Denver MICROSTOCK

Allow me to make a report on Neil Haverstick's unqualified success in
Colorado. It seems as if the entire state was participating, including
printed press, radio (NPR and a local), university, classical musicians,
citizens...

The audience was warm, full, and comfortable enough to enjoy a 3 hour
program. On a personal level I enjoyed premiering *Miles High* which
allows me to create a trumpet sound on the bassoon by removing the reed
and buzzing my lips on the bocal while breathing in. Presto changeo, the
bassoon is a "trumpetoon" and the jazz played with cellist David Eggar
and bassist Guy Tyler made for progressive jazz.

Guy premired his own *Three on the Floor* which comes out of his rock
band Texas Firewimmen and is in fast quartertones with an improv section
based on glissandi. (All pieces were graciously received by this
audience, regardless how new.)

Mayumi presented 3 works - all using Harmonic-13 just intonation and
skirted all stylistic categories, other than thorough-composed. Through
the klezmer-sounding *Knishtet* quartet, the inward *Bassie* trio
(remarkably akin to Eric Dolfy's *Eclipse* we realize since purchasing
the CD in Denver), and *Peach* with its instrumental viruosity: all was
clear and described as "heartfelt" by an NPR reviewer.

My solo *Dune* opened our set the way it was meant too. (A bassoonist in
the audience told me afterwards that I did 80 things on the bassoon that
she had never imagined possible. And I intoned Harry Partch's *A Dream*
complementing John Schneider's *Barstow*.

It was a complete joy seeing and hearing John Schneider perform on his
multiple fingerboards. His solo *Barstow* was corporeal in the most
exciting way (notable was his turning around to look at the cross of the
church intoning "Jesus was God in the flesh." The Lou Harrison work was
scintilating and people hung on every consonance. John's own
composition, which he re-arranged in just intonation "in order to
liberate it from 12-ET" was more "sturm und drang" than any of the other
works on his 45 minute set, refreshingly so. Special thanks to John's
care about the acoustics of the sound space regarding curtains,
placement, grandfather clocks, amplification, etc.

But leader of the team was Neil Haverstick who set the stage for a
grand event. His band with John Starrett (perhaps the grandfather of the
Denver microtonal movement since he made the first 19-tone guitars and
gave one to Neil) is a solid bassist with the mathematical and
construction know-how to guide those interested in idiosyncratic
microtonal pursuits, and drummer Ernie Crews (who came to my master class
at UC at Boulder instructing microtonal bassoon to the bassoonists of the
President of the International Double Reed Society class, and who has
been a Partch disciple in study), is dynamite! New works by Neil in
34-tone ET and variety to the 19-tone Blues basis of the ensemble, and
word has it that Neil is soon to be playing fretless in just intonation
tunings... Check out his recording THE GATE, only you won't get to hear
his new fast-picking country tune.

Neil has captured the imagination of the Denver/Boulder region which is
growing economically and microtonally. Somehow it seems amazing that
there has been no comparable concert in California. Talking with Jon
Catler, he thought I should spell out on this forum that the AFMM
Ensemble can present music in a myriad of styles on the highest level
(e.g. Partch and pioneers, imrov, original works, requested works, and
rock throught the Microtones Band).

John Schneider just represented American in Japan playing Partch and with
Walter Mondale addressing it in the program! Couldn't we drum up enough
activity in the USA to have concerts of the sort just witnessed in
Denver? A little money and grass roots organization, combined with a
clear artistic aim could bring St. Louis, Boston, Chicago, Gainesville,
and other cities into a time when microtonal music is the music of the
next millennium, but it's going on right now - in real time!

Johnny Reinhard
Director
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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