Ezra Sims

Hi,
Read Monzo's posting with interest, especially the part about Ezra Sim's
72-Eq notation. I'm working with this temperament and so far I just
indicate the cents deviation above or below each note. Say +17�; -33�;
-50� etc.
RT

In a message dated 3/8/02 8:42:15 PM Eastern Standard Time, joemonz@yahoo.com
writes:

> i feel compelled to mention yet again, as i have here
> many times before, that Ezra Sims, the composer whose
> 72edo notation has been adopted/adapted as the new standard
> here, has stated both in published writings and in private
> letters to me that he has made "computer mock-ups" of his
> compositions tuned in b o t h 72edo a n d 37-limit JI
> and he can't hear a significant difference.
>
>
>
> -monz
>
>

Why so compelled? So what? I've known Ezra for years and we have been warm
and cold with each other at various times. My introduction to his string
quartet (but which is not a string quartet since it has a clarinet) made me
realize he is a bit of a card. He is not a performing musicians. Maybe
players hear more acutely than other musicians, let alone other people. Why
do you suppose they are performing musicians? How do you think they survive
if they cannot hear acutely?\

Ezra Sims once wrote a piece that had J.S. Bach in Just. That was just fine
for him. For me it was puke, and I was playing. Temperament ripped from the
music of Bach is bad enough, but the sound was soul-less, nude, totally
un-Bach. But hey, Ezra liked it. During rehearsals he threatened the
percussionists, saying he would walk up on stage and grab their sticks from
them during the performance. (This was probably more shtick than stick, but
many of the musicians were offended.) And I called him on it. And then we
had a warming period which has continued to this day. Ezra has come to a
number of the Microtonal Symposia we have done in New York.

But that he can't tell 72 from JI (when in his mind he wants JI anyway)...so
what? I have no trouble telling an equal temperament from JI. It's in the
texture.

Johnny Reinhard

--- In tuning@y..., Afmmjr@a... wrote:
> Why do you suppose they are performing musicians? How do you think
> they survive if they cannot hear acutely?

C'mon, Johnny, please! There are scads of "performing musicians" that
make a living that not only don't hear acutely, but couldn't find an
A=440 with a geiger counter!!

Cheers,
Jon