Three years at the tuning list

I got my first computer as a gift three Christmases ago. The first
thing I did once I got the email up and running was join the tuning
list which had just relocated to Yahoo. I was psyched to finally have
immediate access to others who were interested in this topic.

It took me a long, long time to get the hang of email, the medium was
far more difficult than I ever would've anticipated. But the tuning
list was even more of a shock!

I was used to artist types. Years of trading tapes on the home taper
circuit and frequenting artists' collaborative like the Noh Place and
the WAG had given me a certain set of expectations, and I just assumed
the communal vibe would be at least somewhat similar: creativity
first. This was simply not the case. The vibe was stiff, dry and
snippily pedagogic.

Bad as that may sound, it wasn't all bad however. There was a bright
side. Amounts the dominant voices on the list were some uniquely
knowledgeable folks, and this was probably one of the only places on
the planet where some of these theoretical questions and issues, ones
I'd puzzled over on my own, were consistently addressed in a
forthright manner. Lots of no-nonsense facts that were quite useful
for anyone who was interested in the theoretical side of tuning.

The downside was obvious though--a stifling and curt atmosphere that
fostered only that which lined up favorably with the dominant posters.
The alienated outnumbered the enlightened, but so it went... each new
clash a bit more caustic than the last.

The main gripe was that the vast majority of the posts had nothing to
do with actual hands-on music making and even less to do with
microtonality in any sort of a broad, holistic sense. If you wanted
your posts to peek their heads out of the din, you'd better be sure
author it in the particular language and excessively narrow interests
of the dominant posters.

Eventually the inevitable happened and the list split off into many
disgruntled and more special interest type factions. This has helped
ease tensions and foster diversity to some degree, but I think it's
still a process that's feeling its way towards something better. It's
better, but it could be better still.

I think projects like Jack Ligon's Microtonal Activist are a step in
the right direction. Projects like these help take list contributors'
work out of the church of the converted and off to the internet masses
in digestible sized portions. I'm sorry, but the signal to noise ratio
renders the list archives all but impenetrable to anyone with anything
less than a stout streak of tuning fanaticism.

I think more work along the lines of TMA's digestible sized portions
can only help--Joe Monzo's editorial and organizational work on Paul
Erlich's Fokker periodicity blocks and harmonic entropy posts would be
another example of a fruitful collaboration that exists in a
presentable form other than the archives.

A FAQ would help... any FAQ! The last effort kind of collapsed under
the weight of its own ambitions and the usual acrimonious squabbling,
but I bet we--we being the online tuning community who'd be willing to
participate--could get it done. It would probably take an appointed
organizer though, someone who gets things done. (I like Monzo in this
capacity, but whoever.)

Then there's music. Stunning music puts all doubts to rest. Just last
night I was listening to the Tilson Thomas conducted Comedy, and with
just those comparatively limited instances of quartertones, Ives says
more about the usefulness of quartertones--and by demonstrable
extension, all non-12 tunings--than the three years worth of posts
I've read giving quartertones the back of their hand.

Effective music brushes even the sturdiest and the most sublime of
theoretical edifices aside, and it does so with alarming ease... it
steamrolls everything in its path... it clears the palate and resets
the clocks.

--Dan Stearns

>I got my first computer as a gift three Christmases ago. The first
>thing I did once I got the email up and running was join the tuning
>list which had just relocated to Yahoo. I was psyched to finally
>have immediate access to others who were interested in this topic.

It was onelist back then, but yeah.

>Bad as that may sound, it wasn't all bad however. There was a
>bright side. Amounts the dominant voices on the list were some
>uniquely knowledgeable folks, and this was probably one of the
>only places on the planet where some of these theoretical
>questions and issues, ones I'd puzzled over on my own, were
>consistently addressed in a forthright manner. Lots of no-nonsense
>facts that were quite useful for anyone who was interested in the
>theoretical side of tuning.

Also lots of practical stuff, like meeting folks who write software
like Scala, the Just Intonation Pitch Palette, SAOL, etc. Folks
who make web sites listing the microtonal capabilities of synths,
etc. Folks who make guitar fingerboards.

Which until recently is all you could do on-line. Now, we've got
mp3, etc. We were on top of that with the tuning punks, and now,
file trading over yahoo, even though I personally don't enjoy
working like this. I like working alone, or with others in a
band, but on-line I just can't see. That's just me, though.

>The downside was obvious though--a stifling and curt atmosphere
>that fostered only that which lined up favorably with the dominant
>posters. The alienated outnumbered the enlightened, but so it
>went... each new clash a bit more caustic than the last.

I guess it really depends on your personality. I never considered
myself a dominant poster, or beholdant to one, an enlightened
member, or an unenlightened one. I was here to learn, and learn I
did. All I ever saw was people answering questions, helping out
at every turn. And that's all I ever tried to do. Sure it's fun
to be competitive... but that's all it ever was. There was never
any name-calling, and being wrong was no dishonor, as I found out
time and time again. ;0

>The main gripe was that the vast majority of the posts had nothing
>to do with actual hands-on music making and even less to do with
>microtonality in any sort of a broad, holistic sense.

I personally feel that "microtonality" is not a valid artistic
style or family of music. I wouldn't know what could be said
over e-mail about hands-on making music, except stuff like, 'I
used Midi Relay to tune events from Cakewalk', etc. There
seemed to be plenty of that. But people were always free to
post whatever they wanted... or so I thought.

>If you wanted your posts to peek their heads out of the din,
>you'd better be sure author it in the particular language and
>excessively narrow interests of the dominant posters.

Jeez, Dan, our posts have crossed paths many times, and I never
had any idea you felt like that!

> Eventually the inevitable happened and the list split off into
> many disgruntled and more special interest type factions. This
> has helped ease tensions and foster diversity to some degree,
> but I think it's still a process that's feeling its way towards
> something better. It's better, but it could be better still.

I think the splintering has had both positive and negative effects
on our community. I agree that the single list was over-burdened,
but I'm not sure a bunch of yahoo groups are the way to solve the
problem.

>I'm sorry, but the signal to noise ratio renders the list archives
>all but impenetrable to anyone with anything less than a stout
>streak of tuning fanaticism.

In total agreement with you here.

>I think more work along the lines of TMA's digestible sized
>portions can only help--Joe Monzo's editorial and organizational
>work on Paul Erlich's Fokker periodicity blocks and harmonic
>entropy posts would be another example of a fruitful collaboration
>that exists in a presentable form other than the archives.

I wasn't familiar with TMA until just now... looks cool.

> A FAQ would help... any FAQ!

Absolutely, 1000% agree.

>The last effort kind of collapsed under the weight of its own
>ambitions and the usual acrimonious squabbling,

I wasn't on the list during this time.

>but I bet we--we being the online tuning community who'd be willing
>to participate--could get it done. It would probably take an
>appointed organizer though, someone who gets things done.

Agree, but think none of the appropriate people have the time.
Starrett and Monzo come to mind.

>Then there's music. Stunning music puts all doubts to rest.

Totally agree. But posting on a list isn't music. I don't see
how to change that.

My own experience with the list began in the fall of 1996. I
was enthralled. I posted a bunch of music -- in 14-bit 32Khz
wav and au format -- which didn't create much of a stir. This
was before any of the work we now consider to be great... the
Sethares album, Crash Landing, Acoustic Stick, From on High.
Before the digital Partch re-releases on CD from CRI and Innova.
My friend had just written me about a new format called mp3 that
was going to make news. I played around with a DOS version of
the Fraunhofer codec that looked like it had been ripped out of
something with a hex editor. Couldn't post mp3s, though, since
nobody had anything to play them with.

I also posted pdf scores and midi files with Sysex messages
inserted by the Pitch Palette sequencer. Nobody had the Pitch
Palette (or more accurately, the Roland virtual synth that came
with it), so nobody could play the midi files (this was before
Breed, deLaubenfels, and Walker made pitch-bend midi practical
on Windows).

So I took it all down, and decided to learn some theory. Now,
I've got enough theory to make interesting tunings up all day
and all night.

I had a spot in Reinhard's AFMM in 1998. I wasn't in the
composing mood in 1998, but he asked nice, and I couldn't
refuse such a break. After the concert, I reflected on what
an artistic failure it was. Lots of great work, most notably
the Adams _Durham_ quartet, but the idea of a concert of music
where "microtonal" (whatever that is) was the only organizing
principle struck me as silly, mis-guided, and abusive of the
audience. Let them have the sweetest music ever, or the most
sour, but don't make a point of why it was. That was going to
be my approach. The idea of a "microtonal movement" seemed
childish. There used to be serious limitations... but there's
very little to stop us anymore, once Vandervoort gets his
keyboard off the ground.

-Carl

<snip>
> Effective music brushes even the sturdiest and the most sublime of
> theoretical edifices aside, and it does so with alarming ease... it
> steamrolls everything in its path... it clears the palate and resets
> the clocks.
>
> --Dan Stearns

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John Starrett