MicoFest West, physics

I'd like to second Neil's comments on MicroFest West. Actually, I
was hoping someone would write a general review of the concert, but I'll
do it as I think the List should contain more than just discussions
of theory, though I'm one of the prime offenders in this regard.

As it happened, I drove up to LA last Saturday to meet with Erv Wilson,
Marcus Hobbs, and Stephen J. Taylor at Marcus's home for a pre-concert
demo of their recent work implementing Erv's theories in Kyma. Bill Alves
also joined us there and we all enjoyed a Thai dinner before proceeding
to Pierce College.

The program began with three pieces by Lou Harrison -- "Avalokiteshvara"
(from La Kora Sutro?), "Waltz," and "Sonata in Ishartum" (a Bablylonian
diatonic mode in "Pythagorean" tuning, equivalent to the the Greek
Dorian as I recall). Harrison's music is always a treat to hear and the
"Just Strings" ensemble of Schneider (just guitar), Susan Allen
(retuned harps), and Gene Sterling (pitched and unpitched percussion)
did not dissapoint. Sasha Bogdanowitsch joined the ensemble for the
next set, three movements from his "Atom turning in the Sun of Eternity."
Of these pieces, I especially enjoyed "Peace Yearning," in Archytas's
7-limit enharmonic in which Sasha accompanied the ensemble with his voice.
I forgot to ask him about the text, alas.

Just Strings then performed Harry Partch's "Letter from Hobo Pablo,"
in the orginal version for plucked strings. John played adapted guitar
and intoned the text while Susan and Gene simulated the Kithara part
on a harp and three restrung and retuned guitars. While I missed Harry's
somewhat gritty and ethoxylated voice, John did the vocal part very well.
The guitars amazingly captured the Kithara sound; when I shut my eyes, I
could easily visualize myself hearing the Kithara itself. I found this
to be an interesting experiment and a truly corporeal experience.

George Zelenz and Louis Johnson performed "Moment Condensate," a
suite of four pieces on a orchestra comprising a large array of
justly tuned metal tubes (Tubulongs), a rack of hanging metal slabs
and several smaller instruments. Of the movements, my favorite was
"The World is not mystical, THAT the world is, is the mystical" (sic).
I'd like to hear more of George's music; despite a few phone conversations
in the past, this was my first meeting with him.

Rod Poole performed "The unfathomable loneliness of the Light year man"
on a guitar fretted to a just intonationof 17-tones. This was a wonderful
piece and Rod is a superb performer. It was a pity that due to a schedule
change, we did not get to hear him play bowed guitar as well.

Carter Scholz's piece "Rhythmicon" wasinspired by Henry Cowell's
mechanical instrument. The performance was realized by John Schneider on
justly tuned guitars and presented from tape. It was a fascinating
experience as various melodies organized themselves out of rhythmic
processes based on the first
17 members of the harmonic series.

The first half ended with a stunning performance of "Micronesia" by Neil
Haverstick on 19-tone electric guitar. Haverstick is demon guitarist and
seems completely at home in the 19 and 34-tone equal temperaments. He
was accompanied by Gene Sterling of "Just Strings" on a drum set.

After af intermission, we were treated to Yoko Ayaya on the Koto
and a performance of Midare, a 17th century piece by Yatsuhashi Kengyo.
This piece made use of the major third-minor second pentatonic scale,
of which the Greek enharmonic is a variant.

Kraig Grady then performed one of his "Anaphoria Island" pieces on a
group of tuned aluminum slabs suspended over large, tall wooden
resonators. Kraig wore a wonderfully weird mask with a long, curved
snout while he performed virtuosically on this instrument. The slabs
were tuned to JI, a bass subset of the eikosany + 2 scale that he
uses in much of his music.

Neil astonished us again with a solo performance on the 34-tone guitar.
Neil also gave a moving tribute to Larry Hanson, who is hospitalized and
could not attend the performance. Hanson is responsible for constructing
the 34-tone guitar and making it available. Hanson also collaborates
with Erv Wilson.

The concert closed with Terry Riley's "In Just C" by the whole ensemble.
Needless to say, this was an unusual and eclectic mix of timbres and
forces, but it worked. I might also add that it was a temporally
abbreviated performance due in part to the late hour.

Afterwards, we and most of the performers repaired to a nearby restaurant
for conversation and food until about 2 AM. It was a great evening and
John Schneider deserves our congratulations and appreciation for putting
together such a successful program of microtonal music. Let us hope it
becomes an annual event.


To change the subject, I think Paul Erlich has eloquently presented
the case for contemporary physics, making my planned discussion
unnecessary. I might add that if one wants to study the use modern
physics makes of vibration in QM and cosmology, consider supersymmetric
superstring theory where fundamental particles appear as vibratory
modes of "strings" in a hyperspace of up to 26 dimensions. I will
end with the statement that sounds in air are not analogous to
gravitational or EM waves in a hypothetical "ether" (QM vacuum?" Sound
consists of macroscopic longitudinal waves in an elastic medium.
Gravitational and EM radiation are transverse waves whose physics
and mathematical description are entirely different.


--John


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