comatose Kirnberger

Hanuman Zhang writes:

> Kirnberger's tunings IMMHO are rather pale, bland and near-comatose
>like tragically over-cooked vegetables, but then again I grew up with much
>"spicier" sounding musics (i.e. Chinese, Indonesian, Indian, Central Asian,
>all sorts of folk-music, even Maori chants and Bob Dylan).

Ah, yes, I can understand that. After a weekend of Led Zep, Iron
Butterfly, and Cream, (maybe at Winterland, 1969-70?? who noz?) getting back to Big
Sur and hearing the folkies strumming their Woody Guthrie stuff felt like
sleeping in molassas. I will admit that the hippie ladies made up for it as the
moon came up over the mountain and that ol' "oneness" feeling mushroomed around
us all as the congas started their calling.......(oops, we are supposed to be
talking about tuning, tuning, tunin, tun, tu.)

ahem, anyway,

I have found today, that hitting a modern, "Western" pianist with a
Kirnberger III shakes them up pretty good. Scares the bejeesus out of some of them,
steers others straight back to Bach, and the jazzers immediately begin
playing stuff they never have, before, ("Listen to this! An Abdim7sus4!!!!! Man,
that cooks!")

The musical world is often imprisioned by current environment, our modern
sensitivities are sometimes a real Cage, but this may be changing more rapidly
than at anytime in the past. Harkening back to B. McClaren's thrusts and jabs,
the academic fortress of 12ET may be starting to show the effects of constant
bombardment, and all of us alternatively-inspired souls are having a part in
it. I encourage everybody to continue pressing the wider view of harmony.
I was heartened by the undertones of Brett Campbell's article in the
Wall Street Journal yesterday. It shows real progress in showing a broader view
to the world. He was writing of Microfest 2003 and seems to have put his
finger on the essence when he writes:
"After prolonged exposure to the rich, kaleidoscopic world of mmicrotones,
retuning to equal-tempered music was for me like going back to black and white
after spending a weekend immersed in color".

That says it pretty succiently, no?
Regards,
Ed Foote RPT
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
<A HREF="http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/399/six_degrees_of_tonality.html">
MP3.com: Six Degrees of Tonality</A>

In a message dated 2003:05:22 05:12:32 AM, Ed Foote RPT (a440a@aol.com)
quotes _moi_ and writes:

>> Kirnberger's tunings IMMHO are rather pale, bland and near-comatose
>>like tragically over-cooked vegetables, but then again I grew up with
>>much "spicier" sounding musics (i.e. Chinese, Indonesian, Indian, Central
Asian,
>>all sorts of folk-music, even Maori chants and Bob Dylan).
>
> Ah, yes, I can understand that. After a weekend of Led Zep, Iron
>Butterfly, and Cream, (maybe at Winterland, 1969-70?? who noz?) getting
>back to Big Sur and hearing the folkies strumming their Woody Guthrie stuff
felt like
>sleeping in molassas.

LOL!

> I will admit that the hippie ladies made up for it as the
>moon came up over the mountain and that ol' "oneness" feeling mushroomed
>around us all as the congas started their calling.......(oops, we are
supposed
>to be talking about tuning, tuning, tunin, tun, tu.)

ROTFLMAOSHIHLH *ouch!* me poor bloody ribs... Revealin' ya hippy past,
eh, Mr. Foote 0_o?

>ahem, anyway,
>
> I have found today, that hitting a modern, "Western" pianist with a
>Kirnberger III shakes them up pretty good. Scares the bejeesus out of
>some of them, steers others straight back to Bach

Hell, any intensively colourful alternative tuning seems to do that...
It's like "wow... I didn't know the useable sound spectrum was _that_ rich!" or
something along those lines. For some it's like the overly sheltered Prince
Siddhartha "discovering" there are poor, old, and dying people in the world...
for others, ya'd think they just discovered Santa Claus is a myth. _Then_ a few
go in search of further enlightenment while others go to various stages of
shock, grieving, denial, questioning, acceptance, etc..

>and the jazzers immediately begin
>playing stuff they never have, before, ("Listen to this! An Abdim7sus4!!!!!
>Man, that cooks!")

LOL. True for some (but definitely not the hardcore TradJazzers or
Neo-TradJazzers).

>The musical world is often imprisioned by current environment, our modern
>sensitivities are sometimes a real Cage, but this may be changing more
>rapidly than at anytime in the past. Harkening back to B. McClaren's
thrusts and
>jabs, the academic fortress of 12ET may be starting to show the effects of
constant
>bombardment, and all of us alternatively-inspired souls are having a part
>in it. I encourage everybody to continue pressing the wider view of harmony.

Vive le Resistance et Revolution Musique! ;) {I would use "Musical
Paradigm Shift" in French if I knew the French for "paradigm shift"}

> I was heartened by the undertones of Brett Campbell's article in the
> a Wall Street Journal yesterday. It shows real progress in showing a
broader
>view to the world.

Yepyep, we are talkin' of a wider worldview via music. Music may not be
an "universal language", but it sure beats mere words, "mouth noises" and "inky
blots"!
If silence can be golden and words silver, music might be a rainbow-like
conglomeration of gemstones and minerals...

Brett Campbell writes:
>"After prolonged exposure to the rich, kaleidoscopic world of mmicrotones,
>retuning to equal-tempered music was for me like going back to black and
>white after spending a weekend immersed in color".
>
> That says it pretty succiently, no?

Most succinctly, yepyep, and very pretty, too ;) I am gonna glom that
really nifty quote. Much plenty thanx.

---
Hanuman Zhang, the "Yves Klein Bleu Aardvark"

"There's a rabbinical tradition that the music in heaven will be microtonal
=)" - one annotative interpretation of Talmudic writings

"We cannot doubt that animals both love and practice music. That is evident.
But it seems their musical system differs from ours. It is another school...We
are not familiar with their didactic works. Perhaps they don't have any." -
Erik Satie

"Among the artistic hierarchy, the birds are probably the greatest musicians
to inhabit our planet." - Olivier Messiaen

NADA BRAHMA - Sanskrit, "sound [is the] Godhead"
LILA - Sanskrit, "divine play/sport/whimsy" - "the universe is what happens
when God wants to play" - "joyous exercise of spontaneity involved in the art
of creation"