Re: Venue for UK

Hi Graham,

Come to think of it, there is the Bates historical collection
of musical instruments, which has a gamelan in its
collection that is regularly played.

I played with them for a short while a number of years
ago, but I'm not sure if anyone would remember me
there.

They did a mini summer school on gamelan with musicians
from Indonesia. (I joined the rebec class which was a lot
of fun, with beginner's trying to play the gamelan scales
on a string instrument.)

Probably still doing gamelan events.

So that is a microtonal connection, though I don't think
it is theoretical, more practically orientated. When I played
anyway, anyone could join, and in fact they encouraged those
with little in the way of musical training as they thought
that made it somewhat easier to learn the gamelan rhythms,
which aren't quite in the same mould as the ones used in
classical music. No auditions, you just turn up for the
evening, and get assigned an instrument, with the slower
moving ones and the gongs assigned to beginners. Much the
same way the gamelan is played in Indonesia I imagine.

They also have a nice collection of recorders on display
in the museum, and it is a working museum - music students
can borrow the instruments from the collection and play them.

So, perhaps suitable for some future venue; maybe not for
the first time.

Can't be much in the way of microtonal research as
the Bodelean doesn't even have Harry Partch's
"Genesis of a music" (nor can the music faculty have it
as it would show up in the same catalogue)!

I'll look forward to your presentations, supposing this
gets underway! Haven't really been following what's
happening in the Miracle thread yet - too much information
to take in all at once, when also in the middle of
programming things and following up various ideas.

Robert