Music in Shur for Shaahin (ogg, mp3)

Hello, Shaahin and all.

It is my great pleasure to announce the release of a first
improvisation in the Persian mode of Shur, actually a dastgah or
family of modes, in ogg and mp3 format. Shaahin, this piece is warmly
dedicated to you (on the 5th anniversary of MMM, as it happens):

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/ForShaahin_Shur001.ogg>
<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/ForShaahin_Shur001.mp3>

For the "Shur17" scale in which this music is realized, see a Sagittal
notation example in PDF format, showing some alternative symbols for
some of the notes more or less equivalent to the Persian koron
(semiflat) and sori (semisharp), which often inflect by about a third
of a tone. This example, produced with Hudson Lacerda's microabc and
other abc programs, uses the beautiful Sagittal-2 PostScript font that
he has joined with Dave Keenan in developing, still a testing version
but a very impressive one, with George Secor, needless to say, also
playing a very prominent role in the history of Sagittal typography:

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/Shur17.pdf>

Also, a link to a Scala file for the tuning (also appended at the end
of this article):

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/shur17.scl>

The idea of the Shur17 subset of the Peppermint temperament is to
support both traditional Persian music based mostly on a single
melodic line, and congenial styles of polyphony which embrace the
subtleties of the traditional intonational approach.

For example, here is a basic set of notes for Shur, with some notes
having flexible or alternative forms:

Alt Alt
C C/||\ E\!!/ F G)!!~ G G(|) G/||\ B\!!/ C
0 129 288 496 (624) 704 774 (833) 992 1200

Here a "textbook" Shur would be 0-129-288-496-704-774-992-1200, but in
fact the sixth can often be fluid (minor or neutral), while the
regular fifth G is often varied to G)!! (also F/||\) in descending
passages, written as Gp in Persian notation (a koron or about a
thirdtone lower than usual G). Later in the piece, this "alternative"
step becomes the basis of two melodic patterns where it seems to
notate it as a simple F/||\ (conventional F#):

"Newroz"

F/||\ G/||\ B\!!/ C C/||\ E\!!/ E F/||\
0 208 367 575 704 863 992 1200

This pattern has the color of the large neutral third and sixth, and
also of the small tritone or diminished fifth. I'm not sure if the
Persian tradition has a gusheh or melodic pattern quite like this;
informally I call it "Newroz" after the Iranian and Kurdish New Year
celebrated at the beginning of spring. It can invite a polyphonic
cadence with the seventh degree raised from a minor to a neutral seventh:

F F/||\
C C/||\
G/||\ F/||\

This resolution uses a small neutral second around 129 cents, very
close to 14:13, a step characteristic of Persian music.

Also, in the section focused on F/||\, the music touches on a
beautiful Persian dastgah known as Nava:

Nava

F/||\ G/||\ A B C/||\ E\!!/ E F/||\
0 208 288 496 704 863 992 1200

Sometimes one sees the opinion that Nava is nowadays not the most
popular dastgah because it is heard as similar to the favorite Shur.
However, the wide neutral sixth around 863 cents gives it to my ears a
pleasantly distinctive quality, subtly contrasting with the more usual
small neutral sixth of Shur (here C-G/||\ at about 833 cents, close to
a reported average of 835 cents for modern Persian performers).

While it can hardly be overemphasized that Persian music is primarily
melodic in its orientation, the interval sizes can also make for
beautiful polyphony, as in this cadence where small and large neutral
thirds (around 337/367 cents) serve nicely as imperfect concords
resolving to the stable concords of the unison and fifth, with a
descending small neutral second step (129 cents) in the middle voice:

F G
C/||\ C
B\!!/ C

Again, I would like most warmly to thank Shaahin for all of his
inspiration, including his beautiful pieces, and also George Secor,
Dave Keenan, and Hudson Lacerda for their vital roles in the ongoing
Sagittal notation saga.

Peace and love,

Margo

P.S. Here's the Scala file for ready reference:

! shur17.scl
!
Peppermint 17-note thirdtone set for Persian dastgah-ha
17
!
69.98955
128.66924
208.19121
287.71318
357.70273
416.38243
495.90439
565.89395
624.57364
704.09561
774.08516
832.76485
912.28682
991.80879
1061.79834
1120.47803
2/1

Very nice, Margo, and you have some nice FM timbres which I like better than
what I usually hear from FM synthesis--they have almost a vivid physical
modelling quality. The piece itself is quite pleasant to hear, and I you have
a tasteful doubling of timbres in the stereo field, which sounds very nice in
headphones.

-Aaron.

On Wednesday 19 July 2006 8:22 pm, Margo Schulter wrote:
> Hello, Shaahin and all.
>
> It is my great pleasure to announce the release of a first
> improvisation in the Persian mode of Shur, actually a dastgah or
> family of modes, in ogg and mp3 format. Shaahin, this piece is warmly
> dedicated to you (on the 5th anniversary of MMM, as it happens):
>
> <http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/ForShaahin_Shur001.ogg>
> <http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/ForShaahin_Shur001.mp3>
>
> For the "Shur17" scale in which this music is realized, see a Sagittal
> notation example in PDF format, showing some alternative symbols for
> some of the notes more or less equivalent to the Persian koron
> (semiflat) and sori (semisharp), which often inflect by about a third
> of a tone. This example, produced with Hudson Lacerda's microabc and
> other abc programs, uses the beautiful Sagittal-2 PostScript font that
> he has joined with Dave Keenan in developing, still a testing version
> but a very impressive one, with George Secor, needless to say, also
> playing a very prominent role in the history of Sagittal typography:
>
> <http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/Shur17.pdf>
>
> Also, a link to a Scala file for the tuning (also appended at the end
> of this article):
>
> <http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/shur17.scl>
>
> The idea of the Shur17 subset of the Peppermint temperament is to
> support both traditional Persian music based mostly on a single
> melodic line, and congenial styles of polyphony which embrace the
> subtleties of the traditional intonational approach.
>
> For example, here is a basic set of notes for Shur, with some notes
> having flexible or alternative forms:
>
> Alt Alt
> C C/||\ E\!!/ F G)!!~ G G(|) G/||\ B\!!/ C
> 0 129 288 496 (624) 704 774 (833) 992 1200
>
> Here a "textbook" Shur would be 0-129-288-496-704-774-992-1200, but in
> fact the sixth can often be fluid (minor or neutral), while the
> regular fifth G is often varied to G)!! (also F/||\) in descending
> passages, written as Gp in Persian notation (a koron or about a
> thirdtone lower than usual G). Later in the piece, this "alternative"
> step becomes the basis of two melodic patterns where it seems to
> notate it as a simple F/||\ (conventional F#):
>
> "Newroz"
>
> F/||\ G/||\ B\!!/ C C/||\ E\!!/ E F/||\
> 0 208 367 575 704 863 992 1200
>
> This pattern has the color of the large neutral third and sixth, and
> also of the small tritone or diminished fifth. I'm not sure if the
> Persian tradition has a gusheh or melodic pattern quite like this;
> informally I call it "Newroz" after the Iranian and Kurdish New Year
> celebrated at the beginning of spring. It can invite a polyphonic
> cadence with the seventh degree raised from a minor to a neutral seventh:
>
> F F/||\
> C C/||\
> G/||\ F/||\
>
> This resolution uses a small neutral second around 129 cents, very
> close to 14:13, a step characteristic of Persian music.
>
> Also, in the section focused on F/||\, the music touches on a
> beautiful Persian dastgah known as Nava:
>
> Nava
>
> F/||\ G/||\ A B C/||\ E\!!/ E F/||\
> 0 208 288 496 704 863 992 1200
>
> Sometimes one sees the opinion that Nava is nowadays not the most
> popular dastgah because it is heard as similar to the favorite Shur.
> However, the wide neutral sixth around 863 cents gives it to my ears a
> pleasantly distinctive quality, subtly contrasting with the more usual
> small neutral sixth of Shur (here C-G/||\ at about 833 cents, close to
> a reported average of 835 cents for modern Persian performers).
>
> While it can hardly be overemphasized that Persian music is primarily
> melodic in its orientation, the interval sizes can also make for
> beautiful polyphony, as in this cadence where small and large neutral
> thirds (around 337/367 cents) serve nicely as imperfect concords
> resolving to the stable concords of the unison and fifth, with a
> descending small neutral second step (129 cents) in the middle voice:
>
> F G
> C/||\ C
> B\!!/ C
>
> Again, I would like most warmly to thank Shaahin for all of his
> inspiration, including his beautiful pieces, and also George Secor,
> Dave Keenan, and Hudson Lacerda for their vital roles in the ongoing
> Sagittal notation saga.
>
> Peace and love,
>
> Margo
>
> P.S. Here's the Scala file for ready reference:
>
> ! shur17.scl
> !
> Peppermint 17-note thirdtone set for Persian dastgah-ha
> 17
> !
> 69.98955
> 128.66924
> 208.19121
> 287.71318
> 357.70273
> 416.38243
> 495.90439
> 565.89395
> 624.57364
> 704.09561
> 774.08516
> 832.76485
> 912.28682
> 991.80879
> 1061.79834
> 1120.47803
> 2/1
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

> > Hello, Shaahin and all.

Very enjoyable, thank you.

-Chris