source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 04:01:03 -0800 Subject: Iranian tuning From: Daniel Wolf <106232.3266@compuserve.com> Bill Alves wrote: ''It is my understanding (which is limited to pre-revolutionary Iran...'' >From what I have heard from Iranian friends here in Germany, the situation for Persian classical music, although now removed from broadcast and print media, is remarkably stable. It seems that classical musicians have been the beneficiaries of protection available through Sufi groups, from whom the theocratic regime has maintained a cautious distance. As in Turkey, the Sufi argue convincingly that the Koranic objection to music is to music as an object of commercial activity, thus music continues to be made but sale and purchase of recordings or notation would be objectionable. Borrowing or receiving notation as a gift is presumably possible, but commercial printing of notation is not.. In Iran, fretted instruments follow two patterns, either a 17 tone scale (Pythagorean, but - skhismas ignored - practically 5 limit just intonation) or in quarter-tones. The latter, I presume, were an urban development, chiefly to facilitate unlimited transposition for radio and recording use, and were initially used as a tempered version of the 17 tone scale. In the US, I have heard both frettings used, in Germany (albeit in a more folk than classical context), only the 17 tone version. If we can get by the censors, it would be very interesting to establish some Internet connection with musicians in Iran. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 28 Dec 1996 17:46 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA04109; Sat, 28 Dec 1996 17:49:37 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA04108 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id IAA02589; Sat, 28 Dec 1996 08:49:34 -0800 Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 08:49:34 -0800 Message-Id: <199612281646.IAA02533@eartha.mills.edu> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu