spectral people and "natural" vs. "unnatural" bases for music

> I would imagine that our adaptation to having a movable 12 tone
>tuning might have
>trained us to adjust to acoustical "cues" which would allow such 1/4 and
>1/8
>tone notation to get
>the players close enough to where they might "correct" subconsciously.

Yeah, I think that is their idea, more or less. The notation is an
approximation, and the ear fills in the rest.

I don't know whether it works: sometimes their harmonies all sound the
same. a kind of anonymity to the sound.

> Most other methods quickly degenerate into
>conceptual juggling
>of unperceptable entities (rows being but one example). Things that look
>good
>on paper.

What I like about these ways of working is the "fallout"---cool chords,
gestures, event-complexes or whatever (cool meaning cool-sounding.) I
think you can get things to happen this way that you'd never think of if
you went the "all-natural" route.

Of course, a good composer has to skew things so that the "fallout" really
is cool most of the time, and not "grey", as happened so often with serial
music.

Boulez's Pli Selon Pli, or ferneyhough's La Chute D'Icare are good
examples. Boulez 3rd Sonata, last movment, is the reverse---bla-ness.

hi Christopher!

Christopher Bailey wrote:

> What I like about these ways of working is the "fallout"---cool chords,
> gestures, event-complexes or whatever (cool meaning cool-sounding.) I
> think you can get things to happen this way that you'd never think of if
> you went the "all-natural" route.

yes i stand corrected. There is much to be said about a blind person attempting to gain sight by
becoming blind drunk. seriously. no offense meant as i acknowledge that we are all blind in large
measure . But then shouldn't we give Dionysus his due, and leave Apollo out of it.
I remember every Babbit piece would have those brief seconds of brilliance

> Boulez's Pli Selon Pli, or ferneyhough's La Chute D'Icare are good
> examples. Boulez 3rd Sonata, last movment, is the reverse---bla-ness.

well with these you lost me as convincing me although if a beggar on the street produced these i
would enjoy them much more as novelty
You might have gotten me with Xenakis who uses "sound as a possibility" so probably lying
between the camps, not unlike him.
Always leaned toward him, ligeti, scelsi, reich, riley, but should mention those
"unrecognized" outside such circles, Hafler Trio , Dome, Niblock, Zoviet France, his Heat,
incorporated these elements in diminishing order but not necessarily musicality.

-- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
http://www.anaphoria.com

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