source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 17 Sep 1995 08:07:48 -0700 Subject: RE: Iranian music From: Johnny Reinhard I would propose that the lens we look through in analyzing the similarities/relationships between musics of antiquity be aimed at whether or not the 4/3 is prominent. The tetrachords of ancient Greece kept the 4/3 inviolable, even as they could be connected for over 2 octaves and could modulate. Similarly they serve as pillars to Iranian music as recently pointed out by Mr. Moradi in his latest post. Likewise, Bulgarian music maintains this 4/3 essence, even as smaller intervals are reputed to have no proper names. In Iran the Dastgah is 4/3 concerned, which is then part of a larger Maqam. Persian/Greek/Thracian (now Bulgarian) were connected musical cultures that counted on the stability of the 4/3. The 3/2 as a basic building block for scales, as 3-limit just intonation, as an ingredient in the aforementioned systems, is paramount in many other musics. These include Babylonia and Sumer (according to tablets found over a decade ago and reported in the California press), European Middle Ages (probably of Celt origin), much of Chinese music, etc. Our inherited 12ET is a temperament of this interval, even as it is 11th comma meantone, a homogenization of 12 well-tempered or unequal tuning (for reasons of performers travelling for concerts with new orchestras), an accomadation within 16 cents of 5-limit just intonation, etc. Johnny Reinhard American Festival of Microtonal Music 318 East 70th Street, Suite 5FW New York, New York 10021 USA (212)517-3550/fax (212) 517-5495 reinhard@ios.com Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 17 Sep 1995 21:03 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id MAA14509; Sun, 17 Sep 1995 12:03:01 -0700 Date: Sun, 17 Sep 1995 12:03:01 -0700 Message-Id: <950917190053_71670.2576_HHB66-1@CompuServe.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu