Re: [tuning] Intonation in the next edition of _Grove's_

Daniel Wolf wrote:

>...Well, folks, here's an excellent example of how a "standard" reference
>work is made, and a further invitation for thinking scholars to keep on
>questioning authority. In writing about music in general and musical
>intonation in particular, we have not been helped much by the definitions
>available in works like _Grove's_, _MGG_, or the _Havard Dictionary_.
>Sadly, this situation is not likely to improve with the next edition of
>_Grove's_.

Daniel, I would suggest that you send a copy of your email to Grove's and
explain a little about the tuning list, including its size.

John Link

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I have sent a copy of my posting to Grove's already, but I rather think it's
hopeless. Take a look at the pricing information found at
www.grovemusic.com - they expect individual subscribers to the online
version to pay �395 per year for single terminal access. Am I alone in
finding this to be rather far removed from reality?

> Daniel, I would suggest that you send a copy of your email to Grove's and
> explain a little about the tuning list, including its size.
>
> John Link
>

What you would expect from the preservers of the music of the "upper class" :) Enthnocenticity
is always the key to this one.
If this is the way the evaluate Microtonality, why should we expect their other articles to be
any less tainted and or censored. It sounds that grove's might serve as good kindling for
starting my sweatlodge.
There we can just consult the ancestors directly!

Daniel Wolf wrote:

> I have sent a copy of my posting to Grove's already, but I rather think it's
> hopeless. Take a look at the pricing information found at
> www.grovemusic.com - they expect individual subscribers to the online
> version to pay �395 per year for single terminal access. Am I alone in
> finding this to be rather far removed from reality?

-- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
www.anaphoria.com

Kraig Grady wrote:

"It sounds that grove's might serve as good kindling for starting my sweatlodge."

Kraig:

I hope that you don't mean this literally - burning books is the last thing we ought to be encouraging!

If anything, the Grove's example should provide an incentive to read texts like these more closely and critically. A call like mine to question authority means that the reader has got to become actively involved with the text, not accept it.

Evaluate what is written in the light of your own experience of music. Use common sense. Use the bibliography and compare sources.

Grove's entries are generally excellent (check out Harry Powers' now classic article on "Mode" in the first edition of the _New Grove_), but pay attention to the circumstances of writing such a work - the authors are underpaid, under time pressure, and limited to an arbitrary number of words; the editors do not share the expertise or viewpoint of the authors, they do their work brutally, and they work under even more pressure, often totally unrelated to the subject matter (i.e. from the printers or the marketing department).

If, on the other hand, you meant your remark metaphorically - to use Grove's for kindling an _imaginary_ sweatlodge - go right ahead. Nothing is more useful for getting the mind rolling than a problematic text, and Grove's is full of them.

Daniel Wolf

Daniel!
At times when I have had logs with a bit of moisture in them I have
found that books make good kindling.
It started with a badly damaged book of mine. Another time I was in a
pinch and had to burn my copy of "The Celestine Prophecy" that new age
classic of thinly veiled racism. I figured that they were millions of
other ones left , it wasn't about censorship. One wasn't going to be
missed and it exist on a level of a newspaper which are burned everyday.
I know in germany such things mean something different. BTW Violins and
cellos are also good but I prefer to play kick the can with them after
Satie. Harpsichords are just too big. I just heard that an entire
colony of ants moved into a friends bassoon and she had to take it in to
get de-ant.

I am the bird you can barely amuse from your uppermost tower- Andre
Breton

Daniel Wolf wrote:

> Kraig Grady wrote: "It sounds that grove's might serve as good
> kindling for starting my sweatlodge." Kraig: I hope that you don't
> mean this literally - burning books is the last thing we ought to be
> encouraging! -- Kraig Grady

North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
www.anaphoria.com