AW.: thoughts on Haba's tooth quartet

In einer Nachricht vom 11/16/99 6:21:29 AM (MEZ) Mitteleurop�ische
Zeitschreibt jaywill@utah-inter.net:

<< have a tape of Vyshnegrodsky's "Zarathustra" (or is there an "also Sprach"
in the title) for four pianos, a pair at standard pitch and a pair a
quarter-tone flat. His style features more clusters and other textures that
make the tuning seem a more integral feature. >>

However, one main idea of Wyschnegradsky's was the use of microtones in a
kind of diminution technique related to that advocated by Carillo (and
recently, by Stockhausen in _Xi_). A chromatic passage of seven pitches in
12tet becomes a quartertone passage of 14 pitches in 24tet and an eighth tone
passage with 28 pitches, etc.. Perhaps I understand the word "integral"
somewhat differently to you, but for me, an integral use of a particular
tuning would involve exploring other intervals distinctive to the tuning
(e.g. those relatively prime to the number of tones); the diminution
technique seems rather naive.

In einer Nachricht vom 11/16/99 6:21:29 AM (MEZ) Mitteleurop�ische
Zeitschreibt jaywill@utah-inter.net:

<< Is there, for example, any serial
compositions using a 24-tone row? >>

In the original version (1947) and first revision (1951-52), the 2nd and 5th
movements of Pierre Boulez's _Le Visage Nuptial_ were based on two
interleaved 12-tone series a quartertone apart. At the time of composition,
Boulez was still close to Ivan Wyschnegradsky, participating in one of the
few performance of Wyschnegradsky's works in 1945 with other musicians from
the Messiaen circle.

Boulez's public silence on the subject of Wyschnegradsky is striking. While,
one could readily imagine a Boulezian critique of Wyschnegardsky as a
composer based upon the purely technical criteria, the connection between the
French avant-garde and Skriabin through the "Skriabinistes", especially
Wyschnegradsky and Obouchow seems obvious.

In the second revised version (1984-94) of _La Visage Nuptial_, the two seria
were simply merged onto a single 12tet set. Can this be Boulez's attempt to
completely erase any debt to Wyschnegradsky?

Daniel Wolf