microtonal tuning

The following is from PITCH I:4 published by the AFMM in 1990. It is a
from an interview by Mitch Corber with John Cage.

JOHN CAGE: Do you want me to read the questions [aloud]? (pause) I like
this one: "Do you consider yourself a microtonal composer?"

Well, I think of the field of sound as not having discrete steps in it.
Scales make discrete steps, and modes and so forth. But I like to think
of it as a field on which one could land at any point; and you can do
that, of course, with dials. With our technology, we're living in a
period where you can have a pitch at any point.

MC: And this is called microtonality?

JC: It could be called that. Or you could say that if you look at the
history of intervals, you could say that intervals have gotten more and
more close together.

[later in the interview]

MC: Was there a certain friction between you [and Partch]?

JC: He didn't like my work.

MC: Did you think this was a cursory take on it?

JC: No, he simply didn't like it. I think he didn't like the use of
chance operations, and I don't think he liked my attitude toward pitch,
which is, as i told you, an attitude toward a field of possibilities;
whereas for Harry Partch, there had to be particular discrete steps in
that field, and you had to be on the _right_ ones, so that certain sounds
for him were right, and all the otherws were wrong. I don't know the
difference between a right pitch and a wrong pitch.

MC: Do you believe Partch actually heard these tiny differences?

JC: Of course he did.

MC: Would you say he had an exceptional ear, then?

JC: I think many people have exceptional ears. David Tudor had what's
called a "golden ear," and the term is used when they test to see how
many vibrations you can distinguis...how closely you can distinguish
different numbers of bibrations. And we worked very closely together.
So, since he had a golden ear, I never felt that I had to have one that
was that special. (Laughs)

Johnny Reinhard
Director
American Festival of Microtonal Music
Publisher, PITCH
318 East 70th Street, Suite 5FW
New York, New York 10021 USA
(212)517-3550/fax (212) 517-5495
reinhard@ios.com


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