A call to action?

All-
Now that we have addressed Brian M's style, I would like to examine
the legitimate and important question implicit in his posts of last week.

---> What should we be doing to facilitate the understanding and
---> appreciation of microtonal music?

It is obvious that the more tuning savvy individuals we have in the
population, the better off subscribers to this list will be.

Why?

1) There will be more people to listen to (and buy) our music.
2) Synth manufacturers will think more of the microtonalist when
designing a synth than they would otherwise.
3) Some of us might get jobs teaching where previously we could not.
4) Discussion of musical ideas may become more commonplace, meaning more
fun for you and me.
5) Young people will start to play and compose microtonally, bringing
fresh ideas to their contemporaries, causing a positive feedback loop.

And of course the list goes on.

Brian bemoaned the lack of a good microtonal primer on the web. I'll be
the first to admit that my microtonal tutorial is shallow and slipshod.
David Doty's excellent book "The Just Intonation Primer" is a model of
clarity of exposition. I would love to link to it instead of offering my
crude efforts. Does an abbreviated version exist on the web to which I
could link?

I have searched the web for microtonal sound files and have found slim
pickings. I am sure I am not alone in the belief that we need to bring
the sounds of alternate tuning systems to the people, and the web seems
to me custom made for this purpose. I have a few microtonal sound samples
and some just interval sine wave samples on my home page. Does anyone
have any ideas on the best ways to make our ideas heard on the web?

I went to Tower Records yesterday and spent $65 on microtonal CDs. I felt
like I got about $20 worth of music, not because the music was bad, but
because the music I bought was mostly "new age", a style of which I am
not particularly fond (but, as Jerry Seinfeld would say "...not that
there's anything wrong with it"). Tower Records has a completely separate
room for world music. Wouldn't it be nice if they
had at least a bin for "microtonal" music, calssified minimally by
style? The Catler Brothers are quite different from Harry Partch, and
neither is "new age".

I also was frustrated by the lack of exterior liner notes on the CDs.
Many that I knew were microtonal had no indication of that on the
outside of the package, and I wonder how many others I missed because of
this. Maybe we could have an icon for "microtonaliy" that we could include
in the cover art. Although those in the know can find good dicographies
on the web and order from the Microtonal Music Source, we need to have
this stuff available where everyone can find it.

I know Neil Haverstick does music in the schools programs through the
Denver Musician's Union. Are we all doing what we can to bring our music
to young ears, and in a way that will be engaging and encouraging to
young musicians? I'd love to hear what others in this forum do along
these lines, as I can use all the new ideas I can get.

Finally, there is probably a core set of microtonal masterpieces on
which many subscribers will agree. It would be helpful to know what
these works are in order to intelligently direct the neophyte (and
seasoned neophytes like myself) to some appropriate introductory pieces.
Nothing will hurt our cause (ouch! 60s) more than to extoll the virtues of
xenharmonia to a fresh ear, only to have the possible convert turned off by a
silly recording of microdoodling. I think Brian listed his top 20
masterpieces a couple of months agoin response to a Haverstick post...any
other nominations?

Sorry for the length of the post, but I think we should consider some
of these things.

John Starrett (www-math.cudenver.edu/~jstarret)

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 17 Nov 1996 20:46 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA15006; Sun, 17 Nov 1996 20:48:12 +0100
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA14791
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id LAA19079; Sun, 17 Nov 1996 11:48:09 -0800
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 11:48:09 -0800
Message-Id:
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu