Extended Just Intonation: A Position Paper

Author(s): Ben Johnston

Source: Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 25, No. 1/2, 25th Anniversary Issue, (Winter -
Summer, 1987), pp. 517-519
Published by: Perspectives of New Music
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/833124
Accessed: 05/05/2008 05:04

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 A Tributeto JamesTenney 517

EXTENDED JUST INTONATION:

A POSITION
PAPER

BEN JOHNSTON

JN 1962 AND 1963, when I was writing "ScalarOrder as a Compositional

Resource" for Perspectives of New Music 2, no. 2 (Spring-Summer 1964):
56-76, I1sent severalversionsto the editorsbeforewe agreedon one for publica-
tion. The story of the second revisionis instructive.I had been tryingto meet
what I felt was Perspectives'ratherthorny prose style and was at the same time
insistingto myself that the articlebe readableby other than specialists.In the
midst of this effortI gave the manuscriptto a teacherof technicalprosewriting
who offered to critiqueit. I got a scathingcriticismand a very intense short
courseon how to get ridof jargonand relatedproblems.I dutifullyrewrotethe
entirearticlein short, tersesentenceswith a deliberatelywell-knownvocabulary
and in brief,well-disciplinedparagraphs.Finally,I sent it on to the editors.
They scarcelyrecognizedit and in haste urged me to restoreit to its former
acceptablescholarlystyle. The restof the storyis not veryinteresting,concern-
ing, asit does, a compromiseof styleif not content, andcertainlya curtailmentof
possiblereaders.Sincethen the editorshipof Perspectives has undergonea trans-
formingevolution, and this situationcould not arisetoday. But it gaveme a lot
to think about and afterabout a decadebore some surprisingfruit.
In the earlyseventiesI grewdissatisfiedwith the musicalstyleI hadbeen using
since beginningin 1961to compose in extended just intonation. It was a style
rooted in serialmusic,which was what had interestedme most just beforethat.
But I was tiredof composingmusicwhich interestedfew listenersbeyond other
composersand participatingin specializedconcertswhich attractedmainlythat
audience.I was convincedthat composerswere at leastpartlyto blamefor the
ignoringof new musicby most performersand audiences.In a spiritof defiance
againstmy own prejudicesI begana seriesof workswhich thoroughlyconcealed
their complexity and which addressed themselves to a far less specialized
audience.The responsewas immediateand dramatic.People came up to me
afterconcertsand thankedme forwritingwhat they hadjust heard.PerformersI
had neverdreamedwould be interestedcontactedme about new works. Even
critics,though some with much suspicion,were markedlymore positivein their
evaluationof my compositions.
They could not have been more suspiciousthan I. I gave myselfa thorough
andsearchingself-criticismto makesurethatI had not simplybegun sayingonly
what people alreadywanted to hear: fallinginto the trap Herbert Bruincalls
518 of NewMusic
Perspectives

"plausibility."I was assuredby nearlyeveryoneI confidedin that this was defi-

nitely not the case. The seeminglyparallelcourseof writingmusicin stylesand
idiomsused in earliermusicproducesan acceptancebasedtoo muchupon a nos-
talgiafor the pastof musicand a misperceptionof the way in which the artscan
illuminatethe way we live. I wanted at all costs to avoid that. If music of the
twentiethcenturydoes not reflectthe degreeto which life todayis greatlydiffer-
ent from life in the nineteenthor the eighteenthcentury(to select two periods
whose musicmeetswith readyacceptanceby contemporaryaudiences),then it is
in an importantsenseescapist,as is the conventionalprogrammingof the music
of the past. I am not speakingonly of the ugly or negativeaspectsof contempo-
rarylife, but of the climateof it-the feel of beingpartof it, the typicalemotions
and patternsof livingit entails.Beingcontemporaryis not a matteroffollowing
trends and fashions;it is much more a matterof turningone's attention and
actionsto bearupon lifeaswe live it ratherthan to escapeby livingvicariouslyin
the artproductsof anothertime and place.
The concernwith just intonationsavedme from some of the errorsI might
otherwisehavecommitted. The differencesin structuredue to composingwith
an open, infinite field of pitches ratherthan a closed, finite system, such as
twelve-tone equal temperament, guaranteed new shapes and even a new
ambienceof sound. The constant heighteningof contrastbetween the simple
and the complex by the use of simple arithmeticratios, the intensificationof
emotionalaffectivereaction,the inevitableinclusionof microtonallysmallpitch
distinctions,allcontributedto protectingmy musicfrom a too familiarimpres-
sion. I becameinterestedin such questionsas: How would late romanticchro-
maticismhavedevelopedifuntemperedextendedjust intonationhad been used
ratherthan twelve-toneequaltemperament?Would the atonalmovement have
occurred?What if one treatsa just-tuned scalewith atonal techniques?What
would a big-bandjazz style sound like in extendedjust intonation?And most
importantof all, how can the extremecomplexityof contemporarylife be recon-
ciled with the simplifyingand clarifyinginfluencesof systems of order based
upon ratioscales?
This change of aestheticintention coincidedwith my decision to begin to
employ relationshipsbasedupon overtoneshigherthan the sixth partial,rather
than to remain within the triadicallygenerated system I had been using. I
became interestedin the morphologicalanalogybetween structures,such as
scalesbasedupon triadicallygeneratedbasesand the much more complexones
generatedby using higher overtone relationships.This led to a type of com-
plexitywhich, in spite of microtonesand largenumbersof pitches, was organ-
ized by principlessimilarto those of diatonictriadicmusic. This gave me the
possibilityof being complex but neverthelessimmediatelyintelligible.The fact
that ratioscaleorderingfacilitatesrememberingpatternsby ear to a fargreater
extent than intervalscaleordering(of which serialorderingis a familiarexam-
ple) greatlyenhancedthis intelligibility.
 A Tributeto JamesTenney 519

I havesaidin other contextsthat I was concernedto continuewhat I consid-

eredgreattraditionsof Westernmusicbut to purifythem of adulterationsintro-
duced by the use of temperaments.This remainsa centralconcern. My whole
compositionaloutput sinceI beganto use extendedjust intonationmaybe con-
sidereda demonstrationof the enormously variedtechnicaland stylisticpro-
cedureswhich areclarifiedandsubtilizedby the use of extendedjust intonation.
This body ofworks mayalsobe seen asa gradualinitiationinto the new demands
upon the ear,andupon instrumentalandvocaltechniqueswhich this systematic
entails.
To date the best analyticalstudy of my work is RandallShinn's "Ben John-
ston's Fourth StringQuartet" (Perspecties of NewMusic15, no. 2 (Spring-Su-
mmer 1977): 145-73). This, with my article"RationalStructurein Music"
(A.S.U.C. Preeings 11/12:102-18) gives a rathergood introductionto com-
positionaltechniquesI have used. A book by Heidi Von Gunden on my music
was publishedthis year(1986)by ScarecrowPress.It would certainlybe redun-
dantfor me to anticipateits surveyof my work up to 1985. In anycaseI believe
that nothing can betterstatemy caseas a composerthan my compositions.