Re Conlangs and xenharmonics

Yes, I lurk on the Conlang list and did have an interest in Loglan as well as Lojban at one time. Back in my Middle school/Junior HS days, I did a little conlanging, partly because I had been taking French and Latin and thought the former was wholly irrational and the second invented by a committee <G>. So, I decided to make up my own language(s) after reading about agglutinative languages, etc. in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

I invented several languages, but never got much farther than pages of verb conjugations and noun/adjective declensions with a smattering of vocabulary. One such, Baklaram, was used briefly one summer in Del Mar, California as a liturgical language in a con-cult based around the Great God OOK, a small, hollow, plaster statue looking vaguely like a primitive god, before my friends and I were old enough to drive and after going to the beach everyday got boring. As I recall, the father of one of the girls in our group offered to write some prayers for me to translate. Eventually, we filled the statue with a rather weak pyrotechnic mixture I concocted and we held an auto-sacrifice of OOK to himself. As I recall, the sparks shooting out of his eyes and orifices were quite impressive before he crumbled to dust and lumps.

BTW, Lou Harrison was an Esperantist and used Esperanto titles in Pacifika Rondo and lyrics in La Kora Sutro. Ivor Darreg also knew Esperanto as well as French, German, Russian and Spanish. Bruce Gilson is also a conlanger, and Bill Sethares writes Klingon songs, so there really is quite an overlap between xenharmonics and interest in artificial languages.

Hans Barnard, now an extremely successful archeologist, invented an entire con-culture complete with a JI music system for which he and his friends built instruments and performed at avant-garde sites in Holland. I don't recall if he developed a language for his Kayelonian or Kayenian culture or not anymore, and I don't know if Kraig Grady speaks Anaphorian.

I'd be interested in hearing about more instances of xenharmonics and conlangs? Anybody writing microtonal Na'avi songs?

--John

--- "John H. Chalmers" <JHCHALMERS@...> wrote:

> I invented several languages, but never got much farther than
> pages of verb conjugations and noun/adjective declensions with
> a smattering of vocabulary. One such, Baklaram, was used briefly
> one summer in Del Mar, California as a liturgical language in a
> con-cult based around the Great God OOK, a small, hollow,
> plaster statue looking vaguely like a primitive god, before my
> friends and I were old enough to drive and after going to the
> beach everyday got boring. As I recall, the father of one of
> the girls in our group offered to write some prayers for me to
> translate. Eventually, we filled the statue with a rather weak
> pyrotechnic mixture I concocted and we held an auto-sacrifice
> of OOK to himself. As I recall, the sparks shooting out of his
> eyes and orifices were quite impressive before he crumbled to
> dust and lumps.

Excellent story! You guys must have had the coolest
parents ever!

> Anybody writing microtonal Na'avi songs?

There was something in the press about Na'avi scales around
the time the movie was released, and some discussion here.
Few details were forthcoming. IIRC, it wasn't clear if they
were intended to be microtonal. I didn't notice anything
overtly microtonal in the movie. Sometimes soundtracks will
include material cut from a film. The great god Amazon may
be of some help
http://www.amazon.com/Picture-Composed-Conducted-Digital-Booklet/dp/B003GJSUIQ/

-Carl

CORRECTION: It was actually Herman Miller's site that led me to this list.
Somehow I forgot it was his site, probably because it belongs to "teamouse".
Anyway, big thanks to Herman Miller.