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RE: Neanderthal

🔗Johnny Reinhard <reinhard@...>

4/12/1997 2:23:42 PM
Yes, Gary, we were saying the same thing in different ways. The only
exception might be that "visually" at least what I saw was pretty
equidistant. The odds that the Neanderthal had worked out an "equal
temperament" are larger than the New York Lottery on a high yield night,
though.

Spoofs on April 1st must be more earnestly looked for, I'm afraid. New
York's Channel 1 on cable started its news segment with Mayor Guiliani
taking Janet Reno's spot in D.C. It was rendered professionally and
seemed quite believeable...until he said "April's Fools!"

An example that got my craw (and still disappoints me) was an early Ear
Magazine article purporting to divine the tuning used by Benjamin Franklin
in his sole string quartet. Even aside from the question of authorship of
the string quartet (no longer thought to be Ben Franklin's in
musicological circles), this was a non-April's Fools day article that
pretended 5-limit just intonation for the piece.

Sadly, I believed this "article," surrounded by a legacy of valuable Ear
articles. I caught up with the admitted perpetrater at
a La Monte Young concert that we were both performing in.

La Monte later told me afterward he felt bad that he had taught the
just intonation principles to the "funster" in composition lessons. The
ideas were lifted and used fancifully under a false name to claim a
false discovery. Perhaps if he had written his spoof on a clear April
1st I would be more accepting of his deception.

Johnny Reinhard
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@idt.net


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🔗Daniel Wolf <DJWOLF_MATERIAL@...>

4/14/1997 2:13:36 AM
Harold Fortuin wrote:

''European list members: for those of you with an interest in freely atonal
music, please seek out the music of Ruggles. It's some of the best of its
kind, and I
think it's not well-known across the Atlantic.''

I think that many list members might be surprised to learn that twentieth
century American music is probably better represented in European
concert/radio programs than in programs in America. What is most
interesting, however, is that it is works of the American experimental
tradition that get played, not of the ''Academic'' varieties. I would guess
that both Ruggles and Crawford-Seeger are better known (i.e. included in
High School-level music courses; concert programs; broadcasts) here than in
the U.S.. In Germany, at least, the rehearsal system is advantageous in
that the performers are usually paid for adequate preparation time and the
ensembles usually have a core membership that guarantees some continuity
not found in American freelance groups.

The musical highlights of my time in Frankfurt have all been performances
of American music: two different performances of Ives Fourth Symphony
(Peter Eo''tvo''s is a brilliant Ives conductor), all of the orchestral
works of Morton Feldman, the Cage _Europeras_, and the festival intended
for Cage's eightieth birthday. Curiously, I have heard more live music here
by La Monte Young (two premieres) and Alvin Lucier (solo concert, premier
of his (microtonal) string quartet, installations) than I managed to hear
while studying with both in five years living near NYC.

Curiously, when the U.S. Information Agency sponsors concert tours, they
are usually limited to the academic set (Carter, Babbitt, Harbison et al);
the performances are typically under-rehearsed and have made little impact
on the musical life here.

A look at a standard reference work in German, Ulrich Dibelius's _Moderne
Musik II_, will show that the following Americans receive more than passing
mention: Brown, Cage, Feldman, Glass, Nancarrow, Reich, Riley, Chr. Wolff,
Young. It is interesting to see that Arnold Dreyblatt and Harry Partch
receive as much attention as Carter or Babbit.

I have often said that I had to come to Europe to become an American
composer - and this is mostly because I had to come to Europe to hear
American music!

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