[linux-audio-user] Very new and unfinished

[Chuckk Hubbard]

On 12/19/06, lanas <lanas at securenet.net> wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Dec 2006 10:10:32 +0100
> Thorsten Wilms <t_w_ at freenet.de> écrivait:
>
> > The chinese touch could be emphasized by working
> > out the pentatonic character, I guess.
>
> I've been listening to some Chinese music recently and one
> characteristic that's found here and there is the sliding of many
> notes towards what they end up to be.  Like when painting a wall and
> doing a faux finish: a base coloured coat is applied and then a paler
> coat is put using a rag or somesuch.  The target note is known but the
> instrument works its way towards it.  Surely this is due to the nature
> of some of the traditional Chinese instruments.

http://www.chrysalis-foundation.org/China's_Ch'in.htm
One thing most people don't know is that occasionally the 8/7
frequency ratio came up on the Ch'in.  If your finger is where the 8th
harmonic would be, i.e. 1/8th of the string, and you press down to
stop the string, the string length goes to 7/8 of full length,
producing the 8/7 frequency, which goes against everything else in the
system.  This link has lots of info.

>
> Apart from that, throwing a good amount of semitones would at least
> convey a cliché Middle Eastern mood.  That'd be fun with the Alps
> background.

This book is one of the best resources on Islamic tunings I've found:
http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~larry/published_articles/divisions_of_the_tetrachord/index.html
Mostly focusing on Greek tunings, but also addressing the alterations
the Islamic theorists made to the Greek systems.
Also,
http://www.chrysalis-foundation.org/Al-Farabi's_'Uds.htm
(I skip down past all the writing to the tables usually)
Al Farabi was the man to know.
I know most people aren't interested in tuning, but for those who are
curious, check it out.

-Chuckk


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