Buzz Kimball and visiting his workshop.
Ditto Skip LaPlante, who has 2 CDs out and gives regular performances
the New York city area using handmade xenharmonic instruments.
Building instruments yourself is probably a lot better idea and far
cheaper than buying 'em. I built myself a replica of a harmonic canon
correcting Partch's grossly incompetent design and it works and sounds
great. You can great a whole lot of microtonal music even with such
simple and easy-to-build acoustic instruments.
Bill Wesley in San Diego may be the current king of home-made
xenharmonc instruments, though Tom Nunn in San Frqancisco is no slouch
either.
Richard Waters continues to produce impressive metal-sculpture
instruments, as do the Baschet brothers in France.
As mentioned, virtually none of these people have any presence online.
They all inhabit meatspace, not cyberspace.

Hi Pete,

> I say, To hell with recorded music, go visit these people if you can, play
> with them, have coffee, tacos, and more endless actual paper sheets of scales
> and formulae--BUT...you got them from out of someone's very own file cabinets,
> so they're permeated with the air of that person's home, and they personally
> explained to you what and why and coughed in your ear.
>
> I won't ever forget the afternoon I spent at Ivor's house, and it's not
> cluttering my 'hard-drive' in the least...

Wonderful advice. Real, live interaction with others is the best way to
quickly learn and establish lifelong and productive relationships.

On the CD issue, I'd recommend Beauty in the Beast since it's a seminal work
and a good one that most everyone has. I think it is back in production too
- it was out of print for a while. After that, I'd probably just want to
have a few CDs of music from various cultures as a minimum.

For most of us there were no albums of microtonal music practically
available so we learned on our own and that was maybe even a help instead of
a hindrance.

I don't know if everyone is familiar with Jacob Barton's work, but I've had
the privledge of hearing some of his xenharmonic compositions and I find
them superlative. I can't think of anyone that could really teach him a
great deal about microtonal composition; he's doing great already especially
considering his young age. This is still a pioneering field where each may
find his own way, so that's ok. His lifelong passion for wind instruments is
something that would be a shame to abandon or neglect, but rather integrate.
I do hope to hear more of his work since what he has done so far is
intricately crafted and enjoyable.

It's an interesting perspective that composition is work and talk is play.
This seems a pretty healthy view and has the built in temperance of life
balance. Creation and communication/relationships are both important.

- Jeff