Ben Johnston

[David Beardsley, TD 169.2]
> Johnston's made himself a footnote to Partch when he
> should have been a contender.

Oh no - Johnston is *definitely* a contender!

He's composing his own music, and (IMO) it's excellent,
from several standpoints.

So no matter what he does in his life, which makes him a
'footnote' or whatever, his great music will survive him,
and will someday ensure him a place in posterity.

BTW, I also meant to mention in my other posting on Johnston
that he has written a handful of excellent articles himself.

An early (and very thought-provoking) one is:

'Scalar Order as a Compositional Resource'
_Perspectives of New Music_, v 2 # 2, Spring-Summer 1964, p 56-76.

See the microtonal bibliography for the others.

Joseph L. Monzo monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
--------------------------------------------------

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monz@juno.com wrote:

> [David Beardsley, TD 169.2]
> > Johnston's made himself a footnote to Partch when he
> > should have been a contender.
>
> Oh no - Johnston is *definitely* a contender!

What happened?

> He's composing his own music, and (IMO) it's excellent,
> from several standpoints.

I'd like to hear more.

> So no matter what he does in his life, which makes him a
> 'footnote' or whatever, his great music will survive him,
> and will someday ensure him a place in posterity.

I know he's more than a footnote. Ben Johnstonshould be recognized for his
contributions to 20th
century music and microtonality. The 9 & 1/2 string quartets
and other relevant assorted compositions. When he's mentioned
in books, there's always a ref to Partch and I think
this underminds his status as a composer. As for Johnston's
unrecorded works: I' really like to hear them! Let's go baby!

> BTW, I also meant to mention in my other posting on Johnston
> that he has written a handful of excellent articles himself.

Too bad they're not on the net!

> --

* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
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* J u x t a p o s i t i o n E z i n e
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* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm

[Dave Beardsley, TD 170.13]
> I know he's more than a footnote. Ben Johnston should be
> recognized for his contributions to 20th century music and
> microtonality. The 9 & 1/2 string quartets and other relevant
> assorted compositions. When he's mentioned in books, there's
> always a ref to Partch and I think this underminds his status
> as a composer. As for Johnston's unrecorded works: I' really
> like to hear them! Let's go baby!
>

What you say about the Partch references is probably true,
but at the same time, it may give people who are already familiar
with Partch an interest in Johnston's work, and I daresay there
are many more people who know Partch than who know Johnston.

The sad fact is simply that his work is not widely available.
Not much has been recorded, it's mostly on hard-to-find labels
(except for the Kronos recordings), and the scores are expensive.
Happily, however, I have found *several* at the Philadelphia
Public Library. Hopefully other libraries are as enthusiastic
about acquiring them.

[me]
>> BTW, I also meant to mention in my other posting on Johnston
>> that he has written a handful of excellent articles himself.
>
>Too bad they're not on the net!

I owe a lot of the advancement I've made in microtonality
to my knowledge of Johnston's work (and ultimately, because
Johnston's idea for lattices came from Fokker, his work too),
long before I was familiar with Fokker or Wilson directly.

Part of my planned projects for Sonic Arts include publishing
his papers on the web, and MIDI sequences of his quartets.

BTW, there was mention here in the past month of David Cope,
and I owe my original knowledge of Johnston to Cope's discussing
him in his book. (don't have it handy - what's the title?)

-monz

Joseph L. Monzo monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
--------------------------------------------------

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At 10:09 PM 5/9/99 -0400, you wrote:
>From: David Beardsley <xouoxno@home.com>
>
>monz@juno.com wrote:
>
>> [David Beardsley, TD 169.2]
>> > Johnston's made himself a footnote to Partch when he
>> > should have been a contender.
>>
>> Oh no - Johnston is *definitely* a contender!

Re Johnston using serial techniques and JI together -- does
that make sense musically? Part of the usefulness of ET serial
procedures is the multiple meanings of enharmonic notes, and
the "combinatorial" harmony (to use a term from Babbitry) of similar
row segments. Is combinatoriality possible with JI or non ET? What
justification is there - musically - for JI serialism?

Ken

[David Beardsley, TD 170]
> When he's [Johnston] mentioned in books, there's always a ref to
> Partch and I think this underminds his status as a composer.

I just remembered what is probably the most important source
of info on Johnston, and it's first-hand: Bill Duckworth's
recent (c. 1993?) book _Talking Music_, a series of interviews
of important American composers.

It's the most in-depth interview with Johnston ever published,
and you'll also find Phillip Glass and (are you ready, Dave?)
... La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela.

If memory serves correctly, there are also what are among
the final interviews of Conlon Nancarrow and John Cage,
as well as a few others.

-monz

Joseph L. Monzo monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
--------------------------------------------------

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that's a nice chapter by duckworth on LY&MZ also there is Stricklands book
and even the Halana interview delves rather nicely

monz@juno.com wrote:

> From: monz@juno.com
>
> [David Beardsley, TD 170]
> > When he's [Johnston] mentioned in books, there's always a ref to
> > Partch and I think this underminds his status as a composer.
>
> I just remembered what is probably the most important source
> of info on Johnston, and it's first-hand: Bill Duckworth's
> recent (c. 1993?) book _Talking Music_, a series of interviews
> of important American composers.
>
> It's the most in-depth interview with Johnston ever published,
> and you'll also find Phillip Glass and (are you ready, Dave?)
> ... La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela.
>
> If memory serves correctly, there are also what are among
> the final interviews of Conlon Nancarrow and John Cage,
> as well as a few others.
>
> -monz
>
> Joseph L. Monzo monz@juno.com
> http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
> |"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
> | - Erv Wilson |
> --------------------------------------------------
>
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monz@juno.com wrote:

> From: monz@juno.com
>
> [David Beardsley, TD 170]
> > When he's [Johnston] mentioned in books, there's always a ref to
> > Partch and I think this underminds his status as a composer.
>
> I just remembered what is probably the most important source
> of info on Johnston, and it's first-hand: Bill Duckworth's
> recent (c. 1993?) book _Talking Music_, a series of interviews
> of important American composers.
>
> It's the most in-depth interview with Johnston ever published,
> and you'll also find Phillip Glass and (are you ready, Dave?)

I am strenuously gripping the chair.

> ... La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela.

Back when I started watching the door at Dream House,
there was a copy floating around so I read it a few years
ago.

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* xouoxno@virtulink.com
*
* J u x t a p o s i t i o n E z i n e
* M E L A v i r t u a l d r e a m house monitor
*
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm

Ken Fasano wrote:

> From: Ken Fasano <fasano@sysar.com>
>
> At 10:09 PM 5/9/99 -0400, you wrote:
> >From: David Beardsley <xouoxno@home.com>
> >
> >monz@juno.com wrote:
> >
> >> [David Beardsley, TD 169.2]
> >> > Johnston's made himself a footnote to Partch when he
> >> > should have been a contender.
> >>
> >> Oh no - Johnston is *definitely* a contender!
>
> Re Johnston using serial techniques and JI together -- does
> that make sense musically? Part of the usefulness of ET serial
> procedures is the multiple meanings of enharmonic notes, and
> the "combinatorial" harmony (to use a term from Babbitry) of similar
> row segments. Is combinatoriality possible with JI or non ET? What
> justification is there - musically - for JI serialism?

It's just an organization of musical resources. Why dismiss it?

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* xouoxno@virtulink.com
*
* J u x t a p o s i t i o n E z i n e
* M E L A v i r t u a l d r e a m house monitor
*
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm

[Ken Fasano, TD 171.10]
> Re Johnston using serial techniques and JI together -- does
> that make sense musically? Part of the usefulness of ET serial
> procedures is the multiple meanings of enharmonic notes, and
> the "combinatorial" harmony (to use a term from Babbitry) of
> similar row segments. Is combinatoriality possible with JI or
> non ET? What justification is there - musically - for JI
> serialism?

*Please* read Elster's great _Perspectives of New Music_
article, which I referenced in another posting today.

It elucidates wonderfully the very complex way Johnston
equated serial hexachords (the lynch-pin of c. 1980s academic
serial technique) with 11-limit JI hexads (the lynch-pin
of Partch's harmonic structures), and had them 'modulating'
around a matrix the same way regular 12-eq serialists use
the inversion, retrograde, and retrograde-inversion of the
basic (what they call 'prime') row.

And the incredible thing, as I said here a year ago, is that
after all that amazing numerical manipulation, the music
itself is beautiful and packed with a powerful emotional
punch. It leaves me feeling at the end like I have heard
one of the great masterworks of contemporary music.

He has the gift of being able to combine a direct emotional
appeal with an unbelievably intricate numerical intonational
and rhythmic basis. (The proportions in the rhythms between
different instruments frequently reflect the ratios of the
harmonies they are playing)

As Beardsley pointed out, and I continue to emphasize,
Johnston is a composer who deserves far more recognition
than he's gotten.

Joseph L. Monzo monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
--------------------------------------------------

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