source file: mills3.txt Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 17:45:18 +0100 Subject: Arabs and the 17-tone equal From: Gregg Gibson A few suppose that the Arab vocalists must use an approximation to the 17-tone equal, because they use close intervals better described as a 1/3 tone than a 1/4 tone, and because Arab instruments are often tuned to a neutral third intermediate between minor and major third. But Arab singers certainly use a minor and major third closer to just than the dissonant minor and major thirds of the 17-tone equal, so this opinion seems farfetched. The 19-tone equal much better suits the - scanty and inconclusive - evidence. But 19-tone equal has no netural third, which is well-attested for Arab instruments. It is a problem. I do not even read Arabic, so I am conscious of my amateur status in this respect. Nevertheless, determined to outrage someone or other, I trudge on. The Arabs seem to be as confused as anyone regarding the intonation of their singers. The modern Arab theorists have done their utmost to impose the 24-tone equal for instrumental music. But Arab singers cheerfully (if that is the right word) go their own way, and certainly do not regularly, deliberately use intervals as close as 50 cents. Also, this music is full of glissandi, and musical temperament is of little relevance to that kind of ornament. So perhaps their system, rather like Western Rock music, amounts to a mixed system, with instruments and singers on a very different melodic wavelength. Rock musicians seem to find a way to live with this, though they certainly do not do so _deliberately_, as a conscious device of art, and it is preposterous to assert that this is a great advantage to them. It is also possible that Arab singers actually can use the more conjunct intervals of the 24-tone equal, excluding the 50-cent interval. But this would exclude the enharmonic... Insofar as one wishes to preserve enharmonic melodies without eliminating the consonant thirds, there can be no choice except the 19-tone equal. It is true that the circa 150-cent interval, reasonably well-attested for Arab melody - though under what degree of instrumental tyranny or tutelage I know not - is not present in enneadecaphony. This however is the _only_ interval outside the 19-tone system that has much chance of being accurately singable; the neutral third is too dissonant, atonal and disjunct to avoid confusing it with the minor third (which it resembles in artistic effect more than the major third). But the circa 150-cent interval is quite conjunct and also happens to fall almost exactly between the melodic centers of 16:15 & 10:9, so, as I have noticed in my brief treatment of 31-tone equal, it does seem possible that a singer could learn to definitely ascribe a definite, independent melodic significance to this one interval, even though there is a _great_ deal of overlap between this interval and the diatonic semitone below and the minor tone above. Here then is a limited example where singers _may_ be able to partly escape the powerful forces leading them to the melodic division of the octave into 1/3 tones and the 19-tone equal. I think I have mentioned that this interval of about 150 cents occurs in the 31-tone equal, where it corresponds to a 4/5 tone. Note however that this interval is perfectly unadapted to harmony, which the modern Arabs and Indians often seek to imitate. My own personal opinion is that Arab (and Indian) vocal melodies are far, far more likely to be exactly recognizable in the 19-tone equal than in the 17- 22- or 24-tone divisions, in despite of the troublesome matter of the 150-cent interval. I would never claim that all singers throughout the world necessarily sing in 19-tone equal (such a claim almost carries its own refutation) but only that they necessarily _tend_ toward this system unless deliberately, rigorously trained to use different pitch classes for melody. Even then, I doubt that singers can be trained to sing arbitrary intervals in consonant or disjunct dissonant melody. Such arbitrary intervals are confined to the realm of the conjunct dissonances, that is to say, to the intervals narrower than 6:5. SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: "Brian B." Subject: Re: Steel guitarists' tuning names PostedDate: 18-12-97 18:49:19 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $MessageStorage: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 18-12-97 18:47:10-18-12-97 18:47:11,18-12-97 18:46:48-18-12-97 18:46:48 DeliveredDate: 18-12-97 18:46:48 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2 9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C1256571.0061B2D2; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 18:49:04 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA01498; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 18:49:19 +0100 Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 18:49:19 +0100 Message-Id: <9712181749.AA01498@ns.ezh.nl> Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA00347 Received: (qmail 2645 invoked from network); 18 Dec 1997 09:49:14 -0800 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 18 Dec 1997 09:49:14 -0800 Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu