About me, about Paul E., and about all of us...

Gentlemen and ladies,

I really had no idea the Floyd I'd cause by simply asking Paul to make
music, which (believe it or not), I always though he did anyway -- he just
doesn't talk about it much here! And it was only an example, as I
occasionally through out, of how it is really *that much more satisfying*.

Occasionally.
Doesn't have to be every posting.
Or every week or month, even.

I frankly find *all* of the material worthwhile even when it isn't
something I happen to center around. I couldn't give a flying truck about
Periodicity Blocks, but other on the list do, and that - frankly - is what
the list is for: matters related to alternate tunings.

Some other points:

~~ Paul, I've never seen a more plainly written and personal statement from
you, on your music-making. It should be clear evidence of your willingness
to take the numbers into sound and form. All I hope for you is that you
find both courage and conviction to move into non-12tet on a more regular
basis, if only for the fact that the more of it you do the better it will
become and the more worlds you'll explore (and maybe we'll get to share).
And as you (Paul) said:

>I'm here to share and to learn.

Not that I always
>know the truth, or am always right, but I've thought and listened hard and
>read widely on this stuff and sometimes I will have knowledge or a point of
>view to share. I'm here to share and to learn.

~~ To someone, somewhere, in some indigenous intonation, 12tet is an
alternate tuning; I refuse to look down on someone because they play music
in 12tet. Hell, that's where I make the bulk of my living, putting on the
"tight coat and tight shoes" of the orchestral world. The only quibble I
would have would be for that same person to completely dis some *other*
tuning -- they all have value, somewhere, sometime.

For those of us on the list, please keep in mind that email is
excruciatingly bad at communicating tone of voice, inflection of phrases.
Try not to take each comment as the end of the world, and for godesses'
sake, if someone asks for clarification give it, don't just write them off.
This is an area that I think Paul has made progress on, as well as myself.
If a comment is truly personal in nature, take it off list; everyone's
address is right there in the headers, and we don't need more bandwidth
wasted on personal attacks. Tuning, numbers, music. And one other thing
Paul said:

>Sometimes I am argumentative or harsh but I believe that the truth
>will ultimately be more beneficial than misconceptions.

Truth is good, truth is best, but both facts and opinions can be phrased in
collegial and constructive ways. You *do* have enough time in the day to be
civil. As does every person on this list.

~~ Don't expect every question to receive an answer, at least right away:
there may only be a few others on that topic and they might be away. And,
for some of us that are more into music making than music theoretics, there
is nothing breaking our collective arms and keeping us from posting on
other topics. If the bulk of the postings are on diagrams and matrices,
then it is because that is what people are posting about, while others sit
on their hands.

~~ Oh, shit, that's enough from me. I felt duty-bound since I started this
thread to respond in some manner -- it just had to come after a new hard
disk install! Let's keep this an open forum, with lots of information
floating around, treat everyone with respect (both as humans and
colleagues), and return to the topic
of ...

... what?

Behave, everyone, or I won't tell you about the Harry Partch t-shirts I
have for sale (again)......

Love,
Jon
`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
Jonathan M. Szanto : Corporeal Meadows - Harry Partch, online.
jszanto@adnc.com : http://www.corporeal.com/
`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`