2025 REGISTRATION IS OPEN!
Join us as we study the ancient art of musical tuning, approaching from the angle of fun and friendship. Sing rounds around the campfire; participate in pop-up performance ensembles; and spend time playing the udderbot, an unusual and ethereal cross between a flute and a theremin.
Xenharmonic Music Summer Camp, returning to Gesundheit! Institute in July 2025, is a time and place for musicians to create and share new, oddly-tuned musics together.
What is Xenharmonic Music? What is Xenharmonic Praxis?
Through a series of historical accidents, Western society’s music—instruments, history, theory, practice, pedagogy, consciousness—has come to be dominated by a single tuning system, often called “twelve tone equal temperament.” This dominance is so pervasive that it is often completely invisible. Students of music who wonder, “Why these notes on the piano, and not some others?” are all too often answered with “Those are the only correct notes—anything else is out of tune!”
A world of more satisfying answers to this question unfolds to those looking for it: millennia-old traditions of music tuned differently; surprising inquiries & insights into how humans hear; novel systems that twist the rules of music upside-down. This camp is for those who want to dream up and realize new, thoughtfully-tuned music and contexts which support it.
We use the term ‘xenharmonic’ after microtonal pioneer Ivor Darreg, to refer to these unfamiliar-yet-hospitable musical terrains.
We use the term ‘praxis’ after radical educator Paolo Freire, to refer to an ongoing dialectic between theory and practice, between action and reflection, each process informing and completing the other.
Joining those terms together into ‘Xenharmonic Praxis’, we want to minimize burnout and strike a harmonious balance between active musical creation and the growth that can only happen through contemplation.
We envision a Xenharmonic Music Summer Camp where musicians from a variety of backgrounds converge and suspend the need for “one true answer” for long enough to get deep into new, yet-unpopular proposals; where distinct roles of audience, performer, designer, composer, director are inhabited temporarily, not reserved for experts or assumed as a pre-determined identity.
JI Praxis Choir—Learn theory by singing it! Experience the deeply healing art of intoning musical chords related by simple mathematical ratios. Let your math phobias melt away in the gorgeous blends of the human voice (the most ancient of instruments) with a curriculum designed to break your ears out of the equal-tempered jail.
Udderbot Deep Dive—Improve your lung power with this remarkable wind instrument developed first right here at Gesundheit! Includes an udderbot handmade by the inventor just for you—just add water.
Pop-Up Performance Ensembles—For those interested in working towards public performance. We will form groups to prepare each other’s musical compositions, perform them in concert, and hold recording sessions.
Rounds Around the Campfire—A growing number of rounds, both microtonal and normally-tuned, have sprung up as byproduct of our musical studies. We invite you into our songbook of strange and lovely harmonies, and to bring your own song into the mix.
Facilitators and presenters include:
Jacob A. Barton (b. 1985, ASCAP)—is an accomplished composer and inventor with a deep passion for thoughtfully-tuned music. A graduate of Rice University and a BMI Student Composer Award recipient, his works push the boundaries of microtonal practice and theory. Barton’s influences range from the classicist formalism of Moondog, to the jovial experimentalism of Ivor Darreg, to the cybernetic openness of Herbert Brün and the School for Designing a Society. A board member of UnTwelve, Barton is an active leader in the xenharmonic music community, having organized a series of summer camps and compiled The Sagittal Songbook: Xenharmonic Songs for One to Five Voices.
Additional presenters to be announced.
You are! All self-described musical people are eligible to attend. Every attempt will be made to accommodate different learning styles and comfort levels with music theory, music notation, and improvisation.
Price | $2000. This covers tuition, room, all meals, transportation (pick up & return), sleep journal, mindfulness breathing lamp, and Muse S Headband. Be Prepared to pay your $500 nonrefundable deposit to confirm your participation.
Where? | The program takes place on the Gesundheit Institute’s 320 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with mountain trails, waterfalls, extensive gardens, and a lake. Gesundheit’s project-in-progress is a unique model of holistic health care that will serve as an inspiration for us to coax each other to dream big—in our personal lives, in our community involvement, and in our contributions to global peace and justice
Facilities | Gesundheit lays on a pristine tract of farm and mountain land in rural West Virginia. The dacha, with its onion domes and Russian architecture, serves as a residence and meeting place, and has won awards for its unique design.
Meeting Spaces | Gesundheit Institute offers many unique meeting spaces and classrooms. There are quiet spaces for meditation or study and large rooms to house workshops and classes. Gesundheit hosts events focused on education—at the site of the future hospital and elsewhere.
Accommodations | Accommodations are in dormitory-style group settings. There are laundry machines at Gesundheit that you can use. We offer very slow WIFI (cannot download, cannot use skype, sorry!). Clean sheets and towels are provided.
Travel | Gesundheit staff will shuttle people to and from the train station in White Sulphur Springs and the airport in Lewisburg on the first and last day of the course.
⇒ If you would like to sponsor a tuition please reach out.
2025 REGISTRATION IS OPEN! Tuition is $2000.
Space for this course is limited. We register participants on a first come first serve basis and Gesundheit! courses are known to fill up quickly. If you would like to participate, here’s how:
Registration consists of 2 parts.
We look forward to having you in this beautiful community on the land this summer. Blessings.
Contact is Jacob Barton: utterdance@gmail.com for more details and for a brief check-in before registration.
Gesundheit hosts events focused on education—at the site of the future hospital and elsewhere.
Gesundheit offers an inspiring natural environment, sleeping arrangements, meeting spaces...
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