recent stuff and arguments

I've been enjoying all the many recent postings of music.

I think Jeff Harrington's Preludes were excellent.

His "reasoning" that JI is not usable because of voice loss seems
rather silly to me, though. Prent Roger's lovely tunes prove that, as
does ANY music that uses live instruments, samples thereof, or sounds
that aren't computer-engineered to mesh together completely perfectly
(resulting in possible "voice loss")-- such as sine tones or synthesized,
non-vibrato, harmonic timbres.

I would think that perfect JI is, in the end, impossible to achieve, with
real instruments, voices, etc. Most instruments have vibrato.
Nothing's tuned perfectly 100%. Again, except for computer synthesized
sine tones, or La Monte's Rayna Synthesizers, or the like. (and I mean
"synthesized", not "sampled") And, of course, many
instruments' timbre-partials are stretched in this or that way.

This is why someone like La Monte Young has to go to such lengths (Rayna
synthesizers, lots of very specific instructions for his string quartet
(the details of which elude me for the moment), etc.) to try to
GET voice loss TO happen (i.e. Young WANTED this effect, and had to really
try HARD to get it to happen . .). Correct me if I'm wrong here.

If voice loss was such a danger, then why all this trouble on Young's
part to try to make it happen?

I would think "voice loss" is rarely, if ever, a danger for the JI
composer. Most instruments just aren't that accurate.

Plus, returning to the voice loss question, there is the effect of
"Streaming", if you've got contrapuntal lines zipping about, even a
voice DID drop out FOR REAL, your ear would probably fill in the gap . .
you might not even notice. In this case, this would be the opposite of
what Jeff Harrington claims, it would be a case of "ghost voice addition"
rather than "voice loss", as a result of existing in a JI setting.

But anyways, as I always say, trying to find a "negative" reason, to NOT
use a certain tuning (or other kind of musical material or methodology),
is a slippery slope, inevitably, in the end.

I should add that I have total respect for those who choose to
<conceptualize> their music in terms of "perfect" JI---context always
matters, and that's a quite different context from, say, 72-tet. A
given sound you could probably play for 99% of people in either tuning,
and they wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But, in terms of the
musical and formal structures that a piece in JI or 72- engender, these
can be quite possibly very different.

C Bailey

Christopher Bailey wrote:

>This is why someone like La Monte Young has to go to such lengths (Rayna >synthesizers, lots of very specific instructions for his string quartet >(the details of which elude me for the moment), etc.) to try to >GET voice loss TO happen (i.e. Young WANTED this effect, and had to really >try HARD to get it to happen . .). Correct me if I'm wrong here.
> >
The only thing I know about Kronos Crystala is
the strings are tuned to specific pitches and all the
notes are harmonics. I only heard it once and that was a long time ago.

--
* David Beardsley
* microtonal guitar
* http://biink.com/db

David Beardsley wrote:

>
> >
> The only thing I know about Kronos Crystala is
> the strings are tuned to specific pitches and all the
> notes are harmonics. I only heard it once and that was a long time ago.
>
> -- > * David Beardsley
> * microtonal guitar
> * http://biink.com/db
>

The string quartet Chronos Kristalla uses only harmonics, and one harmonic per string is tuned precisely before the performance (only the viola uses two of its strings for more than one harmonic). La Monte found that by tuning the fundamentals, the harmonics were sometimes away from the expected and desired pitch. So he has the quartet members tune the harmonics instead of the fundamentals. Quartets playing the piece are provided with a small Rayna box which plays sines corresponding to the the eight pitches played in the quartet.

Chronos Kristalla is a remarkable piece, suggesting that The Well Tuned Piano - the quartet is based on a tranposition of the "Magic Chord" from TWTP - may only be a sketch for a larger ensemble piece of impressive dimensions. La Monte has often mentioned that while the "Magic Chord" fits a string ensemble, the "Opening Chord" is music for brass instruments, so the outlines of further developments are fairly clear. More critically, I think, it is altogether possible that the playing techniques required for some parts of the string quartet have yet to be fully developed, especially the "clouds". The articulation of the clouds in TWTP are closely tied to the composer's own playing technique, and the translation into string technique strikes me as incomplete. Stunningly beautiful, but still incomplete. I am anxious to follow this development.

DJW

Thanks Daniel for this!

Daniel Wolf wrote:

>
>> >>
>
>The string quartet Chronos Kristalla uses only harmonics, and one >harmonic per string is tuned precisely before the performance (only the >viola uses two of its strings for more than one harmonic). La Monte >found that by tuning the fundamentals, the harmonics were sometimes away >from the expected and desired pitch. So he has the quartet members tune >the harmonics instead of the fundamentals. Quartets playing the piece >are provided with a small Rayna box which plays sines corresponding to >the the eight pitches played in the quartet.
>
>Chronos Kristalla is a remarkable piece, suggesting that The Well Tuned >Piano - the quartet is based on a tranposition of the "Magic Chord" from >TWTP - may only be a sketch for a larger ensemble piece of impressive >dimensions. La Monte has often mentioned that while the "Magic Chord" >fits a string ensemble, the "Opening Chord" is music for brass >instruments, so the outlines of further developments are fairly clear. >More critically, I think, it is altogether possible that the playing >techniques required for some parts of the string quartet have yet to be >fully developed, especially the "clouds". The articulation of the >clouds in TWTP are closely tied to the composer's own playing technique, >and the translation into string technique strikes me as incomplete. >Stunningly beautiful, but still incomplete. I am anxious to follow >this development.
>
>DJW
>
>
>
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
> >
>
>
>
> >

--
Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles