Weird Music

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

<<http://www.io.com/~hmiller/music/music.html>>

I went to the above site this morning as was suggested and listened 
to the selections there.  Now, I have promised not to be inflammatory on this 
List and this is not meant to be.  But, I must say that I got a very distinct 
case of nausea while listening to some of these selections.  This is a purely 
clinical observation, mind you.

Maybe it's just me, but I really don't like synthesizers or electronic 
keyboards of any kind.  I have often heard people suggest using them to 
demonstrate various kinds of temperaments but I really do not agree that this 
is a good way.  You must have a real piano, fortepiano, harpsichord or pipe 
organ to get real music, in my opinion.

 A synthesizer produces "sythesized" (read artificial or imitation) music.  
Some claim that there are some of these instruments that are so good that you 
really can't tell but I always and surely can and I don't like the sound.  
The whole idea of using Historical Temperaments of the different eras is to 
recreate the sound that musicians and composers actually heard in their 
lifetimes.

The kinds of theoretical tunings heard on this site are supposed to be 
"futuristic", I suppose.  If so, I am glad that I probably won't be around 
long enough to have to get used to hearing them on any kind of regular basis. 
 Moreover, I predict, with no shame at all, that they never will become 
popular, just as Atonal and Serial music never became popular as early 20th 
Century composers thought.

Of all the kinds of music that people typically listen to today, they are all 
tonal and many of them use only a very limited part of the available harmony 
of the keyboard. Indeed, many use only three chords.  So why do we need 18 or 
22?  It just seems to go against the way the mind works (not to mention the 
stomach).

I am a widower of nearly 4 years now but my 22 year old son comes over often 
to visit and use the computer.  I decided to ask his opinion, thinking he 
might be more open minded.  These were his very words:  "That doesn't sound 
like what you do or talk about, Dad, your pianos sound perfectly in tune, 
that just sounds like sour grapes to me!"

So, if it's all right with everyone else or even if it isn't, I'll continue 
to explore and develop the Equal Beating Victorian Temperament and other 
Equal Beating Well Tempered and *mild* Meantone temperaments.  They are what 
makes traditional music sound the way it was intended and the most pleasant 
to my ear and to that of my customers.  In less than a month, September 21, I 
will demonstrate this temperament style to the Chicago Chapter and Virgil 
Smith will demonstrate ET.  I expect the debate to be lively and results to 
interesting.

Tomorrow, I tune again at the Frank Lloyd Wright estate for the 33 year old 
Dutch composer and pianist, Sebastien Huydts who now resides in Chicago.  He 
will play both traditional and his own music in the EBVT.  I expect the 
temperament to first of all, make his piano sound very much in tune with 
itself and secondly to enhance the music, not make it sound sour or weird.

I believe that my goals are in line with most other HT tuning piano 
technicians as well.  I really don't know anyone who does these experimental 
kinds of tunings and who has any kind of an appreciative audience.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin