source file: mills2.txt Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 14:30:29 -0800 Subject: Iranian tuning From: alves@osiris.ac.hmc.edu (Bill Alves) John Chalmers wrote: >I've seen two different descriptions of Iranian music, >one in terms of commas, limmas and whole tones, the other in 1/4-tones. >Unfortunately, "1/4 tone" is also used generically by some authors >for any sort of interval less than a tempered semitone. Ella Zonis in _Classical Persian Music_ (Harvard UP, 1973) characterizes these as opposing poles in a continuing controversy among Iranian music theorists. On the one hand there are the Pythagoreans, as represented by Mehdi Barkechli (in _La musique traditionelle de l'Iran_, Tehran, 1963) who divide the 9/8 whole tone into a comma (24 cents) and two limmas (256/243 or 90 cents each). The diatonic semitones are not divided. As John shows in _Divisions of the Tetrachord_, this results in a 17-tone scale. Barkechli claims that this scale is both a theoretical and actual description of practice. More common seems to be the 24TET point of view, though, according to Zonis, the theoreticians in that camp recognize that the actual tuning will vary from player to player. I don't know if there has been any research into the actual tunings used by players since this book. By the way, I wouldn't characterize the _radif_ as the Iranian equivalent of a "fake book." Traditional Iranian improvisation is based on elaborate variations of skeletal melodies known as gusheh-ha (sing. gusheh). All the gusheh-ha of traditional Iranian improvisation are enumerated and the entire corpus is known as the radif. The embellishment of a particular gusheh will depend on a variety of factors, including what's idiomatic for the instrument, and, of course, the taste of the performer. There was a move in the twentieth century to write down the radif in Western notation, and the government at one time actually convened a panel of experts to standardize the radif. However, no one could agree on the exact form of each of the gusheh. Therefore the panel ended unsuccessfully, and several musicians have gone on to publish their own versions of the radif. It is my understanding (which is limited to pre-revolutionary Iran) that these books only serve as reference works. Comparing them to fake books (which, admittedly, also contain skeletal versions of music to serve as the basis for improvisation) is likely to evoke images of Iranian players reading from a volume on a music stand, which is hardly the case. (Perhaps with a brandy snifter beside them stuffed with tips :) Bill ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ Bill Alves email: alves@hmc.edu ^ ^ Harvey Mudd College URL: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ ^ ^ 301 E. Twelfth St. (909)607-4170 (office) ^ ^ Claremont CA 91711 USA (909)621-8360 (fax) ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 28 Dec 1996 01:13 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA03945; Sat, 28 Dec 1996 01:16:28 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA03944 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id QAA00792; Fri, 27 Dec 1996 16:16:25 -0800 Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 16:16:25 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu