New member saith hello

Hello esteemed composers and musicians,

I joined this group a couple of weeks ago, hoping to find
stimulating discussions of microtonal music and some original pieces
to listen to now and then. My purpose in joining has been abundantly
fulfilled.

In joining, I admitted to Jon that I am not 'making micro music'
currently. I have too many irons in the fire and perhaps I did not
enter life with as strong a "jones" for making music as most of you.
Music, as well as visual arts, literature and poetry, are all forms
of expression that I enjoy and appreciate, and have tried to learn
about so as to appreciate them more fully.

I must say that "ABCDEFG," "octaves," fifths," "thirds" and the
other intervals named after the piano keyboard and "major"
and "mintr" scales, as a basis for music theory never made the
slightest bit of sense to me. Fortunately, in the late 1970s / early
1980s I encountered Harry Partch, fell in love with his music, and
read 'Genesis of a Music.' The book suddenly made everything clear
to me! "ABCDEFG" and the rest finally made sense, and the doos to
world of Just Intonation as a basis for microtonal music opened for
me. Later,I learned about other non-12tET scales, beyond "quarter-
tones" (24tET).

Eentually,I found my way here ... and I think that one way I can
contribute to the group, as an alternative to just "sponging" your
beautiful and intriguing music, filling my hard drive with it and
listening to it with enjoyment, will be to attempt to make
intelligent comments on your pieces as you present them to the
group. You DO need responsive listeners who are not also composers
and musicians in their own right! ;)

I believe that microtonal music can, and ultimately will, have an
appeal that reaches far beyond a relative "handful" of people who
are interested in exploring exotic sonorities. Recently, I have
discovered (and in some cases, re-discovered) contemporary music
that speaks more eloquently for its being microtonal; in fact, it
speaks in tongues and inflections that are simply unavailable to
music-makers who rely only on the trusty old 12tET. You people are
making that music, for which I am deeply thankful.

So, if you will permit me to do so, I'd like to join in occasionally
and comment on your pieces and your ideas (to the extent that I
understand the latter; I think I'm actually pretty savvy about this
stuff, although probably most of the other group members greatly
surpass me in knowledge).

Of course, eventually I may download CSound and find the time to
learn how to use it, or I may even become involved with other tools -
however, I can make no promises. A few years ago, I used
algorithmic composition software (A Musical Generator) to produce a
few pieces that were interesting to me and a some others to whom I
exposed them, but not using non-12tET resources. I would like
someday to explore techniques that involve algorithmic generation of
musical material that is subsequently molded by the composer and
used according to the guidings of the human mind and intuition; and
I would like to use microtonal scales in such music. In that regard,
I feel a certain affinity for Nick Didkovsky's approach, based on
what I know of it. (Nick is not an explicitly microtonal composer,
to my knowledge - perhaps we should try to subvert him ;) )

Best regards,
George

Hey, it's George!

{you wrote...}
>My purpose in joining has been abundantly fulfilled.

Excellent. The traffic ebbs and flows, been a bit more active recently, which is a good thing.

>You DO need responsive listeners who are not also composers and musicians >in their own right!

Yep.

>Of course, eventually I may download CSound and find the time to learn how >to use it, or I may even become involved with other tools - however, I can >make no promises.

No need to promise, but the tools are getting better and better, sometimes by the month (at least if you want to produce this kind of thing all on your own, rather than relying on live performance).

>I would like someday to explore techniques that involve algorithmic >generation of
>musical material that is subsequently molded by the composer and used >according to the guidings of the human mind and intuition; and I would >like to use microtonal scales in such music.

There have been a few that work that way - I heartily recommend Prent Rodgers' work. He's not only the moderator, but his stuff derives (mainly) from Partch's Tonality Diamond (I'm giving the pointer about Prent in case you haven't heard his stuff).

>In that regard, I feel a certain affinity for Nick Didkovsky's approach, >based on
>what I know of it.

Whoa, Nick! Great stuff - I've been a subscriber to the JSML list, which is the language/toolset he developed with (I believe) Larry Polansky, and then generated some great pieces (works done by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, etc). I think one of his online demo apps was a microtonal drone contraption. Very good, very manic stuff.

Good to have you George. We'll seduce you into cobbling something together yourself...

Cheers,
Jon