J Szanto's report

I read Jonathan Szanto's report of the SD concert just after I heard a
microtonal concert in Toronto. The (in)famous Johnny Reinhard was here
from New York, playing in most of the pieces. More about him shortly.

My reaction is in some parts the same as Johnathan's. Some of the pieces
on the concert didn't do enough. I went with an acquaintance who felt the
same way. In several pieces, something might happen, then something else
might happen, all very low-key. Of course, there were some good pieces
too, and all of them had good moments, but not much of the concert will
convince anyone of anything concerning microtonality.

The reason, I think, as has been mentioned by Warren Burt, Neil
Haverstick, and others, is that fine music transcends tuning. It does not
mean that tuning isn't integral to a piece, but it does mean that tuning
*alone* isn't likely to make a piece work. There are exceptions, but few.
One piece that Marc Sabat played tonight may be an exception, in fact,
for the natural harmonics made the piece work as well as it did...although
it would be hard to imagine this colourful, slow, atmospheric piece
(Marc's "Prism") without the violin's timbre and the harmonics.

So my remarks will seem similar to Johnathan's, although in this concert
little improvisation was involved. Many of the pieces were simply too
simple, not taking advantage of the microtonal resources available.

Now to Mr. Reinhard, whom I had not heard before. Regardless of the pitch
structures and how accurately they were delivered (which I think were
fairly so), and even apart from questions of style (which are sure to
enter at least for Partch), Johnny Reinhard seems to me a wonderful
performer. He intoned some Li Po, played the bassoon, and played the
recorder (the latter two in his own pieces, among others). He has this way
with his instruments (including voice) and his audience that makes
anything he does alive and engaging. Again, the music wasn't always tops,
but Johnny was a treat to hear and to watch. I'd recommend anyone in the
New York area to seek him out.

His equal in this concert was certainly Marc Sabat, an amazing violinist
whom we are lucky to have in Toronto. Margaret Gay, the cellist, was also
very fine, although she had less to do.

Another comment I made to my concert-mate was that few of these pieces had
fast parts, and few of them seemed able to use many of the notes of a
tuning (e.g. 31 ET) in a satisfying harmonic way. In other words, the
tunings may have liberated the sounds, but they also restricted them. Part
of this is a result of some of the instruments used, because they may not
be agile enough or constructed in such a way as to make music of a
different kind possible.

Probably this will engender debate and disagreement. But all I am saying
is that the movement may need to be more convincing musically. It
certainly needs variety, more than one is likely to hear in any one city.

Paul Rapoport


Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 15 Dec 1996 16:43 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA03470; Sun, 15 Dec 1996 16:45:35 +0100
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA04474
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id HAA07224; Sun, 15 Dec 1996 07:45:32 -0800
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 07:45:32 -0800
Message-Id: <009ACE2F340EA200.CE85@vbv40.ezh.nl>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu