Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup tuning Re: Welcome to Brian McLaren -- Thinking about microtonality

Hello, there, Brian McLaren, and what an honor it is to welcome such a
distinguished microtonal composer, theorist, and historian.

In response to your remarks on the topic of "thinking about
microtonality," I might offer two responses, one possibly a
qualification, the other maybe an amplification.

There is a famous medieval saying which has been traced back to the
11th century: "We stand on the shoulders of giants."

Here there are a couple of implications, not necessarily by any means
contradictory ones.

At the obvious level, the statement is one of profound and justified
humility.

At the same time, it affirms the new possibilities open to each artist
and theorist: standing on the shoulders of a giant, one may indeed be
able to see a bit further than the giant herself or himself.

From this viewpoint, I would most respectfully and also somewhat
playfully, I hope, offer my qualification and amplification.

First, I would urge a student of microtonality and alternative tunings
to think independently and critically from the very beginning, and
also to feel, listen, improvise, compose, and theorize with
self-respect as well as respect for all who have contributed to the
many musics of the world.

Secondly, I would caution even the most elect and experienced that one
cannot _really_ have _categorical_ opinions about the value or "mood"
of a given tuning system until one has become adept in all the musical
traditions, eras, and styles of this planet -- not to mention the
possible xenharmonic traditions of other civilizations in the
universe.

In other words, I would encourage _anyone_ to "think about
microtonality" -- with thought and musical experience as natural
allies -- and would caution anyone, however dramatically their
knowledge, experience, and experience may dwarf mine, that to "think
about microtonality" apart from specific stylistic expectations or
values can be a hazardous enterprise.

As you have often emphasized, drawing not only on the teachings of
Ivor Darreg but on your own peerless experiences and contributions to
our art in an awesome variety of tuning systems, each tuning has its
own value and its own "mood."

Here I might offer the further friendly amendment that a single tuning
may have different "moods" depending upon the vital variable of style.

Part of the excitement of our art is that not even the greatest
theorist may have considered _all_ possible stylistic assumptions; and
given the diversity of world musics, one could hardly be surprised.

Indeed, to make stylistic assumptions is not a flaw, but a necessity;
as my friend Todd McComb puts it, one must "take a view."

In assessing the "mood" and musical value of 29-tone equal temperament
(29-tET) or 36-tET, for example, a theorist must inevitably focus on
some stylistic context, or at least on a general outlook, whether
based on the harmonic series, on a Pythagorean continuum of simple and
complex integer ratios, etc.

This means that even the most expert analysis of 29-tET, for example,
might be subtitled: "The mood of 29-tET with such-and-such intervals
taken to be the usual major and minor thirds, etc."

Also, I have seen statements by the most learned and experienced
theorists that 22-tET calls for some unusual system of note
spellings.

In my own experience -- and stylistic outlook! -- usual spellings are
fine for 22-tET: just tune a chain of 12 or more fifths, and name the
notes and intervals in the usual way. The main "adjustment" is that
augmented seconds are _larger_ than diminished fourths; but as for the
most common intervals formed from six or fewer fifths or fourths,
they're as easy to navigate on a keyboard as in Pythagorean tuning.

Of course, this assumes a style using a regular major third of 8/22
octave (~436.36 cents), a major attraction of the scale for me. (Note
the "implicit" assumption that such thirds resolve very efficiently to
stable fifths -- often the musical grammar can influence one's
intonational phonetics, so to speak, as well as vice versa.) With
other stylistic assumptions, the conclusions change.

Another question I've seen raised: does 23-tET have anything like a
perfect fifth?

When I considered this question, my guess was "Yes," on the basic of
experience with Pythagorean "Wolf" fifths (actually diminished sixths,
e.g. G#-Eb, a Pythagorean comma narrower than 3:2) in certain timbres.

With the beating alleviated, a Wolf fifth _could_ sound like a usual
fifth; Easley Blackwood, for example, suggested that both the
Pythagorean fifth and the Wolf fifth could be taken as variants of the
same basic interval category.

However, until I tuned 23-tET and tried some progressions, I couldn't
be sure how those "Darregized/Setharianized" fifths would sound in
context.

When I did tune it up, and tried a metallophone-like texture, I found
that the fifths and fourths did sound like fifths and fourths -- but
not necessarily quite like "traditional" ones. For example, 14/23
octave might seem either like a usual fifth, or like a very small
minor sixth resolving obliquely to 13/23 octave (almost identical to
the Pythagorean Wolf).

My conclusion is that 23-tET does have recognizable fifths and
fourths, which I can substitute under certain timbral conditions for
the usual ones in familiar progressions. Of course, in part, this may
be a question of "categorical perception," or of hearing what one
_expects_ to hear.

Does style play an important role in this: specifically, the use of
fifths and fourths as the main stable concords? In a meantone-type
style with stable thirds and sixths, would those same intervals have
sounded less "fifthlike" or "fourthlike"?

To conclude, while emphasizing the value of experience and of creative
thinking at all stages, I would also suggest that not all of us need
to become world class geographers; some of us may focus on a specific
neighborhood. Knowing one's own backyard is an honorable goal.

Here I might say that there is no one so well versed in her or his own
neighborhood that he or she could not learn more from the perspective
of a visitor; and there is no world geographer who could not learn
more from the much more modestly travelled resident of a specific
region, community, neighborhood, or backyard.

We are interdependent, and your unique contributions are a gift to us
all, encouraging us to appreciate the incredible variety of tunings
and to learn by direct experience as well as innovative reflection.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter
mschulter@value.net

Re: Welcome to Brian McLaren -- Thinking about microtonality

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