TUNING digest 1385: Scho"nberg and Partch

Although there are astonishing parallels between
Scho"nberg and Partch - just compare a 12-tone row
matrix with the diamond (which each multiply a series
by its inversion; intonational mappings aside, the
structures are essentially identical) - the fact that
the two parallels will never meet becomes rapidly
apparent on close inspection.

Partch's 'coporeality' would admit only precisely
tuned rational physical relationships and rejected
all mappings onto temperaments, while Scho"nberg's
position in a particular cultural tradition demanded
reification of that tradition (i.e. temperament) through =

the discipline of composition. Scho"nberg did indeed
make an appeal to nature with regard to the perception
of dense chords in terms of 'higher partials', but he
clearly viewed the compositional task as one of
assimilating such perceptions to the tempered scale. =


In his 1934 letter to Joseph Yasser, Scho"nberg writes
(Yasser's translation):

''I have presented the little tabulation of overtones
not in a scientific fashion, not as a theory, but solely
as a handy assertion that the connection of tones =

rests on their relationship and that even the chromatic
scale appears to be justified through circumstances of a
natural character. Far be it from me to contend that =

your claim does not more readily meet scientific demands.
I am only trying to indicate that the chromatic scale is
being hinted at through the relationship of overtones =

which the ear but unclearly (!) recognizes. One might =

compare this to a hint received by a painter through his
model which he freely re-interprets, unlike a photographer
who reproduces the original as precisely as his lenses will
permit (their defect being corrected by him through the
addition of a pertinent 'atmosphere'). A scientist,
however, must always strive to transmit the pure truth even
though the defect may be more beautiful, more pleasant, or =

more practical. I believe this to be one of the divergencies
between art and science.''

Need I remind anyone of Partch's anguished plea for the
'truth of just intonation'? Scho"nberg here is not rejecting
such a "truth" in itself but rather the compositional
utility of such.

Schoenberg goes on:

''...indeed whenever I have had occasion to take up intonation
with string players, I have always insisted on its _tempered_
form.(...) To be sure, one of the difficulties of my music is
that the classically trained ear, hearing a note c#, may ask
whether this should really not be db. In reality, however, this
is nothing else but the measured half-tone betwen d and c,
regardless of any harmonic considerations. And I believe that a
listener who, in his hearing, combines other tones than those I
have indicated, is not sufficiently cultivated. To be musical,
then, means to have an ear in the sense of music and not in the
sense of nature. A musical ear must have assimilated the =

tempered scale. And a singer who produces natural pitches is
unmusical, just as one choosing to act on a street in a
'natural' way would be considered indecent.''

''I do not wish these words to imply that I have any quarrel
with your theory, with which I am as yet not sufficiently =

acquainted with to either approve or disapprove. I merely wish
to emphasize the attitude of the composer toward the theory
of _composition_, which has no connection with other =

disciplines.'' (...)

Scho"nberg's strikingly clear insistence on the autonomy
of musical composition could not be more distant from
Partch's in-and-of-the-world corporealism. A good
illustration may be found in the highly artifical,
expressionist use of the speaking voice in Scho"nberg's
_Sprechstimme_ when contrasted with Partch's intention
of setting the natural inflections of the voice. (That
neither composer was completely successful in their goals
and the results are often similar is another matter
altogether!).

Daniel Wolf
Frankfurt

>BTW, visit this beautifully done microtonal site
>
>bakshis.org

>I can't get this to work. What is the full url?

>bakshis.org
>I can't get this to work. What is the full url?

It's bakshish.org. Bakshish is Hindi for alms if I remember correctly.

Manuel

Doesn't the Parker guitar have stainless steel frets?



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Xou Oxno writes:

> Doesn't the Parker guitar have stainless steel frets?

Actually, that's where I got the inspiration to look for them. So
far, though, I haven't found any ready-made, so I'm beginning to
think that Parker may have had the wire custom milled. Might be
a reasonable thing for them to do, but I'm only looking to build
one instrument... :-(