source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 22:02:16 -0700 Subject: Indian music From: Aline Surman My office keeping skills are minimal, so I'll have to paraphrase this next phrase rather than quote it. It's from a book called "Sonic Design," and I'm afraid I don't know the author. When referring to Indian tunings, they demonstrated with a 27 note to the octave scale, rather than the usual 22 srutis I am used to seeing. Then, they pointed out that each note was more of an "area", rather than a "fixed pitch"...the performer was at liberty to use several different "notes" to express the mood of the raga he/she was playing. This makes perfect sense to me...notation is a tricky affair at times, and in many cases, such as bending a note, there is absolutely NO way to tell a person where to put that note, since it is a matter of feeling and expression...and, this, of course, is where real music differs from theory. I've been playing blues for 30 years, and it is impossible to tell someone where to play a pitch when they bend; you have to DO it; yet, I know when it's wrong, and so do my students. Again, it's a feeling. I truly believe that only the practitioners of a style of music are qualified to be authorities on what makes it tick. That's why there is so much speculation on Indian tunings by westerners, but little authoritative knowledge...many western theorists do not actually play Indian music, so they're approaching it as outsiders. To me, the concept of no final "pitch" for a note is a lot like so called "quantum" theory, where only probabilities are certain, and our own participation in looking for an electron can affect where it turns up. Again, all improvised music is like this, to some extent. Even though flamenco, for example, is in 12 eq, no one can tell you what to play next on your instrument, so notation is only showing you what happened at that particular time; next time, you'll play something else. Each style is a language, deep and unique. To live it is to speak it truthfully. Again, I would love to see more great music in our field. There's an awful lot of great 12 eq musicians out there, and I am hoping that the folks who actually play instruments in other tunings will develop their playing and composing skills to the highest possible level. Most people in the world just look at you funny when you say "microtonal," so I believe our work is just beginning. Yet, with powerful, profound music to back up our theories, I am convinced we can help people hear that we are on to something valid, and worthwhile. That's why microdoodling bugs me so much; I'd much rather hear someone play their ass off in 12 eq than to poot around in a rudimentary way on an instrument, trying to convince me that "just" (pure) tunings are "superior" because they are better in tune. As the level of musicianship rises in other tuning systems, things will improve. Until then, a lot of folks think that microtonal music is just a bunch of bleeps and bloops, made by guys at big universities with white coats...Hstick Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 6 May 1997 13:46 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA05866; Tue, 6 May 1997 13:46:38 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA05800 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id EAA26388; Tue, 6 May 1997 04:44:36 -0700 Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 04:44:36 -0700 Message-Id: <970506074218_1289508024@emout05.mail.aol.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu