[LAU] Re: That must suck. For me it's about beauty--musicisjustone path

[Paul Davis]

On Thu, 2007-04-05 at 14:19 -0400, Charles Linart wrote:
> When I jammed with traditional musicians in Thailand, Korea, and
> Japan, they literally cringed if I squeezed out a "fa" or a "ti" in
> their do-re-mi-so-la constructions.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale
> 
> Would be interested to learn of more "notes" in subcontinent music.

what we consider to be microtonal variations around a note are not
thought of that way in indian classical music. they have up to 15
subdivisions to a whole note step, and although its true that many of
those are too subtle to be considered actual distinct notes, many of
them are. if you sit down and listen+watch during a carnatic concert,
the audience will be swooning and wildly enthusiastic at the most subtle
melodic "intonation" because in that music, such "microtones" really
conveny immense meaning. and its not like cheering on a yodeller or
applauding the vibrato of Kiri Te Kanawa.

it is true that there is some debate about the real significance of
"microtones". if you look at the most common ragas, most of them are
totally grounded in tones that a western musician would recognize. this
has led some to claim that microtones are just a performance aspect, not
a core musical element. my own feeling is that this is wrong.

> Any references?   The Indian and Pakistani melodies I've heard sound
> pretty confined to scales and notes -- exotic to be sure, but still
> the same basic sonic building blocks.
> 
> There are a lot of different tunings and a lot of (approaching
> infinite) different resonances, but it's still the same 12 notes in at
> least 99 percent of cases.  Maybe Australian aboriginal music falls
> outside of the normal notes/scales, but I've never heard anything else
> that does, including Tibetan singing bowls.

the book to read is "Music of the Whole Earth" by David & Carol Reck.
its wonderful on many different levels, despite being a bit superficial
about everything. the way in which it simultaneously links together
musical traditions from around the world and also shows how they differ
is something i haven't seen elsewhere.