Darrell Clarke wrote:

> The pianist and composer, Percy Grainger, in his senility, believed
> that music should not be constrained by defined notes. ...
> Since the published "score" would have to be squiggly lines on paper,
> it would be impossible to maintain absolute pitch and very difficult
> for a live musician to follow -- it's not surprising that it wasn't a
> great success!

An interesting conclusion.  I really enjoy listening to shakuhachi
honkyoku, which doesn't use "defined notes" (or perhaps, more accu-
rately, uses defined notes only as guidelines).  The notation for this
_does_ look like a bunch of squiggly lines on paper.

Perhaps I'm getting senile at the ripe old age of 38.  Then again,
those whose native music uses just 12 fixed, equally spaced, notes per
octave are a minority in this world...

Mike Blackwell

 [ Using Alta Vista, I searched for "honkyoku" and found these
 [ explanations at  http://public.most.co.il/~ssharoni/shaku1.htm :
 [
 [ "The Shakuhachi is [a flute] made of Bamboo, a plant with special
 [ botanical characters, which symbolizes Zen. ... The Shakuhachi's
 [ Meditation repertoire, the Honkyoku, is full of Zen-connotations.
 [ The names of some pieces are taken from the world of Zen."
 [
 [ -- Robbie