Schlesinger, French, & my upcoming trip

Clarifying my feelings on Kathleen Schlesinger's work:
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In my _Tutorial on ancient Greek Tetrachord-theory_
(probably appearing in the same Digest as this post,
and also on this webpage:)
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/aristoxenus/tutorial.htm
I wrote:

> [me, monz:]
> (Aristoxenus criticizes those who base their theory on the
> _aulos_, which was a sort of oboe. Kathleen Schlesinger wrote
> a book, _The Greek Aulos_, which Partch admired, but which has
> since been discredited, where she reconstructs ancient scales
> based on measurements of holes in surviving ancient auloi.)

I only included the bit about Schlesinger's work having
been discredited because I mentioned her here before and
got that as a response, and just wanted to give a well-
rounded picture this time.

Kraig Grady had this to say:

> [Kraig Grady, TD 443.2]
> I am going to take issue on "The Greek Aulos" its
> supposed discredit involved certain historically details.
> The actual scale measurements has been upheld by the
> Dionysian woodwind maker, Jim French (dionysian in that
> he is considered one of the best meade makers in the world)
> he makes replica of all types of wind instruments including
> for Pharaoh Sanders. He swears by the book. Erv Wilson also
> has a large collection of South American flutes with equally
> spaced holes which also illustrate these subharmonic flutes
> as well as the tuning of the exit holes to sometimes a 3/2
> below one of the scale degrees. One of these flutes ,a double
> one ,was given to Partch and can be heard in Delusion of the
> Fury. The placing of two subharmonic scales at x interval but
> placed with the thirds "parallel" is a wide open possibility
> for further exploration. I for one have used two a 3/2 a part
> back in my opera "War and Pieces".
> Also in this book you find on Page 4, a crosset of
> harmonic and subharmonic series, ala diamond like. True she
> probably over extends where these scales are actually found.
> But the actual Microtonal material is invaluable.

I've owned Schlesinger's book for around 8 years, and still
have not digested large chunks of it. But let me say that
overall I find her theories interesting and stimulating.

I suppose part of the reason why I've speculated with such
boldness on the work of so many past theorists, is my
admiration for both the detail and broad perspective of
Schlesinger's work. I agree that it is an invaluable
contribution to the literature.

Clarifying Aristoxenus's criticism of _aulos_-based theory:
-----------------------------------------------------------

The main reason Aristoxenus criticized basing a theory of
'harmonics' on the nature of instruments is that, because
he used geometrical concepts of equal division in his
measurements, he needed to start from a conception of pitch
which was infinitely divisible.

His mathematics had no way of dealing with roots, powers,
exponents, and the like, and so he conceived of pitch as an
infinite continuum, with no limits on either end in its
intrinsic nature. The limits perceived by us are imposed by
the human ear-brain system. And it had to be infinitely
divisible because he had to use geometry to make the divisions
into '1/4-tones', '1/3-tones', and '3/8-tones' which appear
in his enharmonic and relaxed and hemiolic chromatic genera,
respectively.

Basing the divisions on instruments would not work for his
theories, because string-lengths and pipe-holes were measured
in those days generally by making an arithmetical division of
the total length, which of course would give a 'subharmonic'
or Utonal (higher-limit) JI scale.

[Aristoxenus 2.43.1-10; in Barker 1989, p 158]
> Just as there is no attunement in the strings unless someone
> brings it to them by manuual adjustments, no more is there in
> the finger-holes, unless someone brings it to them by manual
> adjustments. It plainly needs no arguing, since it is obvious,
> that no instrument tunes itself, but that perception is the
> authority in this matter.

As a matter of fact, I find this to be an argument supporting
Schlesinger's theories. The nature of Schlesinger's 'octave-
species' scales was that each successive descending interval
was smaller than the last, because it was an *arithmetic*
division of the pipe-length.

This wouldn't work for Aristoxenus, because he conceived his
scales as tetrachordal units, with the same intervals in
one tetrachord replicated in all others.

Hmm... this is pretty interesting. I'll dig more deeply into
this for a future posting.

Regarding Jim French's work:
----------------------------

I was hoping to meet Jim French last year in San Diego.
Jonathan Glasier has some of his 'Phrygian Pipes' at the
Sonic Arts Gallery.

I'm quite interested in French's work, partly because my
initial experiences in music were as a woodwind player, and
partly because of having read Schlesinger.

I was hoping to play on them in the improvisations we had,
but I didn't stick around long enough to master them and
found it quite difficult to produce a good tone on them,
mainly because my woodwind years are way behind me now and
my embouchure is shot. But Jonathan plays them quite well.

My upcoming visit to San Diego:
-------------------------------

For those of you in the Southern California area, I'll be
spending the New Year holiday and my birthday in San Diego,
and plan to visit Los Angeles too. I'll be in California
from December 31 to January 9, and am looking forward to
jamming and talking shop face-to-face.

Most likely, I'll be spending quite a bit of time at the
Sonic Arts Gallery. I already have plans to see Jonathan,
Denny Genovese, and John Chalmers. Visitors are encouraged
for great musical get-togethers!

I definitely plan on visiting Anaphoria Island too!

REFERENCES
----------

Barker, Andrew. 1989. _Greek Musical Writings_
vol 2: 'Harmonic and Acoustic Theory'.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Schlesinger, Kathleen. 1939. _The Greek Aulos_.
Methuen & Co Ltd, London.
(I believe this was reprinted around 1970)

-monz

Joseph L. Monzo Philadelphia monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
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