Re: [tuning] the Amazon.com Joe Maneri biography

Has anyone out there how found something useful in Maneri's book? I know
it from perusal at Erv Wilson's some years ago, where my impression was that
it lacked meaningful analysis of properties specific to the tuning system
(72tet) he was promoting, and instead treated the tuning as a "virtual
continuum". The book did indeed have exercises for learning to play within
72tet. However, the intervals to be learned were not placed in any context
suggesting that the author had "an encyclopedic knowledge of microtonal
music".

After hearing two of Maneri's cds, I was struck by a comparison with the
playing of the late clarinetist, John Carter. If anyone from the improvised
music scene was qualified to talk or write about his playing in terms of a
formal theoretical construct, it was Carter. Even though his compositions
and improvisations were often models of clarity, he remained very reluctant
to spell things out, perhaps because he wanted to retain his improvisor's
license _not_ to make definitive statements. This is only speculation on my
part, but the more abundant musicality of Carter's playing make me regret
that we don't have a "respected textbook" on microtonality from his pen.

Daniel Wolf

> From: "D.Stearns" <STEARNS@CAPECOD.NET>
>
> Joe Maneri
> Biography
>
> Born February 9, 1927, in Brooklyn, NY.
>
> Reedman Joe Maneri mixes an encyclopedic knowledge of microtonal music
> (he's written a respected textbook on the subject) with an acute ear
> for improvisation.

Daniel Wolf wrote,

>Has anyone out there how found something useful in Maneri's book? I know
>it from perusal at Erv Wilson's some years ago, where my impression was
that
>it lacked meaningful analysis of properties specific to the tuning system
>(72tet) he was promoting, and instead treated the tuning as a "virtual
>continuum". The book did indeed have exercises for learning to play within
>72tet. However, the intervals to be learned were not placed in any context
>suggesting that the author had "an encyclopedic knowledge of microtonal
>music".

Indeed. My impression of the Boston Microtonal Society is that they have
learned this book well, but have learned comparitavely little from the likes
of Ezra Sims who sees 72-tET as more than just a fine subdivision of 12-tET:

[http://www.marrison.com/ic/pages/S/seventy.html]

Ezra Sims at Seventy Sonneck Society for American Music Bulletin, Volume
XXIV, no. 1 (Spring 1998)

Ezra Sims at Seventy

Julia Werntz, Brandeis University

For four decades, American composer Ezra Sims has steadily been producing a
treasury of works that distinguish hem as one of the most unique voices in
the broad field of microtonalism. Sims neither comes from the traditon of
those like Alois Haba or Julian Carrillo, who expanded upon the model of the
equal-tempered scale with their microtonal chromatics, nor belongs properly
with the just intonation school and its very strict adherence to principles
based upon "acoustical fact." Independently, he has used natural phenomena
as spring-boards for ideas, while at the same time always making artistic
choices based on musical instinct. His music expands the tonal concept, so
that the essential driving forces of tonality -- such as the powerful draw
of the fundamental tone -- are maintained, while the harmonic palate is
enriched far beyond the triad with higher overtone relationships. The first
months of 1998 have seen, in addition to the composer's seventieth birthday
in January, performances of new and old works in various U.S. cities, and
the re-release on CD (CRI of three works of his from the 60s and 70s. (See
end of article for details about CD and upcoming performances.) The
concurrence of these events naturally prompts reflection from his audience
about where microtonalism has taken Sims, and speculation about where it is
leading him now. In his early twenties, Sims began hearing different
ivervallic relationships from the ones provided by the equal-tempered
twelve-note system, but it took him some time first to comprehend the nature
of what he was hearing and then to devise an organized way to integrate the
new intervals with his music. In fact, his first reaction was to regard the
perceived pitches as intruders and to try to ignore orwork around them. At
the time he was writing his String Quartet (1959), his use of the semitone E
to F consistently compelled his ear to invent a third pitch somewhere
in-between the E and F one octave above. Although he did make use of some
microtonal clusters at the end of the piece, Sims ignored the intruding
pitch. Only in his early thirties did Sims finally decide to devote his
attention to the specific and persistent intervals that his ear invented and
use microtones systematically in his compositions. His first explorations in
the early 1960s involved the use of quarter-tones. While these pursuits
produced some satisfying pieces (most notably his Third Quartet (1962)),
they ultimately led the composer to dead ends in his search to satisfy his
ears. He found that performers had difficulty playing quarter-tone music
accurately and that listeners in general did not respond favorably to it.
More importantly, as he paid ever closer attention he realized that he was
hearing a quasi-diatonic scale of some kind that included third-tones and
five-twelfths-tones, as well as quarter-tones. He understoon that this
implied a total division of the octave into seventy-two equal-tempered
intervals. After gradually accumulating bits of information about the
physics of sound, Sims began to notice that it was possible to explain his
pitches in light of two acoustical phenomena: the overtone series and
resultant tones. The overtone series, some of whose intervals differ
dramatically from the twelve equal-tempered ones, was a well-known
phenomenon that composers had employed for years as a harmonic model for
just intonation. Less commonly considered by composers were resultant tones.
These secondary pitches are perceived (though they do not actually
reverberate as do overtones) when two pitches are sounding simultaneously.
The frequency of the resultnat pitch is either the sum of the other two
pitches, in which case it is higher (a "summation" tone), or the difference,
in which case it is lower (a "differential" tone). These revelations enabled
Sims finally to understand the apparent cause of what he heard. For example,
the third-, five-twelfths- and quarter-tone "inflections" that he felt
inclined to use reflected the differences that the fifth, seventh, and
eleventh harmonics have from their counterparts in the equal- tempered
system, and the intruding pitch in the 1959 String Quartet could now easily
be explained as the summation tone of E and F. The new understanding also
helped Sims to see additional harmonic and structural implications. The
equal-tempered 72-note chromatic scale allowed very close approximations to
the natural intervals, and with it he began gradually to develop an
asymmetrical, transposable microtonal scale whose tones are derived from the
overtone series (Example 1a-b). By 1970, Sims had the basic scale in place,
although the most elaborate form, shown in Example 1c, wasn't crystallized
until around 1979. Open noteheads indicate more stable pitches with the
fundamental C, drawn from the lower harmonics, 1-16. Filled noteheads are
less stable, more remote harmonics and complex ratios. The sixth-low F,
shown with a stem, is added so that G, the third harmonic, may also have a
seventh. Unlike many composers using just intonation, Sims has been quite
idiosyncratic and unscientific in his use of the overtone model, and perhaps
more artistic for that reason. This can be seen in the construction of the
scale as well as in his compositional techniques. For example, the first
seven tones of his scale are derived from the intervals between the twelfth
and the fifteenth harmonics, two two-thirds-tones -- which he then, for
convenience, splits into third-tones - but uses other pitches than the
actualharmonics over C. (Those are G, sixth-tone low A-flat, sixth tone high
A-flat, A, etc. that appear higher up in the scale.) These members of hte
sclae, therefore, while derived loosely from the overtone series would not
be consonant whenused in combination wit hteh fundamental C and its
overtones. The implication of such usage is that the overtone series simply
offers Sims a prototype for various interval sizes. It does not determine
the absolute hierarchy of intervallic relationships or the degree of
consonance or dissonance as in most contemporary just intonation systems.
Sims's use of the harmonics in composition is also quite free. Having set up
the parameters with the notes of his scale, Sims is then comfortable
trusting that his ear, his intuition, and his intellect together will make
good choices, both locally, in the harmonies, and on a large scale, with the
sucession of pitch regions. With his harmonies he often omits or
de-emphasizes the fundamental itself, preferring instead various
arrangements of the higher, derived pitches. In Example 2, for instance,
measure 5 contains notes in a cluster that are harmonics of a twelfth-low
F-sharp, and therefore will "belong" together, even though F-sharp itself is
not present. (The sixth-tone-high D-sharp in the upper line of the tape part
is an anticipation into the next measure.) On a larger sclae, series of
scale tones are usually selected that will serve as regions throughout the
piece, and transpositions of the scale to those degreees are used for each
modulation (even if the fundamental pitch itself is not used, but merely
implied). This, too, can be seen in Example 2, where measures 1-3 use notes
derived from the scale on a fundamental of D, measure 4, from the same scale
built on E (9/8 of D), measure 5 from the scale on twelfth-low F-sharp (5/4
of D), and so on. Again, this type of root movement arises from the
composer's logic and his requirements at that moment in the piece, rather
than from some obvious scientific model intended to reflect the natural
sequence of the overtone pitches. The knowledge and perception of resultant
tones also have helped inform some of Sims's harmonic choices. In the
opening of the slow movement of his Quintet (1987) for clarinet and strings,
for example, the clarinet is given a sixth-tone-high B-flat , the summation
ton of the B and the F in the second violin and cello (see Example 3). The
clarinet holds its F through shifting tones in the other voices and into the
moment when the cello, returning to its B, and the clarinet, now with a
quarter-tone-low B-flat, begin to demand an E from the middle voice in order
for all three voices to attain stability. (B and E produce a summation tone
of quarter-tone-low B-flat.) Thus the F functions first as a sort of
consonance, then as a pedal, and finally as a suspension that resolves to a
new consonant tone, E. Sims has written a good deal of vocal music, and has
always been compelled to explore the relationship between speech and melody
in his music. His recent piece If I Told Him (1996) for alto and cello, is
based on a recording of Gertrude Stein reciting her poem of the same title.
The subtle inflections of her almost chant-like recitation had some effect
on Sims's techniques, with implications that will perhaps extent beyond that
piece. These have to do with the shift from region to region. Formerly, such
prgressions were carried out, abruptly, as can be seen in Example 2, with
the aid of common tones. Now Sims seems to favor more gradual, intricate
chromatic shifts, sometimes involving a harmonic no-man's land in between
regions. This appears to be a further abstraction of the natural harmonci
model and further expression fo hte composer's will over science. Notes
Sims's piece If I Told Him (1996), for alto and cello, will be performed
twice in March: first on 9 March at the Music at the Edge concert series in
Pittsburg, and then at Merkin Concert Hall in NYC on 12 March. It will be
played again at the Ijsbreker Music Center in Amsterdam on 28 May. His new
CD, Ezra Sims , on the CRI American Masters Series (CRI 784) features the
String Quartet no. 2 (1962), Elegienach Rilker (1976), and the Third Quartet
(1962), mentioned in this article. Articles Sims, Ezra. "Reflections on This
and That (Perhaps a Polemic)." Perspectives of New Music 29 (1991): 258-263.
Sims, Ezra. "Tonality in my Harmonically Based Microtonality." Lecture.
Naturton-Symposion, Heidelberg, 17 Oct. 1992. Sims, Ezra. "Yet Another
72-Notet." Computer Music Journal 12 (1988): 28-45. Discography Sims, Ezra.
Flight and Quintet on The Microtonal Music of Ezra Sims . CRI CD 643. New
York: Composers Recordings, Inc., 1993. Sims, Ezra. Third Quartet on Ezra
Sims . CD 784. New York: Composers Recordings, Inc., 1997. Julia Werntz is a
composer living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and writing her doctoral thesis
on chromatic microtonal compositions at Brandeis Unviersity under David
Rakowski. She has studied privately with composer Joseph Maneri, during her
undergraduate studies at the New England Conservatory, and also with Yehudi
Wyner, Marty Bohkan, and Allen Anderson at Brandeis. She is co-director of
the Boston Microtonal Society and teaches music theory and composition at
Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts. Return to the Sonneck Society
Bulletin Index Return to the American Music Network Home Page Updated
4/20/98

[Daniel Wolf:]
>The book did indeed have exercises for learning to play within 72tet.

Yes that's right, and basically that is all the book really consists
of.

>However, the intervals to be learned were not placed in any context
suggesting that the author had "an encyclopedic knowledge of
microtonal music".

I agree, and I don't think Joe would ever claim any such thing...
reviews and articles routinely set into motion all sorts of seemingly
inadvertent distortions and half-truths that in turn seem to take on a
life of their own. What I personally find very interesting in all this
is that at the time when I lived close to the Maneris (and was
basically there at their house every other day or so for a couple of
years), there was only a single, locally produced CD, "Kavalinka" --
and this was not for any lack of performing or recording (in fact most
all their early Quartet records had already been recorded at that
point) -- but now, just a relatively few years later, they have really
acquired quite an international reputation and have over a dozen
CDs... I for one am very happy to see this has happened and feel it is
well deserved, though based on what was already a lifetime committed
to music (Joe was 67 when "Get Ready to Receive Yourself" was released
and things started to take off) I am somewhat amazed that it happened
at all - better late than never though!

>After hearing two of Maneri's cds, I was struck by a comparison with
the playing of the late clarinetist, John Carter.

While I really do like your John Carter comparison in as much as Joe's
alto and tenor playing (and the majority of the Maneris music) could
certainly be said to be effusive and at the same time "models of
clarity," I really don't think they sound *at all* alike. Also Joe's
clarinet playing is almost always his most idiomatic, and when his
groups music sounds anything klezmeresque, or something like a
spiritual, etc., it will inevitably be when he is playing the
clarinet...

>This is only speculation on my part, but the more abundant musicality
of Carter's playing make me regret that we don't have a "respected
textbook" on microtonality from his pen.

Well sure, I agree that more *players* of that caliber actively
involved in microtonality would truly be wonderful, and I also like
Carter's music as well (and a lot of those other West Coast guys as
well, like Tim Berne and Vinny Golia), but here's to hoping that
"abundant musicality" is a subjective entity! Anyway, as I said
before, the "encyclopedic knowledge of microtonal music" soundbite
type quip is somewhat typical of the types of distortions reviewers
(etc.) make, and not something (thankfully) that I could see Joe
saying of himself - perhaps I should have mentioned something like
that when I posted it. Joe's strong points are as far as I'm concerned
are his absolutely remarkable ear and technique, and most importantly,
his ability to translate that into an ever-growing body of very
personal music that doesn't offer a lot of easy answers (in other
words he has a phenomenal ear and technique, yet his music almost
always subverts and reroutes your expectations of what someone with
phenomenal chops should sound like, etc.). Also -- and very much
unlike Carter or Metheny (whom I only mention because I just noticed
that he popped up in a different post as I was writing this one) --
Joe's playing is *always* very much microtonal, and it's a real
seamless, organic component of his music.

Dan

Joe Maneri, Harold Seletsky and I improvised together one evening at La Mama
La Galleria on East 2nd Street in Manhattan, just around the corner from
CBGBs and across the street from dogs inside a gate. Inside we had a warm
improv, over 10 years ago. Harold and Joe hadn't seen each other since their
early Brooklyn days, when they both sold ladies undergarments door to door.

I found his playing "swoopy" which is a style I respect. A friend of mine,
saxophonist Mike Ellis, takes great advantage of this technique on the
soprano sax and we are playing in Moscow together as "So Inclined." Joe
probably influenced my hunger to master glissandi, especially long glissandi.

His son Mat is a virtuoso electric violinist (no wood) and he recently
performed in my composition "Adam and Eve." Soon after he married "Eve,"
choreographer Christine Coppola.

Regarding Joe's book I have anecdotals to report. Former students trained to
the 72TET continuum may still need to learn where the just intervals are. As
such, it does provide impediment to a universal approach to tuning. To its
credit, it maps a huge territory of sensible intervalic relationships, and
informs an active and enthusiastic community of practicing microtonalists.

In New York there are several graduates of Joe Maneri's teachings living here
(Giusto, Borden, Washburne, Fusczinski, Mat Maneri). Each has a leg up in
navigating the microtonal worlds of different tunings, even if each tuning
has to be apprehended afresh (for it is not precisely found in 72TET).

I agree with Dan Stearns that his Joe's compositions sound different than
what one might expect him to write based on his improvising style of playing.
He basically talks in tongues using the 72TET basis for navigating around
the saxophone or clarinet's tessituras when he plays. When he composes he
feels exalted and religious and he is more celestial in his ideas. His
preferred full name is Joseph Gabriel Esther Maneri.

Johnny Reinhard
AFMM

>His son Mat is a virtuoso electric violinist (no wood)

Don't miss Mat's work with Natraj, one of the best Indian-Jazz fusion groups
ever. Here's your chance to check them out for free (from the Natraj list,
natraj@egroups.com):

Radio of India has just announced that it will broadcast another 24
hours of Natraj^s music on the web! This segment, which will be
devoted exclusively to Natraj, will start at about 12:00 midnight
Eastern Time on Wednesday, March 8, 2000, and continue until about
12:00 midnight Eastern Time on Thursday, March 9. All of Natraj^s CDs
will be included in this program. To hear the broadcast, visit Radio
of India^s website at www.radioofindia.com, and select the Hindustani
channel.

Happy Listening!

"D.Stearns" wrote:

> Well sure, I agree that more *players* of that caliber actively
> involved in microtonality would truly be wonderful, and I also like
> Carter's music as well (and a lot of those other West Coast guys as
> well, like Tim Berne and Vinny Golia),

Tim Berne has lived in Brooklyn for many years.

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* xouoxno@virtulink.com
*
* 49/32 R a d i o "all microtonal, all the time"
* M E L A v i r t u a l d r e a m house monitor
*
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm

[David Beardsley:]
> Tim Berne has lived in Brooklyn for many years.

Hmm, well you know, I haven't really actively bought records since the
mid to late '80s, so I really ought to watch what I say with something
like that! I guess that my memory could be fooling me here, but I
don't think so... I'll dig out the records I was thinking of when I
get a chance and see if I can't see what's what.

Dan

>> [David Beardsley:]
>> Tim Berne has lived in Brooklyn for many years.
>>
>> [Dan Stearns:]
>> I haven't really actively bought records since the mid to late
'80s, so I really ought to watch what I say with something like that!
I guess that my memory could be fooling me here, but I don't think
so... I'll dig out the records I was thinking of when I get a chance
and see if I can't see what's what.

Yeah, the Tim Berne records I had that had West Coast (then at least)
guys (the Cline brothers, Golia, etc.), and were West Coast records --
like "The Five Year Plan" and "7X" -- are about twenty years old at
this point...

Grandpa Dan

"D.Stearns" wrote:

> >> [David Beardsley:]
> >> Tim Berne has lived in Brooklyn for many years.
> >>
> >> [Dan Stearns:]
> >> I haven't really actively bought records since the mid to late
> '80s, so I really ought to watch what I say with something like that!
> I guess that my memory could be fooling me here, but I don't think
> so... I'll dig out the records I was thinking of when I get a chance
> and see if I can't see what's what.
>
> Yeah, the Tim Berne records I had that had West Coast (then at least)
> guys (the Cline brothers, Golia, etc.), and were West Coast records --
> like "The Five Year Plan" and "7X" -- are about twenty years old at
> this point...

From the Screwgun Records site:

> Tim Berne was born in Syracuse, New York in 1954
&
> Berne moved to New York in 1974, sought Hemphill out

http://www.screwgunrecords.com/bio.htm

A look at the discography shows a few of the albums were
recorded in LA but the rest in NY or Europe. I can see
why you got the wrong impression.

> Grandpa Dan

Hey - I'm not exactly a kid! (40) Fortunately,
I know someone who's a walking encylopedia of jazz
and prog-rock and I can just ring him up and get an
answer. He owns a record store in the East Village.

http://www.dtmgallery.com

* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* xouoxno@virtulink.com
*
* 49/32 R a d i o "all microtonal, all the time"
* M E L A v i r t u a l d r e a m house monitor
*
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm

[Johnny Reinhard:]
> He basically talks in tongues using the 72TET basis for navigating
around the saxophone or clarinet's tessituras when he plays.

Nice... that really seems to me to be about as good of a
characterization of Joe's playing as I've yet to hear (though in a
free jazz sense, "talks in tongues" may possibly give some the wrong
impression, as I think Joe is actually an extremely patient player
who's music more often than not carries with it something more akin to
the poise of a carefully crafted ballad, as opposed to what some might
surmised from the -- most likely wildly frenetic -- associations of
free jazz and "talks in tongues"). Also, in my view, you really nailed
the positive aspects as well as the possible drawbacks of the Maneri
72 method in your post:

"Former students trained to the 72TET continuum may still need to
learn where the just intervals are. As
such, it does provide impediment to a universal approach to tuning.
To its credit, it maps a huge territory of sensible intervalic
relationships, and informs an active and enthusiastic community of
practicing microtonalists.

In New York there are several graduates of Joe Maneri's teachings
living here (Giusto, Borden, Washburne, Fusczinski, Mat Maneri). Each
has a leg up in navigating the microtonal worlds of different tunings,
even if each tuning has to be apprehended afresh (for it is not
precisely found in 72TET)."

Dan