re: thoughts on Haba's 2th quartet

Jay here,
Thanks to all for a passle of much-wanted info. That includes Joe's
correction to the effect that the non-standard pair of pianos in the
Wyschnegradsky work are a quarter-tone _higher. By the time the tape came
through the radio, neither pair was at standard pitch, so I assumed the
opposite config, just to assume sum'm. Besides that, at a pause in the third
movement they changed tapes or the machine got happy and shifted up a
fraction in pitch. Now all I have to do is pitch-restore the whole thing
plus removing all the background noise.
Concerning that piece, Mr. Wolfe wondered what I meant when I said that I
thought Wysch's application of quarter-tones sounded more "integral" than
did Haba's. Your point's well taken. I haven't looked closely enough to
compare their uses of "diminution." Maybe it's a question of degree; I've
not thought about it much below the top of my hat that I never wear. It's
just that, to my perception, the style of "Zarathoustra" provides me with a
much stronger sense of the different musical moods that quarter-tone writing
can produce than does Haba. Mind you, I do hear a kind of beauty in the Haba
that bespeaks sensitivity to the aural effect of the music and not simply a
theoretical exercise.
Great list! I haven't been so caught up in this stuff since grad school 35
years ago.