Re: MORE from Larry Polansky on Rothenberg

After a brief search of files, boxes, etc., I have located, by way of David Rothenberg materials:

1) A score for clarinet, trumpet, cello (which we performed with the Mills Ensemble, and I could probably find that recording). I don't seem to find the title of the piece. It's marked up by the performers (actually, this may be my conductor's score, I think I conducted it).

2) Copies of published articles from Mathematical Systems Theory

"A Model for Patter Perception with Musical Applications: Part II: The Information Content of Pitch Structures" (1978)

" .... Part III: The Graph Embedding of Pitch Structures (1978)"

A cv, circa 1980, with a list of publications (it says that Part IV "will appear in Mathematical Systems Theory")

3) Copies of articles which I'm not sure were ever published:

"A Topological Model for the Perception of Context-Embedded Timbres"

"A Non-Procedural Language for Musical Composition"

(and some wonderful ephemera, letters, drawings, etc., which made it worth the hunt). I've also located a cassette of his lecture at Mills (which was mostly on timbre spaces).

I'd be happy to post the published article part III (although maybe it's already been posted), but would need to talk to David or his representative about the other stuff).

hope this helps. David was a very important early influence on me and my work, and greatly respected by many of us in the old days, so I'm overjoyed that there is renewed interest in his work. I've always credited the idea of "proper and improper scales" to him.

lp

Daniel Wolf wrote:

> A cv, circa 1980, with a list of publications (it says that Part IV > "will appear in Mathematical Systems Theory")
> > 3) Copies of articles which I'm not sure were ever published:
> > "A Topological Model for the Perception of Context-Embedded Timbres"

This sounds like the missing Part IV. The abstract for Part I confidently states "The initial five papers of this series on pattern perception treat first, the perception of pitch in musical contexts and then, the perception of timbre and speech."

> "A Non-Procedural Language for Musical Composition"

That might be an interesting read, but also likely to be left behind by subsequent developments.

> (and some wonderful ephemera, letters, drawings, etc., which made it > worth the hunt). I've also located a cassette of his lecture at Mills > (which was mostly on timbre spaces).
> > I'd be happy to post the published article part III (although maybe it's > already been posted), but would need to talk to David or his > representative about the other stuff).

Yes, Part III is available. I have no idea what the rest could be like, so please try and release it somehow!

> hope this helps. David was a very important early influence on me and my > work, and greatly respected by many of us in the old days, so I'm > overjoyed that there is renewed interest in his work. I've always > credited the idea of "proper and improper scales" to him.

Unfortunately there's still very little interest in the world at large. Some people are independently rediscovering his ideas, but they still haven't caught up with the 1978 papers. That's all most of us know.

Graham

> 1) A score for clarinet, trumpet, cello (which we performed
> with the Mills Ensemble, and I could probably find that
> recording).

If you could find that recording.... Wow! Are you in touch
with David? I wonder if his address/phone has changed in
7 years... I haven them here. If we could get his permission,
I'd love to digitize/host it.

> 2) Copies of published articles from Mathematical Systems Theory

Did you catch the scans that were posted?

http://lumma.org/tuning/rothenberg/Rothenberg1.pdf
http://lumma.org/tuning/rothenberg/Rothenberg2.pdf
http://lumma.org/tuning/rothenberg/Rothenberg3.pdf

> A cv, circa 1980, with a list of publications (it says that
> Part IV "will appear in Mathematical Systems Theory")

If you have his cv, you're in an excellent position to do
a Wikipedia bio!!

> 3) Copies of articles which I'm not sure were ever published:
>
> "A Topological Model for the Perception of Context-Embedded Timbres"
> "A Non-Procedural Language for Musical Composition"

Dude, is there any possibility at all you could get these to
me somehow (digitally, copies by mail, etc.)?

> I've also located a cassette of his lecture at Mills
> (which was mostly on timbre spaces).

Wow. He didn't mention any of this to me. He seemed fascinated
that someone was interested in 'what I did all those years ago'.
Again, I think this should be made available.

> but would need to talk to David or his
> representative about the other stuff).

Are you willing to?

> David was a very important early influence

Put your name under "artists influenced by" on his bio.
See the Erv Wilson bio for an idea of what one looks like

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erv_Wilson

> I've always
> credited the idea of "proper and improper scales" to him.

I'm pretty sure that was his idea.

Hey, lp, great to hear from you. I don't know if we've ever
corresponded, but I have a couple of your albums and have
enjoyed them. Especially Simple Harmonic Motion.

-Carl