Re: [tuning] Re: freedom vs. license [drivers]

Rick McGowan wrote,

> There are two kinds of restrictions that artists accept in
contemplating the making of an art work:

> 1. The self-imposed...
> 2. The other-imposed...

> Tuning restrictions could certainly be of either type.

I agree with all of this wholeheartedly.

> Sometimes we don't know what the restrictions are, until we break
out of them.

This one seems a bit more of a slippery fish to me though...
especially if it's meant to apply to any of the tuning "arguments"
that I might've been trying to make?

Dan

>> Sometimes we don't know what the restrictions are, until we
>> break out of them.
> This one seems a bit more of a slippery fish to me though...
> especially if it's meant to apply to any of the tuning "arguments"
> that I might've been trying to make?

Oh! Nothing personal, or even very concrete... I wasn't speaking of anything or anyone in particular, just musing... I was thinking of the sort of revelatory experience: "Oh my Gawd! I have never before thought of the rip-saw as a divine musical instrument! Why have I restricted myself only to composing for ensembles of garden tools when I have an entire workbench at my disposal!?" Then there's the revolutionary declamation: "I will no longer compose piffling swan songs in 12-tone equal temperament for the bourgeoisie bonbon eaters of America!"... The accidental experience: "Hey! My piano sounds pretty cool with chains rattling in the innards!"... on and on...

So I really meant conscious or unconscious movement out of whatever the current milieu or thinking pattern is; and becoming aware that there was a restriction, of whatever type...

Rick

Joseph Pehrson wrote,

> Oh, why absolutely, Dan. I thought you knew me well enough to
assume that... but I guess not :)

I was just trying to sort of get the rest of that out ("Johnny
Reinhard is a MASTER in working in this way," etc.), as "abhor" could
set some fairly grim connotations into motion, and I wouldn't want you
to be misunderstood, that's all <smile thing>.

> I'm just saying that somebody with a very strong viewpoint, like
Partch, would use such a chart to "evaluate" temperaments. I thought
you even agreed with that. (Partch "wit and spit.")

Though he might spit, I'd give him credit for a lot more wit! But you
right, you don't have to look very far to find a tuning like 13 equal
being called 'unusable' or 'horrible' or whatnot based on similar
"charts" by some influential and inspired folks. (In fact, it was
similar types of comments by Carlos and others that made me even more
eager to get further in there and have a real good look around for
myself, and instead of finding something that might've been useful for
its alleged uselessness, I found something that was just useful in the
regular ways in which I was already accustomed to going about things.)

Dan