15-week course on tunings, proposal

****************PART I ************course on tunings, proposal******************
>Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 16:21:01 -0700
>From: PAULE
>Subject: RE: classifying tunings (or not!)
>>It would be interesting to see how people think that tunings should be
>>classified (or not!). It would also be interested to know, how people that
>>include tunings as part of their teachings introduce them (and subdivide
>>them).
>
>This is how I would structure a 15-week course on tunings, meeting twice a
>week, with musical examples along the way. The course would be "hands on"
>with monochords and scalatrons for all.
>
>1. Introduce the octave as an acoustical phenomenon
>2. Introduce the 3-limit consonances and Pythagorean tunings
>3. Pythagorean tunings as applied to pentatonic scales: Chinese Music
>4. 7-ET representations of pentatonic scales allowing modulational freedom:
>Thai music
>5. Pythagorean tunings as applied to the heptatonic scale: Organum
>6. Discuss the pythagorean comma; introduce 12-ET representations of the
>heptatonic scale
>7. Non-just non-equal-tempered scales: African and much other music
>9. Schismatic tuning of late middle ages and medieval Arabic tuning as
>Pythagorean approximations to the 5-limit
>10. Just intonation: Indian music (I've heard some santoor music where the
>intonation is very clearly just 5-limit).
>11. Discuss the syntonic comma; introduce meantone temperament: Renaissance
>music
>12. Equal-tempered versions of meantone -- 31, 19, is 12 good enough?
>13. Circulating temperaments/well temperament: Bach and "key colors"
>14. 12-TET becomes standard :( , Arabic music measured and played in
>"quarter-tones"
>15. Equal tempered versions of just intonation: 53, 34, maybe compare
>22-equal with 22 sruti of Indian music to show how JI structures are
>preserved
>16. Atonality, set theory, Balzano and 20-TET and other numerological
>constructs.
>17. Introduce the 7-limit consonances
>18. Augmented sixth chords as meantone approximations to the 7-limit
>19. Introduce the 9- and 11-limit consonances in JI: Partch, Johnston, etc.
>20. Equal-tempered representations of higher consonances: Huygens, Fokker,
>and 31; Herf, Sims and 72, proposals of 41-tone and 171-tone equal
>temperaments
>21. Inharmonic timbres, tunings to go with them: Gamelan music, modern
>explorations
>22. Non-octave scales in history and modern non-octave tunings such as
>Pierce's 13 per 3:1
>23-30. Creative ensemble projects

I would like to know what JOHN CHALMERS thinks about this.

I would also like to ask people,like JOHNNY REINHARD, who include tunings
as part of their music teachings, if they agree with this.

I also have a question for ENRIQUE MORENO, McLAREN, and any other on the
list who deals with non-octave scales. Do you agree with PAUL's 22nd
lecture of his 15-week course on tunings? Do you think it would be right
to spend one hour out of 30 explaining historical and modern non-octave
scales? Is that how important they are for the future generations?
If you agree explain us how would you split the one hour speech, and if you
don't, how would you do it? Thanks in advance!!!

**********************PART II ***********personal local experience/thoughts****

As far as I know, in UK, all there is available, are musicians trained to
sightread quartertones very accurately. All organized by James Wood (director
of the Microtonal Music Centre in London) and the SPNM that 4 years ago
organized a composers forum where, after an introduction to tunings, we
were introduced to quartertone notation and techniques for diferent
instruments. Apart from that, there is Charles Lucy who was doing allright
with popular music and who very kindly supports anybody who works with his
tuning (I personally found him a bit restricted about the idea of using other
tunings that were not acoustically correct according to his theories).


I'm a bit mad about the little access that there is to "microtonality" or
tunings in the educational system. Is that how we care for future generations.
I just finished a degree on music composition in UK, which is meant to be very
experimental, and avant-garde, and what do I get?
Nothing was mention about any other tuning system different than the 12-tET.
A bit was mention about the freedom of pitches used by Meredith Monk on her
compositions (when apparently she also uses Jewish scales, which were not even
mentioned on the seminar). It seems that some people like Neil H. are doing
very well in getting people interested through playing popular music, and
I would also like to know how people are doing in the educational context.
By the way Paul, do you have any experience teaching tunings? If so, I would
like to hear more about it.

J.A.M.Salinas





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