Microtonal Composition

Matthew: I'd like to see more on composition and aesthetics myself.
To your list you might add Ivan Vyshnegradski whose Manuel d'harmonie
a' quarts de ton was translated into English by Ivor Darreg and published
in Xenharmonikon 6, Summer 1977 under the title Manual of Quartertone
Harmony (XH6 is available as a photocopy from Frog Peak Music and
in microform from Xerox University Microfilms).
Also, A. D. Fokker has written a considerable amount on
composition in JI and JI as mapped into 31-tone ET. Fokker's books are
Just Intonation and New Music with 31 Notes (translated from the German
by Leigh Gerdine).
AFAIK, Blackwood's working notes for his Etudes have
not been published, but when they are they will be an invaluable
resource for composers who wish to translate common-practice and
early 20th century harmony into 13-24 tone equal temperament. He
used to make xeroxes of his very legible manuscript available at
cost and I recommend them if you haven't seen them.
BTW, is your dissertation available by xerox, ftp, microform,
or publication?
--John

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As always I find Neil Haverstick's comments very appropriate. I think he's
right that music by academics often ends up appealing to few more than
academics. Nothing wrong with appealing to academics in my book of course, but
Neil's certainly correct that there's a lot more folks out there than academics.


I can think of one force that one could make a fair case of blame for this,
although I certainly resist the idea: One could claim that academics are coming
up with new tunings faster than practical musicians like Neil, Johnny Reinhard,
and others can make good musical use of. I resist that idea, because I
certainly don't want academics to stop coming up with new tunings ideas.
Perhaps the concern is that we're not encouraging them to explore those tunings
thoroughly enough before they move on?


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