My musical path

I spent about five seconds skimming through Brian McLaren's ultra-
long post . . . it would take a true internet addict to take the time
to read, let alone write, something so inflated. Anyhow, since one
other person is bugging me about not spending more time on microtonal
composition, I feel I need to make a statement.

Firstly, I just gave Johnny Reinhard John Starrett's address, so that
Johnny could send John the tapes of my Microthon performances. The
first Microthon was in May '99 and two of the three reviews I've seen
of it mention my music: Kyle Gann's in the Village Voice
(http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/9922/gann.shtml) and Joe Monzo's in
Juxtaposition (http://www.virtulink.com/immp/jux/AFMM10.htm). The
second Microthon was in November '00 and one of my pieces from it was
chosen, along with a handful of others, to be played on a WNYC
broadcast showcasing the event.

John Starrett, will you please put this material, once you receive it
in the mail, up on the Tuning Punks mp3.com site? Also, I just
received my three MAD DUXX CDs back from you . . . soon I will let
you know which segments of these '98 improvisations I'd like you to
put up . . . thanks!

Anyhow, I've barely scratched the surface of microtonal composition,
and this is why. I don't want to put a lot of effort into creating
music that's merely a demonstration of theoretical concepts, if it
doesn't have any _magic_ in it. My piece TIBIA, I feel, when
performed well, has magic. When I wrote it, it was not with the kind
of middling inspiration that comes along every day. Years of very
frustrating tinkering at the 22-tET keyboard had to pass before the
feeling of "aah, this is a musical piece that is more than the sum of
its parts" occured.

For the most part, though, the scales and associated ideas that I
talk about on the tuning list are amenable to a "here's how it works,
now try composing with it" approach. That's as far as I usually need
to take it right now, because once I'm done explaining, a superior
composer will probably do a better job of making music with it. Sure,
I could compose endless uninspired exercises in 48 equal
temperaments, 36 linear temperaments, 24 planar temperaments, and 12
just intonation scales, to demonstrate the chord progressions, etc.,
possible in each of them. But would they really constitute "good
music"? Probably not, and I know because I make "good music". So why
would I spend my time doing this, when a better composer who
understands the ideas could do better, or a computer programmer with
an algorithmic composition tool (think Michael Saunders) could plug
the ideas in and get something out much more quickly? For example,
Steven Rezsutek is a musician who's been making music with my
decatonic 22-tET system . . . Joseph Pehrson has been composing with
the 21-tone Blackjack scale I discovered . . . Joe Monzo has been
inspired, though in more unpredictable ways, to write music based on
some of the theoretical matters he and I have had exchanges on on the
tuning list . . . It is enough for me to set up the tuning on my
Ensoniq, play around with it until I have a few interesting musical
fragments and a few bases for improvisation, and then I feel
confident that it's a tuning with potential for an inspired composer
to make good music with, including myself should I someday revisit it
with the right spark of inspiration.

I've been spending the last 13+ years mastering many styles of music,
and finding my own "magic" in each of them, as an improvising
guitarist/keyboardist. Great innovators in music have always mastered
an existing style first. I'm trying to master many styles because I'm
attempting an even larger leap than most of the great innovators --
abandoning the existing tuning system altogether. I improvise because
that is a more direct, spiritual way of communicating with an
audience, and I tend to have a hard time conceptualizing musical form
other than in real time. For an example in the funk/fusion genre, go
to http://www.mp3.com/StretchBoston -- listen, for example, to my
guitar solo in "Spirm" (preferably on real speakers). Completely
spontaneous musical creation. These tunes have evolved in
compositional complexity, slowly but positively, since this December
performance. My playing has evolved as well, in terms of technical
skill, stylistic depth, and of finding my own "voice" . . . but this
example should at least give you a sense that I'm not just sitting
around crunching theory to "avoid" making music, as some have
suggested. And though the guitar is nominally fretted to 12-tET, it
of course produces the full continuum of pitches due to variations of
the intensity and direction of finger pressure, not to mention bends,
and I feel that my fine sense of intonation is put to use constantly
in the course of playing this music.

I feel that it is important for me to be able to create culturally
relevant music in an existing genre, in which my own musical voice is
expressed, before I move on to uncharted territory. The theory is
going to provide a lot of shortcuts and guideposts in this territory,
and maybe a few dead ends which I'll have to back up from. But for
the most part it's a more "spiritual" matter, a combination of
perhaps mystical intuition with a confident musical voice and a
mature sense of what needs to be communicated, which will determine
my level of success in microtonal composition. I'm preparing myself
for this as fully as I can, through various avenues, since the goal
is a difficult one. Few have acheived this goal to my ears -- the
goal of making really convincing, subtle, beautiful music in
alternative tunings -- and none have done so using the
musical "voice" that is developing in my heart, head, and hands.

I did not express this as well as I would have liked, but I leave
this list now (I'm on plenty of other lists, as I'm sure you all
know) with the plea to let my musical path evolve as it may, and the
promise that the results after 30 or 40 years will be an
_emotionally_ and _culturally_ meaningful body of microtonal music.
I'm not going to toss off a bunch of second-rate music just to
satisfy the whims of Mr. X and Mr. Z . . . I'm a perfectionist, when
it comes to both music and theory . . . for now, I'll be happy to
debate any tuning issue _on its own merits_ should anyone decide to
descend from the realm of name-calling, misquoting, and logical
whitewashing, over on the original list that is a richer pool of
diverse experiences and knowledge than ever:

tuning@yahoogroups.com

<snip I feel I need to make a statement.
> Firstly, I just gave Johnny Reinhard John Starrett's address, so
that
> Johnny could send John the tapes of my Microthon performances. The
> first Microthon was in May '99 and two of the three reviews I've
seen
> of it mention my music: Kyle Gann's in the Village Voice
> (http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/9922/gann.shtml) and Joe Monzo's
in
> Juxtaposition (http://www.virtulink.com/immp/jux/AFMM10.htm). The
> second Microthon was in November '00 and one of my pieces from it
was
> chosen, along with a handful of others, to be played on a WNYC
> broadcast showcasing the event.
>
> John Starrett, will you please put this material, once you receive
it
> in the mail, up on the Tuning Punks mp3.com site? Also, I just
> received my three MAD DUXX CDs back from you . . . soon I will let
> you know which segments of these '98 improvisations I'd like you to
> put up . . . thanks!

No prob, Paul. I posted the first chunk of Mad Duxx about 2 weeks ago
on mp3.com, and it is finally approved. As you may know, now that
mp3.com has to make money in other ways, it is selling a premium
artist service for $20 a month for those who want fast lane approval.
Of course this means those who don't pay (yours truly!) get slower
approval. I urge those who have not heard Paul's work to go to
http://stations.mp3s.com/stations/140/tuning_punks_a-i.html and check
out Tibia and 1a.

John Starrett