LA Microfest Review:LA Times

Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, April 21, 1998 by Josef Woodard:
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Microfest Lends Ear to Beauty on Fringe

Microtonalists tend to be regarded as quaint fringe dwellers who
don't, and won't, quite fit into the status quo. They refuse to accept
the norm of equal-tempered tuning--with 12 notes to the octave--which has
long gripped Western music, insisting that there are more expansive ways
of thinking. In some senses, it's true: Microtonalists could be the sane
ones in a world of mad, brainwashed listeners.

If, by consensus standards, this music is offbeat, it doesn't have to
be off-putting, as demonstrated at Sunday's fascinating Microfest, the
second annual microtonality festival organized by guitarist john Schneider
at Pierce College. The music here was provocative, melodic and
emotionally grounded.

A long program touched on many of the milestones and varieties of the
vast genre, including seminal microtonal composer Harry Partch's "December
1942," a set of bizarre folk songs for "adapted guitar," a weirdly
re-fretted instrument played by Scneider. Schneider was joined by
percussionist Gene Sterling and harpist Marsha Dickstein--they make up the
ensemble Just Strings, which uses just-intonation tuning--for Lou
Harrison's lovely and exotic "Three Pieces."

Schneider also demonstrated the viability of intonational re-fittings
with hismoving new arrangement of Arvo Part's popular, hymn-like
"Fratres," here for both the "octaveguitar" and then a retuned guitar.

George Zelenz's "Tiers of Yearning," for an eight-piece ensemble, had
its world premiere and proved to be an atmospheric suite that dazzled and
soothed by turns. In this case, the tuning itself offers built-in
bittersweet nature that informs the emotional palette of the composition.

In a concert like this, the tuning process before and during pieces
took on an almost ritual importance. For Sasha Bogdanowitsch's unusual
song cycle "Atom Turning in the Sun of Eternity," the ever-versatile
harpist Dickstein had to fine-tune three harps. The piece takes place on
a moody trans-cultural landscape in which the composer sings in an
invented text and incorporates Indonesian-influenced dance movements
around the stage.

Some of the most memorable moments were in solo settings. Bassoonist
Johnny Reinhard's "Dune" was a show-stopper in which he explored the
didgeridoo-like overtones and other new techniques on his instrument. He
literally took it apart at one point, to play through dismembered parts,
and generally unleashed the expressive, witty beast within an often staid
instrument.

Persian santur player Esmaeel Tehrani's improvisation was striking in
its invention, technical prowess and emotional logic. The santur, which
is a little like a hammered dulcimer, showed off a fine example of the
innate, ancient microtonal nature of music from other cultures. It's in
the world, and in the air.

(Josef Woodard, Los Angeles Times, 4/21/98)

Folks:

Here at San Jose State Univ. the first thing we teach our freshmen students in
their theory courses are interval ratios. We need to build a monochord (obviou
sly!) I am the type who can't hammer a nail in the side of a barn - is there an
yplace I can go (on the net or elsewhere) to find a kit, model, plans, whatever
My wife works in a violin shop so I can get pegs and bridges and such with n
o problem. Thanks to anyone who can help.

Allen Strange

Allen Strange asked about building a monochord.

An obvious model is a design from your own backyard - Lou Harrison and Bi=
ll
Colvig have made many monochords, usually two string 'comparative
monochords', using an aluminum metre stick between two bridges over a
simple plywood box with piano or zither pins on one end and nails at the
other for the wires. One nice addition was a set of tweezers mounted to a=

small piece of wood to slide alongside the metre stick and stop the strin=
g
more precisely.

=