Neanderthals, et al.

Adam has been dropping hints about the Tuesday (10/29/96) NYTimes article
on a Neanderthal instrument that has been found in Slovakia. Until this
find it was commonly thought that the "art" was the province of Cro-magnon.

The photo of the instrument indicaters a 4-hole instrument with only the
middle 2 in good shape. The holes were apparently punched through a
smaller cave bear's femur. Though it is called a flute throughout the
article, there is nothing left of what initiated the sound (e.g. single
edge, shakuhachi, fipple, etc.)

Microtonal, no doubt.

Johnny Reinhard
American Festival of Microtonal Music
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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Re: Johnny's Lingua Franca Notation

>I like the idea of a Lingua Franc, especially since I have always
>believed that all music is microtonal from a cross-cultural
>perspective. No, one should change the notation for Charles Ives, for
>example, because Ives wanted flats "flatter" and sharps "sharper" (his own
>directions fully corraborated by Kirckpatrick and in several palces by Ives).

Notation is, to me, a topic on equal footing with visceral topics in the
tuning discussion, since I believe that microtonality will never become
widespread nor will it develop a significant repertoire without some kind
of standard notation. When a standard is established, then music can be
raised to the level of sonic discourse, just as the emergence of Western
common practice music was marked first by the establishment of our standard
notational system, followed by the development of standard forms like the
da capo aria, sonata form, symphony, and other frameworks upon which
composers can comment and impress their own styles.

In this regard, the notation debate ties in strongly with last year's "what
is JI" thread, a heated topic which emphasized our divergent styles and
approaches across the world of tuning. Don't get me wrong--I don't think
that all music should be homogenized for the sake of so-called "progress",
but it is aparrent that when people band together, great things can happen.
We don't need to worry about this; it will happen effortlessly as long as
we continue to pass around tapes and books. What we should work on is
continuing the innovation and the debate about how to create a musical
framework and notation which will accommodate the widest range of styles,
and adopt it as "standard". Then, the next wave of innovators can exand
upon it and take the next step.

-Adam

_________________
Adam B. Silverman
153 Cold Spring Street; A3
New Haven, CT 06511
(203) 782-1765

abs22@pantheon.yale.edu



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