Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup tuning HTML list, Partch, etc...

Tune-lings,

With respect to a couple of topics:

1. Partch and electronics, from Patrick Pagano

>We used to have a photo of Partch in the Center D Genovese used to have
it posted

>of Hp viewing the Arp monster and saying something like "great after
forty years

>and now that I'm dying finally an instrument I could have used"--not an
exact

>qoute.

Not only *not* an exact quote, but a bit of a mixed metaphor. If Harry
was pictured in front of an Arp setup, I'd be my bottom dollar it was the
one installed in the Electronic Music Lab at San Diego State, where he
would occasionally go to listen to a tape, courtesy of David Dunn. The
only other possibility would have been UCSD, but his time spent there was
short and he hated the place with a passion.

As to the quote itself, it was the one that referred to the (Motorola)
Scalatron. This all happened in the last year of his life, in less than
good health; as reported in Gilmore's bio (the clearest recounting of
this particular incident):

<paraindent><param>left</param>'It began to seem, in the new year, as
though the world was finally catching up with him. He had received a
visit from Herman Pedtke, inventor of the Scalatron, an electronic
keyboard designed to accommodate microtonal tunings -- the very
instrument he had dreamed of as long ago as 1945 in Madison. Partch was
fascinated by the instrument, but noted to a friend that his work had
gone in a very different direction in the years since, and now involved
"far more than a microtonal scale." To another friend he added mournfully
that the Scalatron was "just what I needed. Thirty years too late."'

Gilmore - "Harry Partch: a Biography" (p. 385)

</paraindent>

This sheds light on an important distinction: it is not that Partch was
neither interested in nor aware of electronic instruments, in development
at the time, that could have aided in his composition -- he was. The
point is that by this late date Partch's compositions had grown to
encompass far more than the accurate reproduction of pitch material, and
the actual means of performing the 'music' -- the instruments themselves,
with all of their flaws, inconsistencies, anomalies and performing
gesticulations -- had become as much a part of the work as the
intonation.

Important to keep in mind, I hazard. Frequently (by virtue of human
nature), people pick the one or two quotes from Harriana that seem to
support the performance of Partch's work by other instrumental resources,
all the while ignoring the great body of evidence to the contrary. But
more on this later... :)

2. HTML list, as proposed by Gary Morrison:

> Well, HTML provides a means of embedding attachments of various
sorts,

>including graphics and sound into a message, and tagging them to
specific

>places in the text. That's a big improvement over to just a
nondescript

>series of attachments. And it's not so much extended ASCII (it looks
like

>that's already available for most of us) as much as formatted text -

>headers, indentation, italicization, lists, colors, etc.

Gary, having spent a good deal of time hand-coding html over the last few
years, including a *lot* of graphic and audio investigation, I think you
might be over estimating the ease of such a list. While an audio event
*can* be embedded in html, it is the browser that interprets that
embedding and calls the correct plug-in module to play the audio (be it
midi, a sound file [of the *many* different formats] or a streaming audio
file) -- I have serious doubts, though I have never tried it, as to how
an email program (such as Eudora 4.0) would handle audio events. And,
yes, it is possible that graphics might actually show up in the body of
the text, but I fail to see how this is preferred over posting a web page
somewhere; this could be mentioned as a link in a message to this list,
which most modern email programs would launch the browser appropriately
when clicked on, and then everyone would have the opportunity to either
go there or not, depending on their computer resources, how much they pay
to be online, etc.

(Let's not forget that this list is fairly international, and as Dan Wolf
points out, some places pay dearly for time online...)

Another factor regarding the attachments, be they literal 'attachments'
or items 'embedded' in the html source: the recently past holidays
brought up the problem of many newbies attaching cute "Holiday Greetings"
widgets to emails to their friends (I know, as my wife received a 2 meg
animated Christmas tree). Many ISP's reported a big drain on resources as
these files, which must reside *somewhere* until the mail is retrieved,
sat hogging space on servers all over.

All of that as opposed to *one* version of the graphic, sound file,
whatever, sitting on a web page somewhere that all the various members
here could go visit and download at their leisure. Just a thought, albeit
a lengthy one. And, after all that is said, I heartily endorse the use of
*real* music clips, instead of *talk* about music. That's why it was so
interesting to finally hear the List CD!!

Enough for now...

Cheers,

Jon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jonathan M. Szanto | Corporeal Meadows: Harry Partch, online. . .

jszanto@adnc.com | http://www.corporeal.com/

John I think it was at the University of Hawaii. Partch hated a lot of things I can't seem to keep count

"Jonathan M. Szanto" wrote:

> From: "Jonathan M. Szanto"
> Tune-lings,
>
> With respect to a couple of topics:
>
> 1. Partch and electronics, from Patrick Pagano
>
> >We used to have a photo of Partch in the Center D Genovese used to have it posted
> >of Hp viewing the Arp monster and saying something like "great after forty years
> >and now that I'm dying finally an instrument I could have used"--not an exact
> >qoute.
>
> Not only *not* an exact quote, but a bit of a mixed metaphor. If Harry was pictured in front of an Arp setup, I'd be my bottom dollar it was the one installed in the Electronic Music Lab at San Diego State, where he would occasionally go to listen to a tape, courtesy of David Dunn. The only other possibility would have been UCSD, but his time spent there was short and he hated the place with a passion.
>
> As to the quote itself, it was the one that referred to the (Motorola) Scalatron. This all happened in the last year of his life, in less than good health; as reported in Gilmore's bio (the clearest recounting of this particular incident):
>
> 'It began to seem, in the new year, as though the world was finally catching up with him. He had received a visit from Herman Pedtke, inventor of the Scalatron, an electronic keyboard designed to accommodate microtonal tunings -- the very instrument he had dreamed of as long ago as 1945 in Madison. Partch was fascinated by the instrument, but noted to a friend that his work had gone in a very different direction in the years since, and now involved "far more than a microtonal scale." To another friend he added mournfully that the Scalatron was "just what I needed. Thirty years too late."'
>
> Gilmore - "Harry Partch: a Biography" (p. 385)
>
> This sheds light on an important distinction: it is not that Partch was neither interested in nor aware of electronic instruments, in development at the time, that could have aided in his composition -- he was. The point is that by this late date Partch's compositions had grown to encompass far more than the accurate reproduction of pitch material, and the actual means of performing the 'music' -- the instruments themselves, with all of their flaws, inconsistencies, anomalies and performing gesticulations -- had become as much a part of the work as the intonation.
>
> Important to keep in mind, I hazard. Frequently (by virtue of human nature), people pick the one or two quotes from Harriana that seem to support the performance of Partch's work by other instrumental resources, all the while ignoring the great body of evidence to the contrary. But more on this later... :)
>
> 2. HTML list, as proposed by Gary Morrison:
>
> > Well, HTML provides a means of embedding attachments of various sorts,
> >including graphics and sound into a message, and tagging them to specific
> >places in the text. That's a big improvement over to just a nondescript
> >series of attachments. And it's not so much extended ASCII (it looks like
> >that's already available for most of us) as much as formatted text -
> >headers, indentation, italicization, lists, colors, etc.
>
> Gary, having spent a good deal of time hand-coding html over the last few years, including a *lot* of graphic and audio investigation, I think you might be over estimating the ease of such a list. While an audio event *can* be embedded in html, it is the browser that interprets that embedding and calls the correct plug-in module to play the audio (be it midi, a sound file [of the *many* different formats] or a streaming audio file) -- I have serious doubts, though I have never tried it, as to how an email program (such as Eudora 4.0) would handle audio events. And, yes, it is possible that graphics might actually show up in the body of the text, but I fail to see how this is preferred over posting a web page somewhere; this could be mentioned as a link in a message to this list, which most modern email programs would launch the browser appropriately when clicked on, and then everyone would have the opportunity to either go there or not, depending on their computer resources, how much
> they pay to be online, etc.
>
> (Let's not forget that this list is fairly international, and as Dan Wolf points out, some places pay dearly for time online...)
>
> Another factor regarding the attachments, be they literal 'attachments' or items 'embedded' in the html source: the recently past holidays brought up the problem of many newbies attaching cute "Holiday Greetings" widgets to emails to their friends (I know, as my wife received a 2 meg animated Christmas tree). Many ISP's reported a big drain on resources as these files, which must reside *somewhere* until the mail is retrieved, sat hogging space on servers all over.
>
> All of that as opposed to *one* version of the graphic, sound file, whatever, sitting on a web page somewhere that all the various members here could go visit and download at their leisure. Just a thought, albeit a lengthy one. And, after all that is said, I heartily endorse the use of *real* music clips, instead of *talk* about music. That's why it was so interesting to finally hear the List CD!!
>
> Enough for now...
>
> Cheers,
> Jon
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Jonathan M. Szanto | Corporeal Meadows: Harry Partch, online. . .
> jszanto@adnc.com | http://www.corporeal.com/
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HTML list, Partch, etc...

🔗Jonathan M. Szanto <jszanto@xxxx.xxxx>

🔗Patrick Pagano <ppagano@xxxxxxxxx.xxxx>

🔗Gary Morrison <mr88cet@texas.net>

🔗astrange@xxxxx.xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)