So you want to be a microtonal composer?

This may be off the beaten path for this group but here goes. I first
became interested in microtones in 1991 after Perspectives of New Music
published its Microtonality Today forum. Since that time I have been
gathering information on the various approaches to the use of extended
tonality in modern composition. What struck me right off was the magnitude
of disparate data AND the seeming absence of a "plain-English" compendium
of recent experiments. So, I took a step toward the organization of this
"chaos" with a doctoral dissertation that sought to review the theories of
Harry Partch, Ben Johnston, Easley Blackwood, and Josef Yasser and to
explain their approaches in a detailed, systematic and easy-to-comprehend
way. This document is a step in the right direction but really only
summarizes a small portion of the work that has been done toward the
expansion of tonality.

What is needed is a "Harmonielehre," of sorts, that summarizes the most
successful experiments with the most compositionally viable intervals (a
concept started, but not completed, by Blackwood's Microtonal Etudes, and
not unlike Gary Morrison's approach in this forum on the use of 9:7). All
this is aimed at reducing the daunting investment of time and energy now
required of the composer who wishes to incorporate the systematic use of
microtones into their compositional procedure.

This is important because the common-denominator toward the acceptance of
microtones into the modern compositional milieu is familiarity. The more an
interval is heard in a musical context, the more likely it is to establish
an aesthetic identity leading to the assumption of a musically
communicative function. In other words, if more musicians can use
microtones, more microtones will be used by musicians. And they will be
used for more than simply novel harmonic and melodic gestures, but in a
contextually specific and hierarchically mandated way.

So, as I see it, in order to break us from this chicken-and-the-egg cycle,
we must present information in a manner that defines unknown variables in
relation to known variables, and, building on this relationship, is focused
on the development of aesthetic criteria for the systematic application of
new musical identities. In so doing, we just might fill the "one theory per
composer" rut that blocks the path to popular understanding and acceptance
of the notion of the expansion of tonality.

Just my two cents worth. Any thoughts, advice or criticism is greatly
appreciated.

Matt Puzan, D.M.A.
puzan@mail.pe.net



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