From: mclaren
Subject: The hideous truth about web searches
for info on the word "microtonality" - post 2 of 2
--
(COMMENT: Predictably, a small vocal minority
will contradict with a great deal of misinformation
every statement made in the last post. Here,
as cold hard proof that no useful info is
yet available to the microtonal beginner on the
as cold hard proof that no useful info is
yet available to the microtonal beginner on the
WWW, is an actual transcript of a typical web
search session:)
Lycos search: microtonality
66557959 unique documents in catalog.
Your query resulted in 27 relevant documents on 3 pages.
Words searched:
microtonality
These words were ignored:
Just Intonation and Microtonality
http://www.ftech.co.uk/~rainbow/just.html
(COMMENT: This is a dead 404 URL)
Music-Research Digest Fri, 2 Feb 90 Volume 5 : Issue 8
Music-Research Digest Fri, 2 Feb 90 Volume 5 : Issue 8
Today's Topics: Call for papers on microtonality
Cognitive Musicology (from: Research Digest Vol. 5, #02)
DARMS parsers/manipulators ...
ftp://cattell.psych.upenn.edu/pub/Music.Research/5.08
(COMMENT: A call for papers on microtonality. Useless
as a source of info.)
EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 13 EMUSIC-L Digest Index to Volume
13 Issue 1 Topics: Musician's dependencies 4-track recommendation
DSP card programming (3 messages) Oberheim Matrix-6 sys-ex ...
http://sunsite.unc.edu/mcmahon/emusic-l/back-issues/vol13/
(COMMENT: An electronic music thread. No discernable relation
to microtonality, except perhaps that one of the synthesizers
mentioned might be retunable.)
mentioned might be retunable.)
CDeMUSIC CDeMUSIC is a worldwide service that gives you
easy, direct-mail access to one of the most comprehensive
selections of compact discs of experimental, exceptional,
and/or electronic music...
http://www.emf.org/emusic.html
(COMMENT: A couple of their discs are microtonal--the
Easley Blackwood "12 Etudes" and the Ivor Darreg
"Detwevulate!"
99% of CDeMUSIC's discs are *not* microtonal.)
ZIA With virtually every major industrial band somehow
interconnected with one another through side projects,
it was only natural for the burgeoning electronic scene
in Boston to also take on ...
http://ftp.std.com/obi/Zines/Chaos.Control/ZIA.html
in Boston to also take on ...
http://ftp.std.com/obi/Zines/Chaos.Control/ZIA.html
(COMMENT: Web page for Elaine Walker's ZIA, a 19-tet
and Bohlen-Pierce tuning industrial band.)
Partch's Legacy. Perhaps the obvious subject for this
opening column is Ben Johnston. I was never one to
avoid the obvious. Johnston is of interest to the
Society as one of the ...
http://www.ftech.net/~rainbow/legacy.html
(COMMENT: A dead 404 URL)
Robert Rich Biography Biography for Robert Rich
Music Style: Progressive electronic, Ethnic fusion,
Ambient, Techno-Tribal Instrument: Synthesizers,
flute, guitar, percussion Building his first ...
flute, guitar, percussion Building his first ...
(COMMENT: Robert Rich web page. Useless as a
source of info on microtonality, though Rich
*is* a microtonalist.)
Interview for ND Magazine Interview for ND Magazine
with Todd Zachritz June 29, 1993 1) First, how did
you become interested in sound construction/music?
Since I started playing music when I was ...
http://www.amoeba.com/rrich/rr/nd.html
(COMMENT: No perceptible relation to microtonality.
He talks about computer musique concrete.)
Frequence Interview Interview with David Bottile
at Frequence 6 March 1995 1) Tell us about your
work in Psychology. I got my university degree
at Frequence 6 March 1995 1) Tell us about your
work in Psychology. I got my university degree
in psychology, focusing on psychophysiology, ...
http://www.amoeba.com/rrich/rr/frequence.html
(COMMENT: No discernible relation to microtonality.
He talks about psychoacoustics and the psychology
of music.)
T Index - MIDI Classics T Index - MIDI Classics
T Product Index TECHNO DANCE/ SMF #3302 SEQ
$26.96 TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS/ SMF #3299 SEQ
$26.96 TRANSPORT/ MAC- nonlin avid protools
deck #1991 S/W ...
(COMMENTS: Ads for DSP software and MIDI
sequences. NO relation whatsoever to
microtonality.)
microtonality.)
ACCA PACKAGES data structure Amsterdam
Catalogue of Composition Algorithms home
page of ACCA home page of Alfa-Informatica
PACKAGES data structure The PACKAGES database
is meant to contain all ...
http://mars.let.uva.nl/ACCA/Database.Packages.html
(COMMENT: Compositional algorithms. NO relation
whatsoever to microtonality.)
Interview with Elliott Sharp [Return to ESTWeb
Home Page] [Return to Interviews Index] An
Elliott Sharp discography exists on the net.
There is also a web page maintained by Extreme
Records. An ...
http://www.ultraviolet.com./zines/est/intervs/sharp.html
http://www.ultraviolet.com./zines/est/intervs/sharp.html
(COMMENT: What a shock--this person is actually a
microtonalist. Along with Elaine Walker's ZIA
and the EMF page, that's 3 references that
have *anything* to do with microtonality so far...)
The Noise (Festival) Of American Music The Noise
(Festival) Of American Music Normally, Sacramento
is a pretty sleepy town when it comes to music
and art. I guess I'm talking about culture. Being...
http://beercity.com/heckler/noise.html
(COMMENT: No relation whatsoever to microtonality.
Industrial music festival in Sacramento.)
Industrial Prehistory: Anti-Music ii.Anti-Music
Although it would be nice to trace back the idea
of using noise as an element in music to the
Although it would be nice to trace back the idea
of using noise as an element in music to the
futurist Luigi Russolo's manifesto, The Art of Noises...
http://www.schwa.org/zines/est/articles/prehist5.html
(COMMENT: An industrial music essay. No relation
whatsoever to microtonality.)
SoundCanvas User's Group WWW Help Centre
SCUG - WWW Help Centre! Mr. Web Counter says that
have been helped since June 9, 1996. Roland Go to
Roland's Home Page
http://www.interlog.com/~stilpaul/scug/help/help.html
(COMMENT: Technical details on the Roland Sound Canvas
card. Only the most tenuous connection to microtonality,
since the Sound Canvas can theoretically be retuned. No
info on how to tune it to various temperaments or just
intonations, though.)
info on how to tune it to various temperaments or just
intonations, though.)
BG - What's New Viol o Page Guitar Page What's New
Index: Badi Assad in Boston That's really hot,
Mannis!!! If you are in the Boston area, don't miss it!!!
http://www.cce.ufpr.br/~ofraga/whatsnew.html
(COMMENT: Boston thrash punk bands. No relation whatsoever
to microtonality.)
Date: Monday, 08-Apr-96 01:20:20 GMT Last-Modified:
Thursday, 26-Oct-95 18:28:55 GMT Content-type:
text/html Content-length: 8213 Music 315 Music in
the 20th Century: Music and Technology MUSC ...
http://orpheus.tamu.edu/music.program.web/computer.
music/Mustech.html
(COMMENT: Course offering from Texas A & M University.
(COMMENT: Course offering from Texas A & M University.
The course mentions Harry Partch as a footnote. This is
what you call "getting desperate" in the search for the
word "microtonality"...)
Events - May 1994 To Do & Notice - May 1994 May 1
Special Exhibitions Science Stuff You Can Do with
Beakman and Jax Last Day Based on the internationally
syndicated Sunday cartoon strip that ...
http://www.exploratorium.edu//./events/may_1994.html
(COMMENT: No relation whatsoever to microtonality. How
did this get in here?)
Silence Digest Volume 1 Number 27 Received:
(from daemon@localhost) by zoom.bga.com (8.6.12/8.6.10)
id JAA06515 for silence-digest-outgoing; Thu, 20 Jul
1995 09:55:20 -0500 Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995...
id JAA06515 for silence-digest-outgoing; Thu, 20 Jul
1995 09:55:20 -0500 Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995...
http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt/Cage/cage0127.html
(COMMENT: A webzine devoted to the inept charlatan
John Cage. No relation whatsoever to microtonality.
How did this get in here?)
Events - June 1994 To Do & Notice June 94 June
1 Interactive Sound Studio Special Exhibition and
Summer Festival Through September 5 A three-month-long
festival of sound and music (previously ...
http://www.ylem.org/./events/june_1994.html
(COMMENT: An ad for some interactive museum exhibit.
No connection whatsoever with microtonality.
How did this get in here?)
List of microtonal music on CD Microtonal music on
List of microtonal music on CD Microtonal music on
CD This list contains microtonal/xenharmonic/non-12
music on CD only and no works in 12-note just intonation,
12-note in historical temperaments...
ftp://mills.edu/ccm/tuning/papers/discs.html
(COMMENT: At long last, something informative...this is
my and Manuel Op de Coul's list of microtonal CDs at
the Mills site.)
Bibliography on synthesizers, Midi, Computer and
Electronic Music Bibliography on synthesizers, Midi,
Computer and Electronic Music Version: $Id:
bibliography,v 1.39 1996/02/05 14:36:15 piet Exp ...
http://www.ircam.fr/biblio/bibliography.html
(COMMENT: No relation whatsoever to microtonality.
How did this get in here?)
(COMMENT: No relation whatsoever to microtonality.
How did this get in here?)
ACCA: List of Tools Amsterdam Catalogue of Composition
Algorithms home page of ACCA home page of Alfa-Informatica
List of Tools by and reproduced with permission of
Leonidas Hepis LIST OF TOOLS ...
http://homepage.interaccess.com/~beckwith/d0004/s0000326.htm
(COMMENT: Again, this has nothing to do with microtonality,
and we've seen it before.)
(COMMENT: And b-dat b-dat b-dat b-dat's all, folks!
What an incredible list of non sequitur junk info, eh?
Out of ALL of these references, only 4 had anything
to do with microtonality: [1] Manuel's and my list of
microtonal music on CD, [2] The EMF catalog containing
a couple of microtonal CDs, [3] the Elliott Sharp website,
[4] Elaine Walker's ZIA website.
a couple of microtonal CDs, [3] the Elliott Sharp website,
[4] Elaine Walker's ZIA website.
*Notice that the most useful starting point on microtonality
anywhere on the web--the microtonal bibliography at mills--
was NOT found.*
Good work!
So the search engine turned up VAST amounts of irrelevant
*crap,* but COULDN'T FIND the single most useful source
of info on microtonality on the web.
Hey...that sounds about right.
Web pages on algorithmic composition and industrial music...
a bibliography of books on synthesizers...a "special
exhibition of science stuff" at a museum...
You know, as long as the Lycos search engine was
finding irrelevant trivia in its search for "microtonality"
on the web and *ignoring* the single most useful
source of info *about* microtonality on the web,
why not just go all the way?
I mean, why do things by halves?
why not just go all the way?
I mean, why do things by halves?
Why didn't LYCOS just spit up a list of URLs at random?
The Sudan Web Site...Sex life of frogs web page...
the Chrysler web page...these non sequitur websites
have exactly as much to do with microtonality as
the actual sites puked up by the LYCOS search engine.
Worst of all, this is TYPICAL of the results
for ALL search engines.
Naturally a few of you will vociferously claim
that all these statements are untrue, etc., etc.
Alas, there seem to be a handful of forum
subscribers dedicated to purveying misinformation
and canards whenever and wherever possible. The
brutal fact is that the only way to weed out all
the junk info and bad hits containing websites
irrelevant to microtonality is to refine your
search for the word "microtonality" in such
a sophisticated way that you'd have to already
search for the word "microtonality" in such
a sophisticated way that you'd have to already
know what you're looking for. In short, all the
search engines on the web generate useful info
on microtonality *ONLY* if the searcher *already
knows* exactly what s/he's looking for.
But this is *never* going to be the case for
a microtonal beginner. Thus, newcomers to
microtonality are left high and dry--left to
wander for themselves in a blizzard of junkthink,
guitar ads, industrial music reviews and
web pages touting MIDI software which has
*nothing* whatsoever to do with microtonality.
Ladies and gentlemen, you'd have better luck
examining tea leaves in your quest for useful
information about microtonality than in searching
the world wide web.
--mclaren
