LaMonte Young and Frederick Parker-Rhodes

Dear All,

This is derived from a post to Pat Pagano, to whom I'm indebted for its
inspiration,
which was sent in 1999:

I've been a follower of LaMonte's ideas since
1971. I had the pleasure of spending time with him, including a several
hours discussion in 1990. On that occasion we had a particularly interesting
discussion about connections between his tuning system (see Selected
Writings-
LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela and the Bucknell Publication on LaMonte and
Marian available from MELA (music-eternal-light-art) in New York), and the
physics of the late Frederick Parker-Rhodes.

Frederick had evolved a derivation (a priori, like Einstein's Relativities)
of all the constants of physics from the
number sequence 3,7,127, and 2 to the power 127, minus 1 (!).(this last no.
is the square root of the no. of protons in the known universe).
The sequence runs 2 to the power of 2 minus 1 is 3
2 to the power of 3 minus 1 is 7
2 to the power of 7 minus 1 is 127
2 to the power of 127 minus 1 is (about 10 to the power
40-ish).

The sequence is remarkable in that it begins from metaphysical premises.

LaMonte had at that point , unbeknownst to me started using 127 as an axial
pivot
harmonic of one of his extraordinary tone complexes (see Kyle Gann's
masterful analysis in the Bucknell book) having already been using the
primes 3 and 7 as intervallic generators for some years.
He has shied away (understatement) from using 5 as a prime/interval
generator.

I know, and adore, LaMonte's work- he was in London in December 1999
and an ensemble piece was performed (8 trumpets and 4 cellos), quite
exceptionally magical.

I have in the past worried that people get heavily into numbers and lose the

feeling end of the spectrum. I hope the list will prove me wrong.
LaMonte and Terry (Riley) are for me keeping a
balance between just intonation sophistication in design of scales/systems,
and a musical sensitivity on the other.

empathies

Lawrence Ball

Dear Lawrence
i had the enormous pleasure of interviewing LY and MZ about several topics
that might interest
you. we talked about stepdowns, intuition and sound and light environments
and "old friends" in regards to Just Intonation.
I had originally hoped to talk with them for 25 minutes for research
regarding "from ataraxya to ecstasy" -a sister piece to the one David B and
I performed and
Mr Reinhards Festival last November, but i was graced with three hours of
footage of the two pioneers.
Lawrence check the mail in about a week!
cheers

Pat Pagano, Director
South East Just Intonation Society
http://indians.australians.com/meherbaba/
http://www.screwmusicforever.com/SHREESWIFT/
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Ball <Lawrenceball@planettree.demon.co.uk>
To: tuning <tuning@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 6:32 PM
Subject: [tuning] LaMonte Young and Frederick Parker-Rhodes

> Dear All,
>
> This is derived from a post to Pat Pagano, to whom I'm indebted for its
> inspiration,
> which was sent in 1999:
>
>
> I've been a follower of LaMonte's ideas since
> 1971. I had the pleasure of spending time with him, including a several
> hours discussion in 1990. On that occasion we had a particularly
interesting
> discussion about connections between his tuning system (see Selected
> Writings-
> LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela and the Bucknell Publication on LaMonte
and
> Marian available from MELA (music-eternal-light-art) in New York), and the
> physics of the late Frederick Parker-Rhodes.
>
> Frederick had evolved a derivation (a priori, like Einstein's
Relativities)
> of all the constants of physics from the
> number sequence 3,7,127, and 2 to the power 127, minus 1 (!).(this last
no.
> is the square root of the no. of protons in the known universe).
> The sequence runs 2 to the power of 2 minus 1 is 3
> 2 to the power of 3 minus 1 is 7
> 2 to the power of 7 minus 1 is 127
> 2 to the power of 127 minus 1 is (about 10 to the power
> 40-ish).
>
> The sequence is remarkable in that it begins from metaphysical premises.
>
> LaMonte had at that point , unbeknownst to me started using 127 as an
axial
> pivot
> harmonic of one of his extraordinary tone complexes (see Kyle Gann's
> masterful analysis in the Bucknell book) having already been using the
> primes 3 and 7 as intervallic generators for some years.
> He has shied away (understatement) from using 5 as a prime/interval
> generator.
>
> I know, and adore, LaMonte's work- he was in London in December 1999
> and an ensemble piece was performed (8 trumpets and 4 cellos), quite
> exceptionally magical.
>
> I have in the past worried that people get heavily into numbers and lose
the
>
> feeling end of the spectrum. I hope the list will prove me wrong.
> LaMonte and Terry (Riley) are for me keeping a
> balance between just intonation sophistication in design of
scales/systems,
> and a musical sensitivity on the other.
>
> empathies
>
> Lawrence Ball
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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