Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic Re: Hello Mary and Jon -- latest TMA issue

Hello, there, Mary and Jon and everyone.

It's a pleasure to be back online, Mary, and a real treat to see your
friendly greeting. I'm really excited about your orchestration ideas
and projects both for the Colonna example of fifthtones -- your aria
-- and my piece.

This kind of experimentation and creativity might not only produce
some beautiful music, but get people interested in an era of
experimental European music maybe not so well known. When it comes to
bringing together the old and new, your technique and art should lend
a very special viewpoint.

Of course, this process is enriched all the more by your awareness,
and that of this group generally, that there are a wealth of world
musics and intonational systems.

There's a fascinating passage in an advertisement Vicentino published
in 1561 for his _arciorgano_ that having the enharmonic or fifthtone
steps available would make it possible to follow the inflections
called for in setting to music the words of various languages --
Hebrew or Turkish, for example. Whether he was referring to melodic
inflections practiced by singers of those traditions, or to the ideal
steps for following the patterns of these languages, his statement is
a reminder, at least for me, to think and hear globally as much as
possible even while composing from a unique "local" viewpoint.

Jon, thank you for such a careful statement on the question of the
relation of composer to performance, not only moving in its empathy
for my viewpoint but also providing an example for me to follow in
qualifying some of my own remarks.

My comments about the very flexible nature of much medieval and
Renaissance music -- and also neo-Gothic or Xeno-Renaissance music --
shouldn't distract from the other side of the question. Some effects
on which I rely can be quite timbre-specific, and indeed the choice of
timbre may be the basis for the whole consonance/dissonance structure
of a piece.

This is an area where General MIDI files have frustrating limitations,
and for that very reason one not represented well by a sampling of the
MIDI files I post.

For example, in an article in the latest issue of _The Microtonal
Activist_ (TMA), so ably edited by Jacky Ligon, I discuss a system of
"meantone well-timbrement" inspired by Bill Sethares and others who
have explored new kinds of consonance through matching timbre with
tuning.

The timbre/tuning connection is more generally a major theme of the
issue, with excellent articles by Jacky and by Jeff Scott on tunings
with stretched or compressed octaves or other intervals.

For a beautiful example of timbre/tuning artistry with voices,
acoustical instruments, and synthesizer sound, of course, Jacky, your
CD _Galunlati_ would be hard to outdo -- although you and the other
musicians just might manage.

Anyway, the point here is that with this kind of music, the timbre is
often as basic to the statement as the choice of notes and intervals.

Curiously, at the other side of the spectrum, I find that often
with Gothic or Renaissance styles and the like, there's not
necessarily any distinction between writing for acoustical or
electronic performance. The same piece might be performed by four
singers, or by a small instrumental consort, or live on synthesizer,
or through some kind of MIDI realization.

Of course, if that piece happens to include some enharmonic or
fifthtone inflections, then a performance by singers and/or acoustical
instruments might confront me with the same problems Vicentino faced
in the 16th century: how to help the performers find and get used to
those unfamiliar intervals.

One fascinating part of this TMA is the transcription of a lecture by
Joe Pehrson in Russia on microtonality, ranging from 48-tET to 19-note
JI systems to a hexany composition.

Joe, your prediction that singers and instrumentalists may become
fluent with these new intervals and sonorities reminds me of
Vicentino's similar prediction in 1555: maybe the technologies, the
means of global communication, and the kind of community celebrated in
this forum can make it happen.

Also, an appreciation of various world musics where small intervals
and inflections are routine may lend a perspective precious both for
its own sake and for the sake of liberating all world musics. May this
forum serve as one small model of sharing and community through
diversity,

Peace and love,

Margo

Re: Hello Mary and Jon -- latest TMA issue

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