Subject: Re:microtonality in popular music

> A casual listen to the things being released today show (to me anyway)a
> rising desperation.The
> 'Jungle/Drum&Bass' scene seems to me to be a natural result of the
> impossibility of writing a 'new'
> song in 12 TET.

It's an even more natural result of a load of kids in fields off the
M25 E-ed up to their eyeballs :-)

> But my main reason for writing (other than the fact that I'm a beginner
> ,ergo more of a list voyeur)is this: microtonal/Xenharmonic music is not
> something one can pretend to be competent/good at
> (no pseudo-blues pentatonic riffs,or (why do they call it that)

Sure you can pretend. Pretend you can't tune your instruments
properly. That's what Captain Beefheart did.

Actually, pentatonic "blues scales" were covered on the list
not long ago.

Roni Size has got a TX81Z, you know.

> ,sample
> CD-ROMs (not multi-samples,but actual performances,ala those George
> Clinton collections),etc.We'll all be in trouble.I'd hate to hear a
> Partch/Darreg/etc. sample on Will Smith's latest "Cashing in on
> M.I.B.&ID4" ditty

There are a load of tunes that already use "ethnic" samples. I'll
bet a lot of them way off 12-equal.

> ,or aimless arpeggio-type patterns driving some dance music craze

Plus ca change...



> As something of an aside to this discussion, I have long thought that
> movie music is be a great avenue for microtonal composers to get their
> ideas to the proverbial masses.

If any producers out there would like me to score their movies, get in
touch.

What, no takers? Darn ...

Seriously, movies have such a huge budget you can't expect too much
experimentation, especially as the people who hold the purse strings
aren't going to be big musos. Now, if an established film composer
were to go microtonal, then we'd be in business. If the audience
don't realise they're listening to microtonal music, they might
accidentally like it!