Johnny's Lingua Franca Notation

I would continue to stress that an extension of Herf's notation, which
allows for subdivision of 12-tet semitones into sixths (72-tet), to allow
halves and quarters of the steps of 72-tet to be notated, seems most likely
to lead to accurate results and will be structurally and audibly equivalent
to any desired tuning that I can think of (that is, any tuning I think could
be considered desirable). Cents notation, in addition to being arbitrary
from an acoustical or pedagogical standpoint, requires no fewer symbols
(two) in addition to the usual notation.

I would disagree with Adam Silverman as to the importance of a universal
notation. Different notational systems will no doubt be more useful for
"thinking" and composing in, and discussing, particular systems, such as
meantone (where conventional notation works), Partchian tuning, or 22-tet.
More use of electronic means (such as MIDI) and composer-produced recordings
will obviate much of the need for a standard notation. However, I would
agree with Adam that if we want to educate a new generation of performers so
that they can participate in the flowering of microtonal music, a "standard"
notational system would seem desirable, to make life easier for them and to
give the widest variety of music a chance of being performed correctly.


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What Adam is describing is what my wife Mayumi Reinhard calls "harmonic
13 just intonation" (whereby each note of her scale is made up of a 13
or its multiple). How about "harmonic 5
just intonation" for only ratios containing a 5 or its multiple, etc.

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

On Thu, 31 Oct 1996, Adam B. Silverman wrote:

> Is there a specific word to describe intervals which share a particular
> numerary nexus? For example, if I want to describe only 5-limit intervals
> which include 5 (exclude 3/2, 4/3, etc.). Would you say it is on the
> "plane of 5", or "5-plane intervals" (referring to a lattice dimension)?
>
> -Adam
>
> _________________
> Adam B. Silverman
> 153 Cold Spring Street; A3
> New Haven, CT 06511
> (203) 782-1765
>
> abs22@pantheon.yale.edu
>
>
>

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