[Harp-L] Musicology

[Robb Bingham <robbingham@xxxxxxxxx>]

Missin:

<I'm not discouraging anyone from reading this book.
<I merely noted that some pinches of salt are
<required from time to time.

Merely? I don't wanna bulldog you but saying a book is
~full of bias, serious omissions and historical
inaccuracies~ IS a discouragement.
 
Synopsis: Someone wanted to know why music is set up
the way it is. I suggested a book I love as a starting
place [~Temperament~, Isacoff]. Pat Missin said the
book is ~~ full of bias, serious omissions and
>historical inaccuracy~~ . I asked for ANY example of
bias or errors. He, thus far, has declined to supply
any.

A great book, btw. [As Van Cliburn, Andre Watts and
Charles Rosen, New York Times, Charlie Rose affirm].
The bias Pat might have been alluding to [and what
probably had his ~Tuning~ chat room abuzz]is that the
book concentrates on the traditional ~Greats~: Liszt,
Chopin, Brahms- - -to Debussy, and doesn't loan a lot
of credence to the marriage of Eastern Mysticism,
pseudo-intellectualism, modernism and Just Intonation
[ala Phil Glass and his entourage: Ginsberg, Laurie
Anderson, David Byrne]. Probably these guys just read
the last chapter, where Isacoff hints [in the last 20
pages where he anticipates objections] at some of
their lofty pretensions, and dearth of literacy-
musical or otherwise]. But the book-theme itself
defines these limitations/scope.

On the other hand he does his best and tells some
interesting stories about students of Bach
[Kirnberger]who HATED equal temperament and made some
hefty contributions to ~microtonal~ noodling. I got no
opinion on all that. I like Bach and equal tuning [I
mean, c'mon, where would we be without it???]. But I
luv Just-Tuned harps :->

Robb
PS: Don't try to pull any booogie wooogie on the king
of pen and ink.



		
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