TUNING digest 803 (was Re: (amb) Re: SUBJECT))))))

Sorry. Wrong list.

I also wrote:

>On now: Orchestre Frances de Flutes - Horatiu Radulescu
>Masses of flutes using the upper harmonic series, much like
>Glen Branca (or even LaMonte Young).

Well, not completely non-this-listy. It's not like I'm
trying to sell a book on 12tet harmony or anything.


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Haverstick here...Kanzelmeyer's comments about improv were interesting,
and had some truth to them. As far as noodling goes, it is very easy to
noodle around while improvising, and therefore come up with music that
is terribly boring and meaningless...no problem. But, on the other hand,
I think I am correct in saying that A. much of the music around the
world is improvisational rather than "composed"...Indian music, Arabic,
Blues, Jazz, African...without doubt, these are systems where, perhaps,
a basic framework is provided, but the skill and mastery of the individ-
ual musician is then necessary to make the performance come to life..
also, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and I'm sure many other "western" music-
cians were known as master improvisors as well...I sadly think that
this skill has been totally neglected in today's western (symphonic)
musicians, and we are left with zillions of folks who can repeat what
someone else has already written down, but have to internal creative
skills of their own (the word to in the previous line should be NO).

Written music is wonderful...but, in a recent Wendy Carlos interview
in Keyboard mag, Stravinsky was quoted as saying "composition is
frozen improvisation"...with which Wendy agreed, and I do too. In fact,
I cannot separate the terms composer and improvisor...as I have said
before, all blues/jazz players are composers and arrangers...they are
EXPECTED to be, because to copy another is to admit that you have
nothing of your own to add to the tradition...when I hear the current
crop of "young lions" in jazz, for instance, I am far from impressed
because the days of the original masters like Parker, Ellington, Coltrane,
Monk, Miles, Wes...these days are gone, and we are left with a shitload of
guys who are adding nothing to the lineage of jazz, who are instead
rehashing the harmonic and compositional innovations of these past
masters...they can play their axes, no doubt, but the tang is gone. Of
course, that's because of the continued dependance on the 12eq system;
jazz, rock, blues, country, and of course "classical" music...these
forms are dead and stinky, and will likely remain so until we can show
people that using other tuning systems is a valid step into tomorrow.

So, Bruce...I cannot imagine NOT improvising/composing...I see no
separation, and perhaps I am missing something here, and if so, I would
be glad to learn...

Adam...as far as your mbira, Jonathan Glasier in San Diego has built
some neat instruments, and could probably be of help...I do not have
his number, but he runs the Sonic Arts Gallery in San Diego...maybe
you can look it up...Hstick

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The problem for some with microtonal improvisation is it is near
impossible to analyze intonationally. The music may be great, or even
superior to much of prepared composition, but it is tough for a
microtonalist to promote its microtonal pedigree.

Improvisation was once part and parcel of the Western art tradition in
music but increasingly lost favor in the late Baroque until its virtual
extinction. J.S. Bach stands apart from his contemporaries in the extra
detail he included in the scores...this from a master improvisor.

The reasons for the demise of improvisation is that composers began to
distrust players who would not stay within both the style and manner of
each particular piece. I have heard several computer composers
wax poetic at the inability of players to reproduce their music exactly
enough. This is an extreme position. And they were not speaking
exclusively of microtonal compositions.

Choosing notes from a given scale (albeit a microtonal scale) is easier to
do, I think, than imagining exact microtonal relationships and producing
them extemporaneously. Matter of fact, many "classical" composer do not
realize the exactitude with which a player can pluck (as described by the
great shenai player Bismallah Khan) any of an infinte number of microtones
out of the sky.

Interestingly, south India is much more of a composition-based society,
while in north India the music is mostly improvised. Both use the
microtones of Raga, however their choice of instruments is different.
Clearly, both north and south Indian music has immense power and value as
music. Microtonal improv, however, lacks easy musical analysis for pitch.
This factor alone may account for its lack of supporters among the
microtonally literate.

Johnny Reinhard
Director
American Festival of Microtonal Music
318 East 70th Street, Suite 5FW
New York, New York 10021 USA
(212)517-3550/fax (212) 517-5495
reinhard@ios.com


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