Haverstick here...Steve Curtin's post was great, and helped me to realize something that was just below the surface of my intellect, which now looks clear...my whole approach to other tuning systems had nothing to do with Partch, Ivor, Helmholtz, or any other prominent person in the micro field...I simply took a 19 tone guitar, thanks to Starrett, and started doing what I had always done in 12/eq...playing what I heard in my head. I was always a composer rather than interpreter (although I've learned much from my studies of other's music), and I always wrote some way out stuff that many people found hard to listen to...in that way, I am more like Partch than those who use their musical gifts to recreate what he composed. I have been fired from my share of gigs for upsetting knuckleheads with my playing, so I do surely sympathize with Harry for all the times he was misunderstood.
So, the point is this...by the time I got around to hearing and checking out the wonderful theories of all the microgreats, I was already in my own groove with what I wanted to do, so I really have no awe of Partch and others...they are a small blip in an infinite Universe of sound, just as we all are. Sure, some make a bigger blip than others, but, and perhaps this is where I split with the Partch devotees, I would rather compose my own music and see if I can make some sort of imprint on my own. I am certainly no heir to Harry or anyone else...I AM trying to take what gifts I may have been given and shape something of value out of them.
I am fairly astonished that such a fuss has been made over Harry and what he accomplished...to me, he is just one of many talented and original artists which I've heard or met in my career...I say get on with it, and do something of your own...if you can borrow some good concepts from other folks, no problemo...it's just when one becomes too narrowly focused on another's accomplishments, I feel this is the end of true creativity...creating my own sound has always been a passion with me; in fact, essentially, all blues, jazz, and folk artists are creators...to be truly great, a jazz player must reinterpret a piece each time he/she plays it, or nothing is happening...listen to Parker alternate takes, and they are all completely different from each other.
So, again, the fact that Partch did his own thing is very cool, to be sure; to me, it's no more cool than Albert King playing a right handed guitar left handed (so the strings were upside down), or the late, great Thumbs Carlille playing the guitar in his lap, tapping on the strings with both hands...there's a lot of monsters out there...Hstick
Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 25 Aug 1996 03:15 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA31284; Sun, 25 Aug 1996 03:16:07 +0200 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA31333 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id SAA16254; Sat, 24 Aug 1996 18:15:59 -0700 Date: Sat, 24 Aug 1996 18:15:59 -0700 Message-Id: <1.5.4b12.32.19950825010822.00682870@interlinx.qc.ca> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
There's a spot in early in my off-the-shelf 88CET demo tape where I play the sound of a diminished triad implemented as 6:5 atop a 6:5, compared to a 7:6 atop a 6:5, the latter case of course being the upper three notes of a 4:5:6:7 dominant seventh chord. As soon as I play the 5:6:7, I say "you'll immediately hear that this chord isn't quite as tense as the first chord".
What's curious is that as I rehear this periodically (to cut copies for my various victims), I occasionally have to rethink that sentence. Basically it's true, but in a different sense, it's actually more tense. It's actually more dissonant (however little that word may mean for a single isolated chord). I can't clearly isolate much less describe that sense in which it's actually more harmonically tense. Maybe somebody else out there may know what I mean and can describe it.
I do find though that that particular sense reduces when I add the root of the 4:5:6:7 chord, so be sure to comment on it first with respect to the 5:6:7 without the 4.
Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 31 Aug 1996 18:27 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA10936; Sat, 31 Aug 1996 18:28:47 +0200 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA10920 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id JAA28945; Sat, 31 Aug 1996 09:28:44 -0700 Date: Sat, 31 Aug 1996 09:28:44 -0700 Message-Id: <960831162425_71670.2576_HHB33-4@CompuServe.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu