What is your favorite tuning system? Why? Lois V Vierk, Composer
Lois V Vierk Photo by Kurt Ritta Many of my pieces use glissandi, but only a few of my works are actually microtonal. Of these, my favorite tuning is in “Go Guitars” for 5 electric guitars. Each guitar is tuned as follows: lowest string is low E, next string is middle E quarter tone down,… Read more »
musicnotes.com continues trend toward online publishing
Digital sheet music publisher Musicnotes.com has announced a distribution agreement with Warner Bros and Mel Bay. Warner Bros. Publications handles the imprints of thousands of titles printed by smaller publishing firms like Belwin Mills, Kalmus, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Studio P/R, Inc. Other publishers represented by Musicnotes include Theodore Presser, Boosey & Hawkes, and… Read more »
What is your favorite tuning system? Why? Joe Maneri, Composer and Saxophonist
Joe Maneri Photo courtesy of Joe Maneri I was always interested in microtonal music. Over 40 years ago I started playing Turkish and Albanian music which includes quartertones and other intervals as many folk musics do. And then, in 1972, I was moved to write a microtonal piece. I had a cousin who was unable… Read more »
musicmaker.com expands classical offerings
Musicmaker.com recently unveiled its new web site featuring expanded classical music offerings. Music lovers and collectors can now access a library of more than 60,000 licensed classical tracks and create custom CDs from their computers. Among the company’s classical offerings are tracks from labels such as EMI, Naxos, Koch, Newport Classic, Platinum, AVC, Nimbus, and… Read more »
What is your favorite tuning system? Why? Joe Monzo, Composer and Theorist
Joe Monzo Photo courtesy Joe Monzo Ever since encountering Harry Partch‘s Genesis of a Music in the early 1980s, I’ve been most interested in just-intonation (JI) tuning systems. The initial reason for my interest was that I realized there were far more pitches available to composers than the usual 12, and that their relationships could… Read more »
NEA releases landmark study on multiple jobholding in the arts
On August 9, the National Endowment for the Arts announced the release of a landmark research report on artists’ employment, specifically examining multiple jobholding or “moonlighting.” Commissioned by the NEA’s Research Division, More Than Once in a Blue Moon: Multiple Jobholdings by American Artists is unprecedented for the breadth of data examined that compares artists’… Read more »
What is your favorite tuning system? Why? Johnny Reinhard, Composer, Bassoonist, Director of the American Festival of Microtonal Music
Johnny Reinhard in Kazan, Russia Photo by Svetlana Sokolova Here in the new millennium composers look about and wonder what connects them together. The answer appears to be the musical intelligence that they possess. Ever since Howard Gardner designated “musical intelligence” as the one of the legitimate human intelligences in his book Frames of Mind,… Read more »
BETWEEN U S: A HyperHistory of American Microtonalists
Twelve-tone equal temperament, as this common tuning is called, is a 20th-century phenomenon, a blandly homogenous tuning increasingly imposed on all the world’s musics in the name of scientific progress. In short, twelve-tone equal temperament is to tuning what the McDonald’s hamburger is to food.
Staying On Key in a Microtonal World
I’ll never forget the utter amazement I experienced the first time I was exposed to the notion of “microtonal music.”
What is your favorite tuning system? Why?
Johnny Reinhard “What is the virtue of sticking to any single system of tuning? Why a system, and not an approach, or multi-systems?…” Joe Monzo “The desire to simplify Partch’s numerical (ratio-based) notation led to me create harmonic lattice-diagrams to represent the pitches in ‘ratio-space’…” Joe Manieri “I’m sorry for all you just people, but… Read more »
John Eaton: Involving Audiences in the Sweep of the Music
John Eaton Photo by Lloyd DeGrane, courtesy of The University of Chicago Chronicle August 3, 2000 – 1:00 to 3:30 pm John Eaton in conversation with Frank J. Oteri at The American Music Center Filmed by Jonathan Murphy and David Hughes Transcribed by Karyn Joaquino John Eaton Interview Excerpt #1 FRANK J. OTERI: A… Read more »
American Masters Photographed by Betty Freeman: Cage and Cunningham
Merce Cunningham and John Cage at home