Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup crazy_music Productive and unproductive activities

FROM: mclaren
TO: The New Alternative Wanking List
SUBJECT: Productive and unproductive activities

15 years of experience composing in
every ET from 5 through 53 and every prime
JI limit from 3 through 61 and a wide
variety of different non-just non-equal-
tempered tunings shows that some activities
in microtonality prove consistently productive,
while other activites prove consistently
UNproductive.

PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES:

[1] Sharing personal perspectives on
composing microtonal music

[2] Discussing hands-on experience with
using musical modes in various xenharmonic
tunings

[3] Discussing the interaction of tuning
and timbre as it relates to hands-on
experience composing with various timbres
and various tunings

[4] Sharing nitty-gritty details about
software and hardware on digital synths
and computers for creating xenharmonic
music, and also exchanging rules of
thumb and personal experiences involving
methods and techniques of working with
acoustic xenharmonic instruments to create
real microtonal music.

[5] Discussing in general "fuzzy" terms
the emotional impressions created by various
microtonal tunings.

[6] Comparing notes about non-Western
xenharmonic tunings and xenharmonic music.

[7] General discussions of the musical
creative process.

[8] General discussions of contemporary
music WITHOUT dragging in ideology of the
kind found in typical JI propaganda mills
like "1/1 - The Journal of the Just Intonation
Network" or hard-core modernistic propaganda
mills like "Perspectives of New Music."

[9] Discussions of musical history
using specific detailed citations of
original sources.

[10] Discussions about the specific
quirks of particular tunings backed up
by specific musical examples.

[11] Discussions of local xenharmonic
practices in various parts of the world
backed up by hands-on personal experience.

[12] Hands-on discussions of musical
style as it relates to xenharmonic tunings,
preferably backed up by specific musical
examples.

UNPRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES:

[1] Trying to use math to discover
something meaningful about xenharmonic
music.

[2] Haggling about the mythical need
for supposed new microtonal keyboards.

[3] Squabbling about the mythical
need for supposed new software or hardware
in order to create microtonal music.

[4] Quibbling about ratio space, or
anything closely involved with ratio space.

[5] Unresolvable arguments for which
no conclusive hard evidence pro or con can
ever be found. EXAMPLE: "What tuning did
Bach use?" EXAMPLE: "Schoenberg
actually meant (fill in the blank)!"

[6] Claims about the human ear/brain
system not backed up by detailed citations
from the scientific literature, preferably
also backed up by specific microtonal musical
examples.

[7] Arguments about abstractions like
alleged properties of the human brain as
they supposedly relate to microtonal tunings.
(Technically this is a variant of 5, but
proves such a common waste of time on-line
that it deserves its own special concentric
inner circle in Dante's hell.)

[8] Efforts to rehabilitate debunked
18th and 19th century musical superstitions. EXAMPLE:
"The chord of nature is the basis of music,"
"Harmony forms the foundation of Western music,"
"Listeners prefer 5-limit JI version of classic
Western compositions," "The acoustical smoothness
of intervals plays a fundamental role in music,"
"Mathematics is the basis of music," "Acoustics
determines our musical responses," ad nauseum.
Modern studies of non-Western music have shown
that the vast majority of musical cultures throughout
the world do not adhere to these beliefs and do
not create music based on these peculiarly Western
superstititons.

[9] Trying to use the psychoacoustics of
isolated musical intervals to learn something
musically meaningful about microtonal music.

[10] Arguing about microtonal scales as
abstractions rather than embodied in specific
particular musical compositions.

[11] Arguments about the definition of
words or activities. EXAMPLE: Arguing over
what "the scientific method" is, or what
"dissonance" means. This is useless because,
as Justice Potter Stewart said about pornography,
"I can't define it, but I know it when I see it."

[12] Arguments about what allegedly does or
allegedly does not constitute some kind of
specific activity. EXAMPLE: "But 3-limit is/is not
really JI!!!!" EXAMPLE: "Jazz does/does not fit
the definition of microtonal music!!!"
(Technically a variant of 11 above, but
this kind of meaningless haggling has
wasted so much time on-line that it also
deserves its own special concentric circle
in Dante's hell.)

[13] Squabbling about the kinds of harmonies
which are or are not available in various microtonal
tunings. This proves useless since melody proves
vastly more important in music than harmony.
---------
Related to productive activities, productive
vs. unproductive attitudes:

PRODUCTIVE ATTITUDES TOWARD MICROTONALITY

[1] Each intonation has its own unique
musical uses

[2] Each timbre/tuning combination allows
remarkable musical possibilities

[3] Each type of electronic or acoustic
instruments offers vivid and musically
memorable options for the xenharmonic
composer

[4] "I'm going to learn about microtonality
by composing microtonal music"

[5] Western history involves a fluctuating
melee of musical styles from which the
contemporary xenahrmonic composer can
usefully draw

[6] World music offers a smorgasboard of
potentially useful musical approaches

[7] Psychouacoustics and congitive psych
and other scientific disciplines offer
potentially valuable info on general
limits of possible musical strategies,
but CANNOT by themselves determine
musically meaningful elements of
of compositional style

[8] When composing microtonal music,
Western preconceptions must often
be tossed into the dumpster

UNPRODUCTIVE ATTITUDES TOWARD MICROTONALITY:

[1] There exist good and bad musical scales,
and our main business is to discover which
is which

[2] Some timbre/tuning combinations are good
while others are bad, and we must discover
which is which

[3] Some types of electronic (or acoustic)
instruments are good for microtonal
music while others are bad, and we must
search out and identify them.

[4] "I'm going to learn about microtonality
by yakking [or surfing] on the internet
without composing music"

[5] "I'm going to learn about microtonality
by manipulating lists of numbers and
equations instead of composing xenharmonic
music"

[6] "I'm going to learn about microtonality
by sitting at the feet of some (preferably
dead) guru like Partch or Helmholtz and
following his unsubstantiated claims about
music to the letter, rather than by composing
xenharmonic music"

[7] Western history is a ramp which, with a
majestic historical inevitability, rises
inexorably with the force of history toward
[fill in the blank: 5-limit JI, atonal modernist
music, or whatever].

[8] "World music is based on the pure perfect
chord of nature which those ignorant
jungle bunnies are simply too inept to
produce accurately"

[9] Psychoacoustics [or cognitive psych or
acoustics] or other scientific disciplines offer
guidelines for composing actual music,
since as we all know musical styles never
change over time and cultural attitudes play
no role in our perception of musical
melodies or intervals or compositions.

[10] When composing microtonal music,
we must start with Pythagorean Western
musical prejudices and force-fit all
microtonal tunings into those prejudices,
ignoring and/or denigrating any tuning
or microtonal compositional practice
which resists such Procrustean mutilation.

---------
--mclaren

Productive and unproductive activities

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