What Is Microtonal Music?

[I'm assuming interested parties have already set their
'from="szanto"--->trash' filters to the *ON* position]

Well, this has developed far beyond the pop model. Kind of scary.

Nonetheless, potentially worth a little bandwidth, since most all
subscribed herein are involved with tuning in a some musical fashion. And
if you are a visible entity, your thoughts are worth examining critically.

>Of course, most on this list understand that my philosophy of microtonal
>music is cross-cultural based. From this yardstick, _all_ music is
>considered microtonal, past and present. Understandably, not everyone is
>as catholic in their take on the intonational pie.

Daniel Wolf handled this admirably. A yardstick that can no longer measure
has certainly ceased to function as intended (when is a yardstick not a
yardstick?).

>As far as microtones in pop being out of tune, or irregular, or accidents,
>I think this condition exists quite rarely if at all. The days of
>microtones being "out-of-tune" notes I thought had passed.

What's that expression..."get real"? If a singer in a cover band is 50
cents flat to the pitch on his/her rendition of "Feelings", it IS NOT
intentional microtonality -- it's plain, inept 'out-of-tune'-ality. To
ignore this is an ivory-tower view of unprecendented opaqueness, and also
raises a dark spectre: if acceptance of all the variants of 'out-of-tune'
performance are merely lumped in as broad-based microtonality, then how on
Earth do you come up with performance standards? This implies, by default,
that bad or poorly executed intonation is impossible, even in microtonal
music, such as JI or other ET's! What now: "Close enough for jazz", to coin
an old phrase?

I know Johnny referred to Pink Floyd when citing microtonal performers; he
asserts that these aren't "accidents". If I may expand, I would posit that
the tempo fluxuations coming from Nick (drummer) weren't intended, that he
was never known for having a particularly solid 'pocket'. I would never
propose that the group was either micro- or poly- metric/rhythmic. But
that's me.

>Answer: if you perceive it as art, it is art.

While I realize this is a very philosophical outlook, it also completely
validates the "if you perceived it as in tune, it was in tune" model. I
don't know if I would want to hear an ensemble based on *that* particular
aesthetic.

>It is crucial to any discussion to define the terms being discussed. To
>that end I wrote a paper titled _Phenomenology and Its Application to
>Microtonality_ while a graduate student in ethnomusicolgoy.

Which, of course, sent me out on a search for information on phenomenology,
Edmund Husserl and calls to my more philo-centric colleagues and contacts.
While at polar extremes from being an expert, I have an idea of where
Johnny is coming from now.

>Meanings of words evolve.
>"Microtone" by itself may not have any utility. It is vague and signifies
>insignificance by itself. IMHO.

Then, for anyone involved in the ongoing growth and evolution of a subject
area, it would seem not only valuable but imperitive to re-define terms, in
an effort to sustain a dialog and investigation of that very subject
matter. There is certainly no harm, and much good, that can come from
application of intellectual rigor in a case such as this, especially when
"It is crucial to any discussion to define the terms being discussed."
Bailing out is unhelpful. IMHO.

>A discipline of Microtonality, which I adhere to, would include the
>commonality of all musics from the perspecitive of pitch and their
>intervallic relationships.

I find it difficult, if not impossible, to see how this defines
Microtonality; it would seem to be all-inclusive, with the possible
exception of non-pitch oriented musics. It would even, at face reading,
appear to include 12TET.

I'm dense: what's the point?

I have not quoted Johnny's references to the Harvard Dictionary of Music,
because to hold up incorrect, dated, or superceded examples/models is a
rather weak way of postulating an alternative model. Baby with the bath
water, or some such thing...

Sooooooooooooooooooooo: what is microtonal music? Maybe it's all been about
chasing our tail, and could have easily been boiled down to "non-12TET
musics". I just don't think *everything* is microtonal. It has to be more
than a casual happenstance, at least on some level.

I only hope Johnny would think about this a bit more, seeing as he has a
somewhat higher-profile-than-most role in the future and development of
non-12TET musics. It *can't* be, as previously stated, the "American
Festival of All Musics".

Well, it could be, I suppose, but then the AFMM would be just like everyone
else, and we wouldn't want that. Besides, if it wasn't Microtonal Music, I
would lose all the good feelings I get from advertising the concert series
on my web site!!

Stay in tune, folks; looking forward to that tape.....

Cheers,
Jon
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Jonathan M. Szanto : "Hell, I haven't hit my thumb in 30 years!!"
jszanto@adnc.com : - Harry Partch
Corporeal Meadows : http://www.adnc.com/web/jszanto/welcome.html
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*


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From: Johnny Reinhard
Subject: Re: What Is Microtonal Music?
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