what is JI music?

I hope that this post will generate some good discussion, as it is quite
important for me to reckon with these ideas before writing quality music
in just intonation. Perhaps it is a concern that has been beat to death,
and perhaps it is one that is purely rhetorical. In any case, I think
that it cannot be answered by long lists of numbers, but rather with long
strings of adjectives.

A piece of mine for just-tuned piano was first performed on September 28,
and when a piano could not be tuned and a suitable synthesizer could not
be found, I decided that the musical purpose of the piece could still be
expressed on an ordinary piano, dull tuning. Although the intended
11-limit tuning varies far from equal temperament, it is octave-repeating
and fits under the hands well. No pitch strays much more than a
quarter-tone from its 12TET version. The piece was received extremely
well, with hosannas all around.

Since making a tape on the synthesizer, I have shown it to many people
and gotten many different responses. Mostly, it is bewilderment, and a
refusal to hear the basic musical qualities which were so well received
when the piece was performed without unfamiliar tones to get in the way.
The most important response came not from a composer, but from theorist
Paul Wilson, who claimed that tonal music such as this doesn't work in
JI as well as in 12TET. Basically, he is saying that the 4:5:6:7 chord
is too stable to provide directed tonal motion to a consonance, and that
moving from complicated (higher-number) sonorities to simpler sonorities
is not interesting enough in itself to sustain a piece of music.

Is just-intonation, as Ben Johnston says, indeed adaptable to any style of
music?

Can a composer write JI music that provides tonal motion rather than just
common-tone modulation? Can this be done with a mere 12 notes or less?

If the answer to these is "no", for what style is JI best suited?

I hope that people will not simply advocate their own styles, but rather
discuss this in general, musical terms.

Adam B. Silverman
asilverm@email.ir.miami.edu

Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 8 Nov 1995 06:06 +0100
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id UAA00459; Tue, 7 Nov 1995 20:06:09 -0800
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 1995 20:06:09 -0800
Message-Id: <951108040331_71670.2576_HHB52-15@CompuServe.COM>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu