DefineMicrotonal: Difference between revisions

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<h2>IMPORTED REVISION FROM WIKISPACES</h2>

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One again, the use of ancient Greek genera like the chromatic and diatonic genera to play diatonic conventional music may prove musically tantalizing for a variety of reasons, but this has nothing to do with microtonality. Those two Greek genera sound for all practical purposes identical to modern diatonic 7-note scales played in a modern conventional tuning. Thus, once again, using ancient Greek tunings like the chromatic or diatonic genus is not "microtonal" and has nothing to do with microtonality. Using the Greek enharmonic genus, however, **is** microtonal, since this tuning differs audibly from any conventional western tuning.

One further complication arises in defining microtonal music. Namely, distinguishing random mass ensemble effects and extended performance techniques ~~for~~ genuine microtonality. X. J. Scott has clearly and vehemently reminded musicians that "microtonal" music is not the same as "micro-atonal" music. That is say, there is a huge difference between randomly hitting any pitch willy-nilly, such as you might get by blowing on a kazoo while randomly sliding the pitch around, or waving your hand randomly in the control volume of a theremin, and actual microtonality produced by repeatably and reliably sounding a specific set of distinctly audible non-Western pitches. Scott's point remains important because much of what gets misnamed in contemporary Western art music as "microtonal" is in fact "micro-atonal," or randomly pitched music. The overall effect of randomly pitches music is a sense of pitch movement -- without any sense of specific pitches. Excellent examples include much of the tape music and //musique concrete// produced during the 1940s through the 1970s. Such music, while in many cases excellent and worthwhile, fails to qualify as microtonal because it sound no specific set of repeatable pitches. Instead, such music uses whatever pitches happen to be found -- perhaps the randomly detuned pitch of a train whistle recorded and slowed down, or a recording of someone randomly glissing on a violin. (Indeed, another term for //musique concrete// is "found music.) These kinds of aimless incoherent pitch variances fail to qualify as microtonal because they exhibit no audible structure. The listener does not hear anything but a chaotic mass of intervals without rhyme or reason. As a result, the listener cannot tell whether some of the pitches are the same, or different from, those of conventional western music: it's a haze of apparently arbitrary pitches used primarily for the effect of "pitch difference," not to sound specifically xenharmonic melodies or harmonies.

One further complication arises in defining microtonal music. Namely, distinguishing random mass ensemble effects and extended performance techniques from genuine microtonality. X. J. Scott has clearly and vehemently reminded musicians that "microtonal" music is not the same as "micro-atonal" music. That is say, there is a huge difference between randomly hitting any pitch willy-nilly, such as you might get by blowing on a kazoo while randomly sliding the pitch around, or waving your hand randomly in the control volume of a theremin, and actual microtonality produced by repeatably and reliably sounding a specific set of distinctly audible non-Western pitches. Scott's point remains important because much of what gets misnamed in contemporary Western art music as "microtonal" is in fact "micro-atonal," or randomly pitched music. The overall effect of randomly pitches music is a sense of pitch movement -- without any sense of specific pitches. Excellent examples include much of the tape music and //musique concrete// produced during the 1940s through the 1970s. Such music, while in many cases excellent and worthwhile, fails to qualify as microtonal because it sound no specific set of repeatable pitches. Instead, such music uses whatever pitches happen to be found -- perhaps the randomly detuned pitch of a train whistle recorded and slowed down, or a recording of someone randomly glissing on a violin. (Indeed, another term for //musique concrete// is "found music.) These kinds of aimless incoherent pitch variances fail to qualify as microtonal because they exhibit no audible structure. The listener does not hear anything but a chaotic mass of intervals without rhyme or reason. As a result, the listener cannot tell whether some of the pitches are the same, or different from, those of conventional western music: it's a haze of apparently arbitrary pitches used primarily for the effect of "pitch difference," not to sound specifically xenharmonic melodies or harmonies.

The important point about such music (tape music, extended performance techniques by the orchestra, etc.) is that retuning the individual random pitches even by large amounts (say, 50 cents) would make no difference to the overall effect of the music. In fact, many contemporary orchestral compositions which use extended performance techniques leave the specific choice of random pitches up to the performers, and as a result repeat performances of such compositions typically **//do//** exhibit large pitch variations. Regardless, the composition sounds the same -- and the reason is simple: because in such extended performance techniques, the individual pitches don't matter. What matters in such pieces is the ensemble effect, or, in tape music, the timbral effect. In genuine microtonality, however, the individual pitches matter a great deal.

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One again, the use of ancient Greek genera like the chromatic and diatonic genera to play diatonic conventional music may prove musically tantalizing for a variety of reasons, but this has nothing to do with microtonality. Those two Greek genera sound for all practical purposes identical to modern diatonic 7-note scales played in a modern conventional tuning. Thus, once again, using ancient Greek tunings like the chromatic or diatonic genus is not &quot;microtonal&quot; and has nothing to do with microtonality. Using the Greek enharmonic genus, however, is microtonal, since this tuning differs audibly from any conventional western tuning.

One further complication arises in defining microtonal music. Namely, distinguishing random mass ensemble effects and extended performance techniques ~~for~~ genuine microtonality. X. J. Scott has clearly and vehemently reminded musicians that &quot;microtonal&quot; music is not the same as &quot;micro-atonal&quot; music. That is say, there is a huge difference between randomly hitting any pitch willy-nilly, such as you might get by blowing on a kazoo while randomly sliding the pitch around, or waving your hand randomly in the control volume of a theremin, and actual microtonality produced by repeatably and reliably sounding a specific set of distinctly audible non-Western pitches. Scott's point remains important because much of what gets misnamed in contemporary Western art music as &quot;microtonal&quot; is in fact &quot;micro-atonal,&quot; or randomly pitched music. The overall effect of randomly pitches music is a sense of pitch movement -- without any sense of specific pitches. Excellent examples include much of the tape music and musique concrete produced during the 1940s through the 1970s. Such music, while in many cases excellent and worthwhile, fails to qualify as microtonal because it sound no specific set of repeatable pitches. Instead, such music uses whatever pitches happen to be found -- perhaps the randomly detuned pitch of a train whistle recorded and slowed down, or a recording of someone randomly glissing on a violin. (Indeed, another term for musique concrete is &quot;found music.) These kinds of aimless incoherent pitch variances fail to qualify as microtonal because they exhibit no audible structure. The listener does not hear anything but a chaotic mass of intervals without rhyme or reason. As a result, the listener cannot tell whether some of the pitches are the same, or different from, those of conventional western music: it's a haze of apparently arbitrary pitches used primarily for the effect of &quot;pitch difference,&quot; not to sound specifically xenharmonic melodies or harmonies.

One further complication arises in defining microtonal music. Namely, distinguishing random mass ensemble effects and extended performance techniques from genuine microtonality. X. J. Scott has clearly and vehemently reminded musicians that &quot;microtonal&quot; music is not the same as &quot;micro-atonal&quot; music. That is say, there is a huge difference between randomly hitting any pitch willy-nilly, such as you might get by blowing on a kazoo while randomly sliding the pitch around, or waving your hand randomly in the control volume of a theremin, and actual microtonality produced by repeatably and reliably sounding a specific set of distinctly audible non-Western pitches. Scott's point remains important because much of what gets misnamed in contemporary Western art music as &quot;microtonal&quot; is in fact &quot;micro-atonal,&quot; or randomly pitched music. The overall effect of randomly pitches music is a sense of pitch movement -- without any sense of specific pitches. Excellent examples include much of the tape music and musique concrete produced during the 1940s through the 1970s. Such music, while in many cases excellent and worthwhile, fails to qualify as microtonal because it sound no specific set of repeatable pitches. Instead, such music uses whatever pitches happen to be found -- perhaps the randomly detuned pitch of a train whistle recorded and slowed down, or a recording of someone randomly glissing on a violin. (Indeed, another term for musique concrete is &quot;found music.) These kinds of aimless incoherent pitch variances fail to qualify as microtonal because they exhibit no audible structure. The listener does not hear anything but a chaotic mass of intervals without rhyme or reason. As a result, the listener cannot tell whether some of the pitches are the same, or different from, those of conventional western music: it's a haze of apparently arbitrary pitches used primarily for the effect of &quot;pitch difference,&quot; not to sound specifically xenharmonic melodies or harmonies.

The important point about such music (tape music, extended performance techniques by the orchestra, etc.) is that retuning the individual random pitches even by large amounts (say, 50 cents) would make no difference to the overall effect of the music. In fact, many contemporary orchestral compositions which use extended performance techniques leave the specific choice of random pitches up to the performers, and as a result repeat performances of such compositions typically do exhibit large pitch variations. Regardless, the composition sounds the same -- and the reason is simple: because in such extended performance techniques, the individual pitches don't matter. What matters in such pieces is the ensemble effect, or, in tape music, the timbral effect. In genuine microtonality, however, the individual pitches matter a great deal.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 <h2>IMPORTED REVISION FROM WIKISPACES</h2>
 This is an imported revision from Wikispaces. The revision metadata is included below for reference:<br>
-: This revision was by author [[User:guest|guest]] and made on <tt>2006-10-26 00:36:32 UTC</tt>.<br>
+: This revision was by author [[User:guest|guest]] and made on <tt>2006-10-27 01:13:22 UTC</tt>.<br>
-: The original revision id was <tt>1557559</tt>.<br>
+: The original revision id was <tt>1570668</tt>.<br>
 : The revision comment was: <tt></tt><br>
 The revision contents are below, presented both in the original Wikispaces Wikitext format, and in HTML exactly as Wikispaces rendered it.<br>
@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 One again, the use of ancient Greek genera like the chromatic and diatonic genera to play diatonic conventional music may prove musically tantalizing for a variety of reasons, but this has nothing to do with microtonality. Those two Greek genera sound for all practical purposes identical to modern diatonic 7-note scales played in a modern conventional tuning. Thus, once again, using ancient Greek tunings like the chromatic or diatonic genus is not "microtonal" and has nothing to do with microtonality. Using the Greek enharmonic genus, however, **is** microtonal, since this tuning differs audibly from any conventional western tuning.
-One further complication arises in defining microtonal music. Namely, distinguishing random mass ensemble effects and extended performance techniques for genuine microtonality. X. J. Scott has clearly and vehemently reminded musicians that "microtonal" music is not the same as "micro-atonal" music. That is say, there is a huge difference between randomly hitting any pitch willy-nilly, such as you might get by blowing on a kazoo while randomly sliding the pitch around, or waving your hand randomly in the control volume of a theremin, and actual microtonality produced by repeatably and reliably sounding a specific set of distinctly audible non-Western pitches. Scott's point remains important because much of what gets misnamed in contemporary Western art music as "microtonal" is in fact "micro-atonal," or randomly pitched music. The overall effect of randomly pitches music is a sense of pitch movement -- without any sense of specific pitches. Excellent examples include much of the tape music and //musique concrete// produced during the 1940s through the 1970s. Such music, while in many cases excellent and worthwhile, fails to qualify as microtonal because it sound no specific set of repeatable pitches. Instead, such music uses whatever pitches happen to be found -- perhaps the randomly detuned pitch of a train whistle recorded and slowed down, or a recording of someone randomly glissing on a violin. (Indeed, another term for //musique concrete// is "found music.) These kinds of aimless incoherent pitch variances fail to qualify as microtonal because they exhibit no audible structure. The listener does not hear anything but a chaotic mass of intervals without rhyme or reason. As a result, the listener cannot tell whether some of the pitches are the same, or different from, those of conventional western music: it's a haze of apparently arbitrary pitches used primarily for the effect of "pitch difference," not to sound specifically xenharmonic melodies or harmonies.
+One further complication arises in defining microtonal music. Namely, distinguishing random mass ensemble effects and extended performance techniques from genuine microtonality. X. J. Scott has clearly and vehemently reminded musicians that "microtonal" music is not the same as "micro-atonal" music. That is say, there is a huge difference between randomly hitting any pitch willy-nilly, such as you might get by blowing on a kazoo while randomly sliding the pitch around, or waving your hand randomly in the control volume of a theremin, and actual microtonality produced by repeatably and reliably sounding a specific set of distinctly audible non-Western pitches. Scott's point remains important because much of what gets misnamed in contemporary Western art music as "microtonal" is in fact "micro-atonal," or randomly pitched music. The overall effect of randomly pitches music is a sense of pitch movement -- without any sense of specific pitches. Excellent examples include much of the tape music and //musique concrete// produced during the 1940s through the 1970s. Such music, while in many cases excellent and worthwhile, fails to qualify as microtonal because it sound no specific set of repeatable pitches. Instead, such music uses whatever pitches happen to be found -- perhaps the randomly detuned pitch of a train whistle recorded and slowed down, or a recording of someone randomly glissing on a violin. (Indeed, another term for //musique concrete// is "found music.) These kinds of aimless incoherent pitch variances fail to qualify as microtonal because they exhibit no audible structure. The listener does not hear anything but a chaotic mass of intervals without rhyme or reason. As a result, the listener cannot tell whether some of the pitches are the same, or different from, those of conventional western music: it's a haze of apparently arbitrary pitches used primarily for the effect of "pitch difference," not to sound specifically xenharmonic melodies or harmonies.
 The important point about such music (tape music, extended performance techniques by the orchestra, etc.) is that retuning the individual random pitches even by large amounts (say, 50 cents) would make no difference to the overall effect of the music. In fact, many contemporary orchestral compositions which use extended performance techniques leave the specific choice of random pitches up to the performers, and as a result repeat performances of such compositions typically **//do//** exhibit large pitch variations. Regardless, the composition sounds the same -- and the reason is simple: because in such extended performance techniques, the individual pitches don't matter. What matters in such pieces is the ensemble effect, or, in tape music, the timbral effect. In genuine microtonality, however, the individual pitches matter a great deal.
@@ Line 119: / Line 119: @@
 One again, the use of ancient Greek genera like the chromatic and diatonic genera to play diatonic conventional music may prove musically tantalizing for a variety of reasons, but this has nothing to do with microtonality. Those two Greek genera sound for all practical purposes identical to modern diatonic 7-note scales played in a modern conventional tuning. Thus, once again, using ancient Greek tunings like the chromatic or diatonic genus is not &amp;quot;microtonal&amp;quot; and has nothing to do with microtonality. Using the Greek enharmonic genus, however, &lt;strong&gt;is&lt;/strong&gt; microtonal, since this tuning differs audibly from any conventional western tuning.&lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
-One further complication arises in defining microtonal music. Namely, distinguishing random mass ensemble effects and extended performance techniques for genuine microtonality. X. J. Scott has clearly and vehemently reminded musicians that &amp;quot;microtonal&amp;quot; music is not the same as &amp;quot;micro-atonal&amp;quot; music. That is say, there is a huge difference between randomly hitting any pitch willy-nilly, such as you might get by blowing on a kazoo while randomly sliding the pitch around, or waving your hand randomly in the control volume of a theremin, and actual microtonality produced by repeatably and reliably sounding a specific set of distinctly audible non-Western pitches. Scott's point remains important because much of what gets misnamed in contemporary Western art music as &amp;quot;microtonal&amp;quot; is in fact &amp;quot;micro-atonal,&amp;quot; or randomly pitched music. The overall effect of randomly pitches music is a sense of pitch movement -- without any sense of specific pitches. Excellent examples include much of the tape music and &lt;em&gt;musique concrete&lt;/em&gt; produced during the 1940s through the 1970s. Such music, while in many cases excellent and worthwhile, fails to qualify as microtonal because it sound no specific set of repeatable pitches. Instead, such music uses whatever pitches happen to be found -- perhaps the randomly detuned pitch of a train whistle recorded and slowed down, or a recording of someone randomly glissing on a violin. (Indeed, another term for &lt;em&gt;musique concrete&lt;/em&gt; is &amp;quot;found music.) These kinds of aimless incoherent pitch variances fail to qualify as microtonal because they exhibit no audible structure. The listener does not hear anything but a chaotic mass of intervals without rhyme or reason. As a result, the listener cannot tell whether some of the pitches are the same, or different from, those of conventional western music: it's a haze of apparently arbitrary pitches used primarily for the effect of &amp;quot;pitch difference,&amp;quot; not to sound specifically xenharmonic melodies or harmonies.&lt;br /&gt;
+One further complication arises in defining microtonal music. Namely, distinguishing random mass ensemble effects and extended performance techniques from genuine microtonality. X. J. Scott has clearly and vehemently reminded musicians that &amp;quot;microtonal&amp;quot; music is not the same as &amp;quot;micro-atonal&amp;quot; music. That is say, there is a huge difference between randomly hitting any pitch willy-nilly, such as you might get by blowing on a kazoo while randomly sliding the pitch around, or waving your hand randomly in the control volume of a theremin, and actual microtonality produced by repeatably and reliably sounding a specific set of distinctly audible non-Western pitches. Scott's point remains important because much of what gets misnamed in contemporary Western art music as &amp;quot;microtonal&amp;quot; is in fact &amp;quot;micro-atonal,&amp;quot; or randomly pitched music. The overall effect of randomly pitches music is a sense of pitch movement -- without any sense of specific pitches. Excellent examples include much of the tape music and &lt;em&gt;musique concrete&lt;/em&gt; produced during the 1940s through the 1970s. Such music, while in many cases excellent and worthwhile, fails to qualify as microtonal because it sound no specific set of repeatable pitches. Instead, such music uses whatever pitches happen to be found -- perhaps the randomly detuned pitch of a train whistle recorded and slowed down, or a recording of someone randomly glissing on a violin. (Indeed, another term for &lt;em&gt;musique concrete&lt;/em&gt; is &amp;quot;found music.) These kinds of aimless incoherent pitch variances fail to qualify as microtonal because they exhibit no audible structure. The listener does not hear anything but a chaotic mass of intervals without rhyme or reason. As a result, the listener cannot tell whether some of the pitches are the same, or different from, those of conventional western music: it's a haze of apparently arbitrary pitches used primarily for the effect of &amp;quot;pitch difference,&amp;quot; not to sound specifically xenharmonic melodies or harmonies.&lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
 The important point about such music (tape music, extended performance techniques by the orchestra, etc.) is that retuning the individual random pitches even by large amounts (say, 50 cents) would make no difference to the overall effect of the music. In fact, many contemporary orchestral compositions which use extended performance techniques leave the specific choice of random pitches up to the performers, and as a result repeat performances of such compositions typically &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; exhibit large pitch variations. Regardless, the composition sounds the same -- and the reason is simple: because in such extended performance techniques, the individual pitches don't matter. What matters in such pieces is the ensemble effect, or, in tape music, the timbral effect. In genuine microtonality, however, the individual pitches matter a great deal.&lt;br /&gt;