practical microtonality for acoustic instruments

brian mclaren has urged that I write a post about practical
microtonality with acoustic instruments. I believe this is a good
suggestion, so I will continue.

First off, as I have mentioned previously, are the practicioners of
quarter-tone practice. It's important to separate this set of
performers from our new "dedicated" microtonalists, since they are an
entirely different group of professionals, for the most part.

The "quarter-toners" actually consist of a rather large set, in fact,
*MOST* young professionals today... I would say under the age of 30,
CAN and DO ROUTINELY play quarter-tones as part of their
technical "arsenal." This is only natural, since there are *very
few* contemporary composers who have never written a single quarter
tone in their works...

I say, of course, "contemporary" composers... and I'm not including
the so-called "derriere garde" (there really *is* such a group!) who
ape the 19th Century in this category...

Most performers, woodwind players especially, have fingering charts
for quarter-tones, or they can get them. Same with brass players.

When we get to *other* xenharmonics, however, there is more of a
problem.

There are some individuals, actually some who are good friends of
mine (!) who insist that woodwind players can play *any* xenharmonics.

I'm a little skeptical by nature, and this skepticism extends to this
previous statement. I believe there is a verifiable reason why Lou
Harrison in his _Piano Concerto_ for instance, restricts himself to
trombones in the brass part, and includes no woodwinds.

It's not necessarily that Harrison has a "special relationship" with
the trombone... only that they are *guaranteed* to be able to play
xenharmonics...

I'm not saying that increasing the ability of woodwind and brass
players to do a variety of xenharmonics is not desirable (Wow...
that's a great "academic" sentence -- it has *at least* TWO
negatives) but merely that it is not accurately attainable among
current, practicing, professional players who are not microtonal
specialists.

Now as to notation:

What to do....? Well, continuing my skepticism, I really doubt the
ability of the majority of players to play within the accuracy of a
cent... HOWEVER, the "cents system" as advocated by Johnny Reinhard
and others, *does* make "sense" in the notation of xenharmonics.

I have a slight disagreement with Johnny that *multiple* notations of
the same pitch are necessary. (He believes because some people are
familiar with certain cents indications for certain intervals, this
is preferable.) Since I have a somewhat systematic dogged streak in
xenharmonics (let's call it "swoop doggie dog") I believe it is only
necessary to notate quartertones plus and minus 25 cents from the
most proximate. When one gets to 26 cents, the notation really
should be a 24 cent deviation from the other, "nearer" quarter-
tone... Well, that's my *personal* bias...

In any case, the notation of quartertones plus and minus cents seems
an entirely practical way to go.

HOWEVER, do to my constant education of my many friends on the
Internet tuning forums, I have recently become infatuated with the
Ezra Sims, Joe Maneri, Boston Clam Chowder and Red Sneaker Soup, New
England Conservatory way of doing things: 72-tET.

It seems like a *very* practical ET for performance. My recent
studies have shown me that this ET not only contains 12-equal, but
QUARTERTONES... and then only a few necessary "adjustments."

As I have mentioned, most young contemporary players can play
quartertones and (hopefully) they can play 12-tET ( :) ) so already
there is a fundamental basis in 72-tET that players can "latch onto"
as a reference...

So what needs to be learned? Well, basically the 1/6th of a whole
tone and the 1/12th of a whole tone. As I have been shown, players
can "practice" the 1/12th tone by playing a beatless major third...
the syntonic comma in action. Likewise, the 1/6 of a tone can be
practiced through the septimal comma... the just "blues" minor 7th,
as constrasted with 12-tET.

So, there are only two intervals to be learned throughout the entire
range... the 1/6 whole tone and the 1/12 whole tone.

72-tET has embodied in it MANY subsets that have an extrordinary
relationship to JI, if one is interested in that direction. Or, if
one wishes not to be too mesmerized with "Moonieism" one can try
other possibilities with the scale that use other characteristics
than the concordances.

Although the Sims notation is a bit, er, "peculiar" it is rather
established in some quarters, at least with 20 years of history, and
I would advocate going with this performance practice.

So, essentially, several PRACTICAL, LEARNABLE systems for
xenharmonics *do* exist, and I believe it is *essential* that these
be stressed with professional performers as, let us say, contrasted
with a system of notation such as Ben Johnston's which is rather
confounding to the performers and is ultimately, I believe,
a "turnoff..." (I'm casting no aspersions on Ben Johnston's music...
only on practical questions of his notation)

___________ ________ ________
Joseph Pehrson