Brass Performance and Pedagogy Book

A fascinating read, providing a general and historic introduction into the reasoning behind Partch's investigations into and refinement of a more natural tuning system than the current standard equal temperament that we have been stuck to pretty much since the invention of the keyboard. The composer's written style is very similar to his natural speech, almost musical itself and a delight to read, at least in the earlier chapters.

The descriptions of the tuning system itself can become quite complex with numerous ratios, though the idea is clear enough that most of these sections are just trying to place the maths into a context that fits within contemporary music (e.g. this ratio is equivalent to a slightly flat G#).

A highlight, for me, were the detailed descriptions of the various instruments he has built over the years in order to be able to play the music. The only low point in the book was the chapter describing all the alternative attempts to break free of equal temperament using microtonal scales of various sorts. As this come straight after he has described his own means of dealing with the issue, it seems rather redundant.