Midwest Microfest

Hello, everyone! I happened to be in the Chicago area when a friend
of mine heard a radio announcement about the Midwest Microfest's
premiere concert and passed the word along to me. Naturally, I was
interested in attending, because I had been working with
microtonality many years ago and wanted to see what was happening
these days.

Wow, was I impressed! The program was all in 19-tone equal
temperament, with which I'm very familiar. Moreover, I was
absolutely delighted that two of the featured composers were
individuals whom I had met some 30 years ago. Easley Blackwood and
Joel Mandelbaum each gave a brief explanation prior to the
performance of each of their pieces (Mandelbaum's suite for two
pianos was performed live, and Blackwood's 19-tone etude was the
original electronic recording). Another electronically recorded
highlight of the program was Aaron Johnson's "Juggler", which
accompanied a live juggler!

In all there were 5 different pianists (Jacob Barton, Christopher
Bailey, Aaron Krister Johnson, Saori Chiba, and Paul Dykstra), who
played (in pairs) two pianos tuned to subsets of 19-ET. Quite an
impressive undertaking, to say the least! This was something that I
could only dream about back in the seventies, when I was last active
in microtonality.

But there was an even bigger surprise awaiting me after the concert.

Sorry, I have cut this short now. Somebody else wants to use the
computer. More later.

George Secor
Godfrey, Illinois

Hello, I'm back. (Sorry, but the only way I can get on the Internet
right now is at the public library, and I had to wait for my turn
again.)

As I was saying, there was an even bigger surprise awaiting me after
the concert. As it turned out, I happened to sit down next to Aaron
Hunt (a member of this group), who was engaged in a long
conversation with the fellow just across the aisle, so it was only a
couple minutes before the program started that Aaron and I
introduced ourselves to one another. I was quite surprised that he
had heard of me, but we weren't able to discuss this any further
till afterwards. Now for the really weird part: he knew me from
messages that he claimed I had posted to a Yahoo microtonality group
(of which I had no knowledge). Was I having a bad dream, or what?

I had to wait a while to get a chance to talk to Aaron Johnson
(which gave me a chance to say hello to Mandelbaum & Blackwood).
What a look of astonishment I saw on Aaron's face when I informed
him that this was the first I had ever heard of him! He must have
thought I had a severe memory problem, because he started trying to
remind me about some temperament that the two of us had allegedly
worked on, and he even asked me for a photo ID (I showed him my
driver's license). When I got the same confused reaction from both
Christopher Bailey and Jacob Barton, I began to suspect that someone
is impersonating me on the Internet.

Once I found this group, I started looking at the recent messages,
and sure enough!

Sorry, I have to get off again!

George Secor

Hi George!

Great to see you found your way to the
MMM list, and I hope we can get this
sorted out concerning you and your
doppelganger. It was a great pleasure
to meet you at the concert (we have
pictures to prove it, folks).

I have been meaning to post a mini-review
of the midwest microfest concert, but have
not taken the time. Thanks, George, for
touching on some of the key points of
interest. I was very glad to see some friends
there I knew, and some I only knew of from
these lists, but most of ther audience
appeared to be there just to take in something
new, which was nice to see. For me, the
event was well worth the long drive
northward to my former stomping grounds
of Chicago.

I met Easley Blackwood as I walked in,
(whom I had met previously at the AES
conference in Chicago in 2002 or 2001,
can't recall). Not surprisingly, he did not
remember me. But anyone who has met
Dr. Blackwood knows well the power of
his intellect, and his ability to discuss
his work with tuning has not diminished
since I last had the opportunity to hear
him speak.

I admit I had my doubts as I entered the
rather dank yellow-walled track-lit
basement room housing two uprights,
one of which was being tuned at the
last minute by AKJ. I had rather imagined
two baby-grands sitting in the normal
dual paino arrangement on a stage in
a small music hall. But this vaguely
discomfitting impression soon faded
as the performance began and my
attention was immediately drawn to
the main thing - the music.

I think everyone here is probably in
agreement that old music which was
written in meantone should be played
in meantone. There could be no
greater support for this point of view
than playing meantone music oneself,
and the next best thing is hearing it
blayed by someone else live. This
is how the concert opened, with a
performance of several "Elizabethan works",
all compositions in meantone (which
one of the pianos could handle alone
according to the dual piano 19-tuning
scheme) played with exceptional
authority by AKJ. An obvious
connesiour of the style, his execution
conveyed that wonderful sense of
improvised composition so characteristic
of the music of the period, with rubato
and ornamentation handled in very
good taste. Needless to say, with the
tuning and the performance both being
correct, that little room lit up with the
brilliant singing tones of the old masters.

Well, I do apologise this is only a beginning
of a review, but as work beckons, I will have
to continue at a later date...

Yours,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

P.S. Thanks to Kraig Grady (who was
_not_ in attendance) and my laser
printer and binding machine, I am now
also the proud owner of an autographed
copy of Joel Mandelbaum's thesis.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "methane_george" <methane_george@...>
wrote:
>
> Hello, I'm back. (Sorry, but the only way I can get on the Internet
> right now is at the public library, and I had to wait for my turn
> again.)
>
> As I was saying, there was an even bigger surprise awaiting me after
> the concert. As it turned out, I happened to sit down next to Aaron
> Hunt (a member of this group), who was engaged in a long
> conversation with the fellow just across the aisle, so it was only a
> couple minutes before the program started that Aaron and I
> introduced ourselves to one another. I was quite surprised that he
> had heard of me, but we weren't able to discuss this any further
> till afterwards. Now for the really weird part: he knew me from
> messages that he claimed I had posted to a Yahoo microtonality group
> (of which I had no knowledge). Was I having a bad dream, or what?
>
> I had to wait a while to get a chance to talk to Aaron Johnson
> (which gave me a chance to say hello to Mandelbaum & Blackwood).
> What a look of astonishment I saw on Aaron's face when I informed
> him that this was the first I had ever heard of him! He must have
> thought I had a severe memory problem, because he started trying to
> remind me about some temperament that the two of us had allegedly
> worked on, and he even asked me for a photo ID (I showed him my
> driver's license). When I got the same confused reaction from both
> Christopher Bailey and Jacob Barton, I began to suspect that someone
> is impersonating me on the Internet.
>
> Once I found this group, I started looking at the recent messages,
> and sure enough!
>
> Sorry, I have to get off again!
>
> George Secor
>

I'm getting excited reading these inspired reviews about the 19tet concert and I wish I could hear the concert myself. Will there be recordings available online?

Best,
Magnus Jonsson