source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 18:39:06 -0700 Subject: Differential notes. Baka pygmies polyphonies From: vincent.kenis@infoboard.be (Vincent Kenis) Hello I'm new to this list. I enjoy it very much even if often I can't follow - I'm just a self-taught musician. I'd like to propose to your commentaries a hypothesis on scales used in Baka Pygmies vocal polyphony. Here goes. Ethnomusicologists generally agree to say that Pygmy musics use anhemitonic pentatonic scales, but opinions diverge when it gets more specific. Pierre Sall=E9e believed the Bibayak Pygmies of Gabon used a equipentatonic scale until his use of a Synclavier music computer lead him to rather consider "a scale taking in account the presence of perfect fifths, whose principle remains to be found" (communication to the Congress of Ethnomusicology in Belfast, 1985). Unfortunately he died the same year. Simha Arom's pioneer research on scales in Central Africa involve testing different scale models by asking musicians to play them on a transformed DX7 synthesizer. In these experiences, the equipentatonic scale was the most frequently accepted as a valid model. On the other hand, pitch measurements he made on xylophones in the same area consistently suggest scales with three different types of basic intervals. Besides, in a series of publications (Analyse Musicale 23, 1991) about his research, he mentions a hypothesis "trying to assimilate the studied scales to a pentatonic system constructed not from the cycle of fifths, but from the series of natural harmonics". When in 1989 I stayed two months among the Baka Pygmies, I had no theoretical preconceptions about their music; I just enjoyed it as an enthusiast and attentive listener. And when back in Europe I tried to do some "fake Baka music" using a Akai S1000 sampler and Logic software, I had never heard of Pierre Sall=E9e's experiences - my idea was just to have some fun. But soon I realized that trying to understand what was going on in Baka music was much more fun than using is as an ingredient for some superficial musical collage. I came across a hypothesis about Baka tonal organization which as far as I and Simha Arom know is original, but confirms the three hypotheses I quoted above : three different basic intervals, presence of perfect fifths, and influence of the series of harmonics. My view is that the scale specific to the Baka vocal polyphonies consists of non fixed degrees constantly trying to establish between them simple ratios, in such a way that two degrees sung together produce a differential note which is the common "root" of these two notes considered as "harmonics". I believe these differential notes to be consciously produced and considered as musically significant in Baka music. I even suspect the melody formed by their succession to be the matrix of the polyphony - different variations from the same patterns producing the same "virtual bass line". According to my measurements, the basic intervals used seem to be 7/6, or 267 cents (small minor third), 8/7, or 231 cents (large second), and 9/8, or 204 cents (whole tone). If intervals between degrees are determined by differential notes which can change according to the musical context, the polyphony can produce intervals very close from each other, but with a different function : 7/6 + 8/7 (498 cents, the perfect fourth) is only a few cents apart from 8/7 + 8/7 (462 cents) or 7/6 + 9/8 (471 cents); 7/6+7/6+8/7+8/7+9/8 (1200 cents, the octave), from 7/6+8/7+8/7+8/7+9/8 (1164 cents), etc. This could explain the often quoted presence of "major sevenths" in Pygmy polyphonies, which have no place in a anhemitonic pentatonic scale. In my opinion, this also raises the question whether it is pertinent to use the term "pentatonic" for a music in which the role of the octave isn't necessarily the same as in ours. I mentioned Simha Arom's field experiences in which the equipentatonic scale model was the most often accepted. This could imply its role as the most widespread "mental tuning template", but alternatively, and this is my guess, this could just say that the equipentatonic scale is the most acceptable static representation of a scale evolving dynamically. Come to think of it, couldn't we say exactly the same thing of the equal-tempered twelve tone scale ? Doesn't the intonation of a classical string quartet also constantly evolve in time according to the musical context ? Isn't that musical context largely dependent of the human ear's physiological preference for simple ratios over complex ones ? And if there is such a thing as a "mental tuning template" shouldn't we consider these microtonal shifting strategies as a part of it? As said before I am not a specialist and the above might contain lots of evidence, rubbish and confusion. Still I'd like very much to have reactions, advice, books references etc. Or maybe, for a start, just an answer to this : has anybody heard of a music tradition where differential notes are consciously used as a part of the music ? Thank You. Vincent Kenis Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 24 Oct 1995 16:34 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id HAA02655; Tue, 24 Oct 1995 07:33:51 -0700 Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 07:33:51 -0700 Message-Id: <9510240731.aa28983@cyber.cyber.net> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu