source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1996 22:20:11 -0800 Subject: more of the same From: neil.haverstick@csst.com (Neil Haverstick) Haverstick here...I saw a very interesting CD/booklet package at Tower Records today...put out by Bart Hopkin of Experimental Musical Instruments mag fame, it is a project about just those weird ass instruments and folks that he always features in the mag...it loked very cool, and I believe I'll go back and get it. It had a great name, which I wrote down somewhere...also, I have gotten the impression over the years, that there seems to be a lot of unanswered questions about just what Indian (and other modally oriented folks} musicians are doing when they play...perhaps this is because no Indian master has ever yet written a major book explaining the subject in English; perhaps , also, it has to do with some other, deeper issues, issues which may not be so easy to put on paper, and that you can only understand if you are a participant in the tradition. But, whoever put the great quote "Play in tune or go to hell" on the board left us a great clue, at least: if playing in tune is so important, then just how far away from basic, powerful, naturally pure intervals are they likely to get? If they stay within the parameters of the harmonically real, ratio based intervals, than is it wrong to make certain assumptions about their system? Does anyone out tjhere really know what's going on with Indian, Turkish, Persion, and other such traditions? Or, is it mostly speculation and mathematical ideas, which may or may not be what's "really" happening? I do know that blues is MIGHTY hard to teach in any "logical" fashion, becaus within a loose framework of 3 chords and the 6 tone blues scale, there's a whole lot of room for individual interpretation as to where to put a note, for instance, when you bend the 4th up to the 5th...what is the FEELING you're trying to communicate, that is the issue, and believe me, blues is both profound and microtonal as anything. In this way, perhaps the secrets of blues, which, by the way, is a very improvisatory art form, where performer/composer are one and the same, just like Indian and other "Eastern" modally based forms...perhaps in the essence of the blues we may find some of the keys to understanding those mysterious Oriental traditions. So, is Danielou correct in his interpretattions? Does he miss the boat? A lot of the stuff he says seems pretty sensible and well thought out...but, since I sure don't know the secrets of the stuff he talks about, I could get taken for a ride the wrong way if I am not careful...again, just what IS going on with these deep and ancient traditions, because I feel there's a lot of good concepts about music which we can (re)learn by studying them. Also, has anyone heard of an author named Raouf Yekta Bey? Sounds like an interesting fellow...Hstick Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 26 Dec 1996 08:21 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA02513; Thu, 26 Dec 1996 08:23:53 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA03121 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id XAA15139; Wed, 25 Dec 1996 23:23:50 -0800 Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1996 23:23:50 -0800 Message-Id: <851581523@csst.com> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu