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neo-xeno [Medieval]

🔗Joseph Pehrson <josephpehrson@compuserve.com>

8/6/2000 8:41:50 PM

I wanted to thank Margo Schulter for the clarifications concerning
"xeno" and "neo" Gothic tunings. This is very helpful.

However, I did have one small question. If the "xeno" tunings really
use Pythagorean with two keyboard octaves separated by a comma, why are
they so "xeno?" Doesn't that imply "foreign" or "strange??" It sounds
like that procedure is basically illustrating the performance practices
of the Medieval period. Or is it, perhaps, just the fact that the
tuning is systemized in this way... and it wasn't so defined as such at
that time (??)

The "neo-Gothic" most certainly makes sense, but I was personally
thinking more along the lines of using the various altered Pythagoreans
to construct new music, not necessarily reflective of the Medieval
period. A good example of the later, I believe, would be the Charles
Wuorinen "Percussion Concerto" which, consciously, evokes and perhaps
quotes Medieval music. (Well, OK, it might be Renaissance, too... I
can't recall).

All this stuff is certainly more exciting than the corresponding
Medieval courses I, myself, took back in the dark age!

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Joseph Pehrson