I'm enormously conflicted about microtonality. To my own ear it always sounds merely out of tune. This is how I hear Harry Partch and other microtonalists. It's not because I don't hear the intervals microtonally but because I have a natural tendency to place those intervals within a functionally tonal system. Can it be that we as a species naturally gravitate toward the lower partials of the harmonic spectrum? Is that why, after thousands of hours of listening to atonal music I still dream tonally?

Not only that but it would seem to be a nightmare to get players to accurately play the microtonal intervals that I would put on the page. In my experience it is extremely difficult to get players to play just plain in tune--no matter now good they are. Microtonal minimalism would be horrendously difficult to rehearse and perform. It's easy to smudge a piece of Elliott Carter intonation-wise (who hears it? I do, but that's another story)but try playing Steve Reich with anything but perfect intonation and it sounds awful.

For these reasons I don't think microtonality will ever be accepted as the norm, but I'm so glad Harry Partch and others don't agree with me.