Boston Microtonal Society website update

Dear Tuning List Members,

Please visit http://BostonMicrotonalSociety.org to see our new pages for
composers James Tenney and Franck Yeznikian, including audio files with
microtonal piano music by both composers. (Click on "musicians" in the menu
to the left on the main page.) We also have added several new links on the
"links" page, and are always adding items to our "news" page.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Julia Werntz, Director
Boston Microtonal Society

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "jwerntz2002" <juliawerntz@a...> wrote:
> Dear Tuning List Members,
>
> Please visit http://BostonMicrotonalSociety.org to see our new
pages for
> composers James Tenney and Franck Yeznikian, including audio files
with
> microtonal piano music by both composers. (Click on "musicians" in
the menu
> to the left on the main page.) We also have added several new links
on the
> "links" page, and are always adding items to our "news" page.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Sincerely,
> Julia Werntz, Director
> Boston Microtonal Society

i was interested to see james tenney's page

http://bostonmicrotonalsociety.org/Pages/MusiciansPages/Tenney.html

and pleasantly surprised to see these statements there, which could
have come out of my own mouth:

'Why do I correlate new developments in harmony with the design of
new tuning systems? Consider the history of musical innovations in
the early 20th century. Around 1910 a crisis occurred which
profoundly affected subsequent events. Tonality, which had been a
primary basis for musical organization for some two hundred years,
was seen by many of the more progressive composers of the time as
having been exhausted. In response, these composer set out to explore
other means of musical organization—involving other aspects of music,
some of which (like rhythm) had remained nearly static since the very
beginnings of the "common practice" period. Harmony, as such, was
either ignored or maintained at the same level of development it had
reached in 1910. In the absence of some fairly powerful new
organizing principles, post-tonal music might well have become
utterly incoherent. The fact that it did not is evidence that these
composers did indeed discover such organizing principles, and that—in
a more general sense—it is quite possible to make music without
harmony.

'Now, however, (1984), we find ourselves at a point where these
various other aspects of music have all been quite thoroughly
explored. Although it would be naive to imagine that nothing new is
likely to emerge in these areas, it can certainly be said that none
of them has remained "static" in our century. Rhythm, timbre,
texture, form, and even the aesthetic premises and social functions
of music have all been reexamined and elaborated to an extent without
precedent in any earlier period of Western (or perhaps any other)
music. What has not changed since that watershed year of 1910—at
least in any progressive-evolutionary sense—is harmony, and it seems
time now to confront this issue again, since it can hardly be ignored
indefinitely. It is far too basic (even primitive) an aspect of
auditory perception ever to be suspended entirely.

'One of the new directions taken by some composers after 1910 did
involve the expansion of the pitch resources beyond the 12-tone
tempered tuning system (or "12-set"), by way of simple subdivisions
of that set (the quarter-tones, sixth-tones, etc. of Busoni, Ives,
Habá, Carillo, et al). But where these expansions were not
harmonically based, they did not—and indeed could not—solve the
problem that had arisen with the "exhaustion" of tonality. Thus, the
music that was written in such tuning systems still required
other "organizing principles" in order to maintain coherence. The
failure of this music to solve the specifically harmonic problem was
not due to any lack of skill, talent or vision on the part of these
composers. These qualities most of them had in abundance. Their great
expectations of what might be accomplished by such subdivisions of
the 12-set were, however, the result of a misunderstanding of the
basic nature of the 12-set itself. That is, this pitch set is not
simply a useful or convenient (much less arbitrary_ "division of the
octave." More essentially, it is a pitch set which approximates
certain just intervals (of the "5-limit") fairly well (although it
requires a tolerance range of about a seventh of a semitone for the
ear to interpret the tempered major third in a triad as a just
third). And the 12-set evolved historically in precisely that way—as
a solution to the harmonic problem of tuning keyboard instruments in
such a way that the important harmonic intervals would be available
within a wide range of modulations of the tonic without encountering
an intolerable "wolf" at some point. Thus, the 12-tone, equally-
tempered scale was originally a harmonically based tuning system, and
any extension of this system must also be harmonically based, if it
is to have any effect on further developments of harmony.

'The real problem with the 12-set, or course, is not the relatively
small number of pitches it makes available, but the fact that a very
large tolerance range has to be assumed even for it to be regarded as
a "fair approximation" of the basic intervals of the 5-limit—and even
greater ranges are involved with those of the 7-and 11-limits.
Although some "progressive evolution" of harmony is often suggested
or implied in works by early 20th-century composers using this tuning
system, it can only remain mere suggestion or implication. It can
neither be made explicit, nor clarified, nor built upon, without
going beyond the confines of the 12-set.

'Partch's solution to these problems was to use just intervals only,
and his work will stand for a long time as the most important
pioneering exploration along the edges of this latest frontier. But
other solutions are possible, including other temperaments, if these
are "harmonically based." In either case, our task now, as I see it ,
is to investigate the unknown regions beyond this "frontier,"
equipped with the resources already developed by Partch (and a few
others: Lou Harrison and Ben Johnston have extended these resources
quite considerably, and explored some of these regions) . . .'

thanks to the boston microtonal society, and thanks to james tenney!

>
>

I tend to see the problem not as 'harmony' but of "gestalt". the problem is how to organize pitch
in a way that we can group elements together as we see fit. Of the single systems, the Eikosany
and the the CPS , that female counterpart to the diamond, is hard to surpass in that you have each
tone capable of being in the full array of your set of different harmonic/subharmonic functions, a
unique relationship to the whole, and a JI base to dispell any ambiguity. Temperments will always
delay the real problem for later to pick up the pieces. It is how we have gotten in the mess we
are in at the moment, by allowing ourselves to be coerced into a 'wall' even though it is
presented as a 'door'. This isreally what all closed systerms are, walls. Thety solve problems is
a very limited way, kind of the way our government deals with things, with the quick fix.. Closed
systems are to be avoided at all cost, unless we don't care about what we expect others to deal
with later. and they most surely will have to deal with it. Any closed system is an insult to the
different ways people engage in real musical activity. The problems , And there are more than we
will ever be able to name, can only be solved with open systems and any system no capable of
being reshaped, expanded, contrsacted, outright fragmented, is limited in any real vision for the
future. Not only that will probably come back and bite it's creators on the vbehind.

>
> From: "Paul Erlich" <paul@stretch-music.com>
> Subject: Re: Boston Microtonal Society website update
>
>
>
> i was interested to see james tenney's page
>
> http://bostonmicrotonalsociety.org/Pages/MusiciansPages/Tenney.html
>
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Erlich" <paul@s...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_47256.html#47270

> thanks to the boston microtonal society, and thanks to james tenney!

***I find this a little humorous, since the statements of Tenney seem
to contradict the basic tenets of the "added-tone non-harmonic-
based" microtonality that seemed to have emanated previously from
these quarters... :)

J. Pehrson