Yasser, Wilson

RE Wilson's theories: I spoke with Erv on the telephone last
night and he affirmed that the XH12 article is the best published
account of his theories, but he also cautioned that he considers
it primarily an introduction and explanation of the D'Allesandro
keyboard tuning. I plan to visit Erv this weekend with Brian McLaren
as Brian has more or less finished his current performing and recording
project in San Diego and is returning to his home in Corvallis, Oregon
the first of the month. If Erv has any thoughts to post, I'll do so
ASAP.

Mathew Puzan: While Yasser's book has been very influential on persons
as diverse as Erv Wilson and Joel Mandelbaum, to my knowledge only
Warren Burt has attempted to compose in Yasser's 12+7 system with harmony
based Yasserian "hexads." Even Joel did not do so to any great extent in
his dissertation, though he explored 19-tet pretty thoroughly from other
standpoints. His 1961 dissertation "Multiple Division of the Octave and
the Tonal Resources of 19 Tone Temperament" is a classic in the field.
Although it was hearing the tape of Mandelbaum's 19-tet
compositions that made Ivor Darreg aware of the distinct "moods" he
claimed were associated with different ET's and induced him to explore
ET systems beyond 12 and 24, Darreg was unsympathetic to Yasser's approach
and notation. Even Yasser himself apparently did not compose in his system,
though he did have the opportunity once to tune two pianos to 19-tet
and hear it (personal communication). If you have had any experience composing in this style, I'd love to hear the results.


--John

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