Klarinet Archive - Posting 000185.txt from 2001/12

From: Bear Woodson <bearwoodson@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Why CFM is called "Functional".
Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 14:40:13 -0500

Hello, Klarinet List.

I'm days behind in answering E-Mails, and have
about 60 more to go. They are coming in faster than
I can answer them. So I need to be brief.

I think Mr. Lo Presti (1933-1986) was a genius
who deserves to have his music become more famous.
He had some works published and sold by Theodore
Presser, but there were many, including at least 2 sym-
phonies, that are rotting on hand-written velum pages.
I'd like to get his music into computer print and played
around the world. (The money should go to his widow
and grown children.) It is a crime that this genius could
be forgotten by history. It needs to be fixed.

As far as Diabetes goes, I take 6 pills a day, but the
real problem was that I was born with a rare genetic
syndrome, that severely damages the liver in infancy.
Each condition worsens the other, and their is no cure
for either. I've been to many specialists since I was a
child, and to more since the last 4 1/2 years of Adult
Onset Diabetes. Anyone who has both bad liver and
diabetes will get black-outs. I've had nearly 30 in 4
years, any next one could be fatal, so I'll be lucky if
I'm still here in 3 years.

Most males with my liver syndrome are dead by
age 30 - 35, so at 47, I am one of the oldest on re-
cord, because I phobicly avoid all liver-damaging
medications, alcohol, Tylenol, etc. One doctor thinks
that because I'm so careful, I could surprize everyone
again, and out-live the odds on both of these cond-
itions. Caution got me this far, and it comes auto-
matically now, since it's the only way I know to be.
I'm doing the best that I can, but it isn't fun.

The CFM, Chromatic Functional Modality, System
is the invention of hard work based initially by Paul
Hindemith, developed mostly on the teachings Howard
Hanson, and modified by Ronald Lo Presti. It is called
"Modality" because that allows for "any kind of scale".
It is called "Chromatic" because too many 12-Tone
Bigots used to mock it, assuming that it was Only for
Diatonic Modal Music, like the Raphe Vaughan-Williams
"Greensleeve", etc. It is called "Functional" because the
music has "both acoustic and emotional 'pull' from one
chord to the next", which Pure 12-Tone wants to avoid,
and therefore in jealousy, tried to exterminate. I agree
it's a long term, but it was clear enough to the 12-Toners.

Recently Karen McGale Fiehler had her Dissertation
on me approved at ASU, Arizona State University near
Phoenix. Their 6-Professor Doctoral Committee searched
for former students of Hindemith, Hanson and Lo Presti,
but all are either dead, retired, were never composers, or
don't use or remember much about how Chromatic Func-
tional Modality worked, so I'm getting more requests to
write the first text. (I don't know how I'll get the time
to be well organized enough to write a succinct text,
without a lot of redundancies.)

Similar harmonic systems are in use by Theorists
from Russia, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Britain, all
over the USA, etc., just based on the E-Mails sent
to me, but none seem as well organized as CFM. It
took 300 years from the beginnings of Tonality until
Rameau explained it in 1722, so I think it is still
evolving.

Somewhere in all these E-Mails, I want to get back
to writing some music. Oh, well.

Bear Woodson
Composer, Tucson, Arizona, USA
"Bear Woodson" <BearWoodson@-----.Com>
"Bear Woodson" <BearWoodson@-----.Com>

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