Interpreting the work of others

All-
Before I get to the point, please let me direct those of you with
web browsers to Jeff Harrington's page at

http://www.parnasse.com/jeff.htm

What a page! it's loaded with music in
many different formats including
Shockwave, MIDI and .au formats, and a
lot of it is microtonal. Some of this
is excellent!

Recently I linked to one of Kami
Rousseau's bits, a reworking of a
rather standard 12TET chord progression in
15TET. It was familiar and yet totally strange- familiar because you
could tell what was being done, and strange because the standard chord
progression didn't end up where you would expect it to. This sort of
thing is hilarious to me...it reminds me of the fun
Neil Haverstick and I used to have
when we were backing up a country &
western Elvis imitator a few years
ago, quoting various classical and pop
fragments out of context as riffs and
vamps in standard Elvis arrangements.
We would try to outdo each other at placing inappropriate segments in the
music. I don't know what Elvis would have thought (Gene, our boss,
sometimes wanted to strangle us) but all the musicians who came to hear
us loved it.

WERE WE RUINING THE MUSIC??
It depends on your point of view. We were definitely making the music
more interesting (to us and our friends, at least).

My point is, what constitutes a valid performance of another's
work? In the 12TET world, we are not afraid to present standard repetoir
in outrageous clothing, because everyone knows its a joke. We are not
afraid to undertake a serious reworking of someone else's music, because
our peers understand that we are trying to elaborate or strip down or
whatever a piece that we think has merit.
In the microtonal world, however, because of the unfamiliarity of
the tonal materials, I think, not as much deviation is appropriate, as we
may lose the meaning or structure of the original.

What do you think? By what are we bound in the interpretation of another
microtonalist's music?

I commenced to pondering this after reading the letter to the KRONOS
string quartet (look in Corporeal Meadows) berating them for playing some of
Partch's music on "unauthorized" instruments. Hell, John Schneider plays
Partch on his guitar and doesn't get slapped around (as far as I know).
It seems to me that a sensitive arrangement of Partch for string quartet
is entirely appropriate, as long as the tonality is respected.

John Starrett

p.s. Really, CHECK OUT THE JEFF HARRINGTON!

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Fri, 4 Jul 1997 05:37 +0200
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA04709; Fri, 4 Jul 1997 05:37:41 +0200
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997 05:37:41 +0200
Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA04698
Received: (qmail 15475 invoked from network); 4 Jul 1997 03:37:37 -0000
Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1)
by localhost with SMTP; 4 Jul 1997 03:37:37 -0000
Message-Id: <199707040332.WAA25946@kimserv>
Errors-To: madole@mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu

Richard Moody wrote:

''Most piano tuning supply houses should sell a G# fork at 415.3 cps. I would be interested in how the students are instructed (learn) to
tune the harpsichords and fortepianos.''

I learned how from Douglas Leedy around 1976, when he was an instructor at
the Early Music Workshop in Idyllwild, CA. He gave us a single page with
instructions for pythagorean, quarter comma meantone, and two or three well
temperaments. We practiced tuning beatless octaves, fifths, and Major
thirds, and then learned to count beats in the reference octave using a
watch with a second hand or a metronome. I suspect most students learn
similar methods - although digitial tuners may be used more frequently
nowadays in setting the tempered intervals. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Fri, 4 Jul 1997 19:07 +0200
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA05052; Fri, 4 Jul 1997 19:08:18 +0200
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997 19:08:18 +0200
Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA05038
Received: (qmail 4675 invoked from network); 4 Jul 1997 17:08:09 -0000
Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1)
by localhost with SMTP; 4 Jul 1997 17:08:09 -0000
Message-Id:
Errors-To: madole@mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu