Re: [tuning] Re: another performer report.2

In a message dated 10/16/02 11:24:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
JSZANTO@ADNC.COM writes:

> See, I don't think that is a universal case. Many, if not most, of the
> people I've worked with don't have this 'wariness', and the more years go
> by and I keep bumping into this and similar performer 'attitudes', the more
> I put stock in a fundamental difference between our two countries/cultures
> - East and West coasts.
>
>
Jon, have you been asking players out West to play microtonal pieces on
strings, woodwinds, or brass? The players that actually play these musics
are wary. Each tuning is a different playing language. Someone that has
learned several, may want to put on the brakes if they feel blindsided by an
enthusiastic (but possibly unrealistic) player.

I could not imagine a SINGLE players of those instruments playing more than
one tuning on a single concert (unless they can respond to cents). I'm not
trying to stir anything up, and Joseph and I talked about this in detail by
telephone. Do you think I am just a Svengali that can seduce players to play
for me? You wouldn't be the first.

best, Johnny Reinhard

Johnny,

--- In tuning@y..., Afmmjr@a... wrote:
> Jon, have you been asking players out West to play microtonal
> pieces on strings, woodwinds, or brass? The players that actually
> play these musics are wary.

No, *I* haven't been contracting players, but I have heard performances. Your statement about being wary is based on... what? Your experiences with your own players? I just don't get that sense of "gosh, I'm not going to tackle *that* intonation!" in the people I've met at concerts, festivals, etc.

> Each tuning is a different playing language.

I thought if one simply read cents, as your groups work, that it wouldn't be that different. On the other hand, the affect that different tunings has on me, as a listener, would suggest that merely reading cents notation is not the entire story.

> I could not imagine a SINGLE players of those instruments playing
> more than one tuning on a single concert (unless they can respond
> to cents).

So if you can read cents, you can play as many intonations as you want, but if you read differing notations (which are simply symbols for cents equivalencies), you can't. That doesn't add up, or at the very least underestimates the capabilities of good players.

> I'm not trying to stir anything up

Hey, same here! :) I just don't want others that might be 'listening in' to this thread to get overly pessimistic about what people can and can't do. And I think there is a big world out there beyond the Big Apple.

> Do you think I am just a Svengali that can seduce players to play
> for me?

No, I think you are a very lucky person to be in the situation you are in. Lucky *and* hard-working.

Cheers,
Jon