Thoughts on Marion's remarks about 88CET

A few days ago, as part of a response to Brian's posts, Marion wrote:

> As we all know the possibilities of 12ET are pretty thoroughly
> explored by now, but any other ET temperament can offer only a
> little more variety, and they can be quite tedious to master.
> Witness the extensive postings on 88CET. All this just to learn
> one scale? Perhaps its non-octave nature makes it more of a
> challenge.

I must say I disagree with Marion and think he's missing the point of
Gary's posts on 88CET. I may be in a distinct minority here, but I'm
still finding Gary's 88CET postings useful, mainly as possible jumping
off points for further exploration. I feel that Marion is implying that
Gary has been posting a recipe book for using 88CET and that a person
will be unable to create any 88CET music (good, bad, or otherwise)
without understanding the theory behind it. This is surely not the case
anymore than it is necessary to understand Harry Partch's theories in
_Genesis of a Music_ in order to create JI music. I had been exploring
quite happily in 88CET before I read any of Gary's 88CET theory posts.
It is also my understanding that both Bill Sethares and Warren Burt have
written pieces in 88CET without benefit of knowing the underlying
"theory", so it cannot be that tedious to master. In fact, I've not yet
heard *any* other music in 88CET except for my own; however, I don't
feel hindered from continuing to explore 88CET in my own fashion
(stretched octaves, 41-tET derived notation, etc.). I'm filing away most
of Gary's suggestions simply for future reference.

John
pusey@remqhi.enet.dec.com


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