TUNING digest 913

Neil said:
>I will
>post more later...but, here's the remedy to microdoodling: PRACTICE
>YOUR AXES, AND LEARN TO PLAY WELL, AND THEN YOUR IDEAS WILL HAVE MORE
>SUBSTANCE...make the music as powerful as your theories, and then we
>can take over the world...thanks...Hstick

Gee, Neil, that's a pretty mean thing to say. I like your tape and
appreciate your good guitar skills, but to condemn music as being lousy
because it doesn't "groove" or doesn't fit your _opinion_ of what "good"
music is closed-minded and, if I may speak freely, a very limiting attitude
which is mostly shaped by commercialism and arrogance.

A very disturbing article appeared in the New York Times describing how
major doctoral dissertations are not being published by college presses
because they don't have "selling-potential." What is most disturbing about
this is that there MUST be forums for all sorts of academic research in
order for a society to progress. Here on the micro-forum, we straddle the
line between creating theory that appropriately describes music, and
composing music that pushes theoretical boundaries. Whether or not this
music suits your tastes is no reason to trash it.

I have read that Pythagoras did not listen to music, and instead studied
ratios all day long. Do you know what he called this study? "Music."
There is ear-music and text-music and everything in-between.

Much great music was deemed "unplayable" by contemporary performers;
Beethoven's chromatic parts for unvalved horn parallel much of what we deal
with as microtonal composers in a world of unsuitable instruments.
Hopefully someday our instruments will catch up with our ideas. As for
"microdoodling," you don't list specific pieces, I assume in order to
protect the composer from embarassment. I you would prefer to discuss
particulars, we can take it off the list and have a private discussion. I
feel that we have many fine composers on this list in every style under the
sun, and you can take your pick.

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

abs22@pantheon.yale.edu



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