Erickson instruments: one more try

One more try - can anyone give me any details about the metal rod
instruments built by Robert Erickson?

Daniel Wolf


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From: Steven Rezsutek
Subject: Bucking the system
PostedDate: 10-11-97 16:35:02
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>When working compositionally outside the usualTET, do you still tend to
>want (gravitate toward) triads and tetras for basic chords? Or do you
>tend not to think in terms of chords at all?

That's a valuable question. I have taken several approaches, such as:
1. Let's suppose that the old V7-I authentic cadence could be characterized as
a reduction of harmonic tension from "somewhat tense" to "relaxed". I like
to use microtonal resources to locate chord progressions that release about
the same amount of tension, but from "very tense" to "tense".
2. Many "chromatically altered" came about contrapuntally when voices moving
by step formed a new vertical sonority that proved to be interesting in its
own right (e.g., N6). Doing this with nontraditional step sizes can produce
some even more interesting vertical sonorities.
3. I also like for chords that fluidly bridge between traditional and
nontraditionaly chords, or even better, nontraditional chords that fluidly
bridge between two traditional chords.

Perhaps the question could also be posed in a more general way as well:
"Do you compose music in unusual tunings using traditional principles, like
chords, counterpoint, cadences, organized form, tonality, or related keys?
My own answer to that would be that those principles have pretty much the
same amount of value to microtonal music as to 12TET music. Those ideas
make audibly intuitive sense to many audiences out there, so it forms - in
essence - a well-known language of expectation and surprise. Speaking to
audiences in that language could be useful in some cases, but speaking in
an alien language that just simply sounds interesting can be useful in
other cases.

And perhaps one could throw the question a little bit more open, and ask
whether there is value in coming up with organized systems of
nontraditional theory for nontraditional tunings. My answer to that would
be the same: Organized theory has about the same amount of value in
unusual tunings as in traditional. Organized theory can point out patterns
to help make it easier to anticipate what effect a musical idea will have
before you perform it. That can be very useful to some forms of musical
practice and less useful to others.


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From: "Patrick Ozzard-Low"
Subject: George Secor's French Horn
PostedDate: 14-11-97 11:31:58
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Has anyone looked into John Clough and Jack Douthett's article on
"maximally even" sets (Journal of Music Theory, 35.1)? 'Cause that's what
the 22TET scales you're talking about are. Another (non-ME) scale that
might be interesting in 22TET is a "pseudo-diatonic": 4414441 which would
give you 3 quasi-traditional basic triads: 859 ("major"), 589 ("minor"),
and 55C (C=12) ("dim.") and a dom.7th chord: 8554. 19TET can support a
true ME scale (still pseudo-diatonic though): 3323332. But judging from
the title of this thread, you're probably trying to get away from the
usual jazz (which has my applause). Which causes me to ask a few
questions.

When working compositionally outside the usualTET, do you still tend to
want (gravitate toward) triads and tetras for basic chords? Or do you
tend not to think in terms of chords at all? Is anyone out there in
non-12TET using serial techniques? If so, how? (extensions of the
Viennese school or does the choice of tonal space suggest
non-Schoenbergian set solutions?) Is there a rationale for preferring
19TET, 22TET, whateverTET (wTET) or is this choice dependent solely on
what the ear subjectively prefers?
--Steve Soderberg, Music Division, Library of Congress



On Wed, 12 Nov 1997 Paul Hahn, Paul Erlich, Gary Morrison, Steven Rezsutek
-- I'm losing track, sorry -- wrote:
>
> >>> Do the white keys in this keyboard layout form an MOS subset mode?
> >>> Perhaps I'm not trying hard enough, but if so, I can't right off think of
> >>> any generators that would produce a 222221222221 mode.
> >
> >>No, there aren't any. PaulE's scale consists of two MOS subsets a
> >>half-octave apart.
> >
> >And it is the black keys, not the white keys, that form one of my basic
> >scales, 2222322223. Despite its messed-up state, Gary, I'd encourage you to
> >have a look at my paper under "Notes on Microtonality" on John Starrett's web
> >page.
>
>
> >No, there aren't any. PaulE's scale consists of two MOS subsets a
> >half-octave apart.
>
> Ah. And the generator is?
>
>
> As usual, the fourth/fifth 9/13. Four steps around the circle of fifths
> gives the pentatonic scale 4 7 4 7 4; duplicating each pitch at the
> half-octave gives PaulE (PErlich? 8-)> ) 's scale 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 3 2 2.
>


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From: "Paul H. Erlich"
Subject: RE: Bucking the system
PostedDate: 12-11-97 21:06:18
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