Fwd: Son Bir Kez Hüzzam Sharqi by Dr. Oz. for Ethno2 contest

In notice I neglected to forward this to the MMM.

Oz.

✩ ✩ ✩
www.ozanyarman.com

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ozan Yarman <ozanyarman@...>
> Date: June 17, 2010 9:51:11 AM GMT+03:00
> To: Tuning List <tuning@yahoogroups.com>
> Cc: Jacques Dudon <fotosonix@wanadoo.fr>
> Subject: Son Bir Kez Hüzzam Sharqi by Dr. Oz. for Ethno2 contest
>
> Dear members & dear Jacques et al.
>
> My heartfelt thanks to Jacques and his team for providing me the
> marvelous oppurtunity to discover and create music with Ethno2 from
> Motu. The first fruit of my labour, employing the professional
> sounds of this hot audio production kit, can be heard at:
>
> http://www.ozanyarman.com/musics.html
>
> Click the first song on the Flash player titled: "Son Bir Kez". It
> is an mp3 file in 44.1 Khz Stereo 160kbps format.
>
> This is a Hüzzam Sharqi by me, in that rapturous maqam cherished by
> Turks, in a scale I specifically formulated for this Logic8+Ethno2
> project, whose final mix includes my boomy singing voice with due
> embellishments and ornamentations characteristic of my thespian
> manneristic interpretation of the forlorn melody AND my own
> (reworked) lyrics in Turkish.
>
> A translation of the lyrics will be attempted for those who wonder
> the meanings of the words! For the moment, let me say it's a cheeky
> poem about a romance gone wrong and heart-tearing libidinous longing
> for someone even though the feeling is not reciprocated anymore.
> Just ask me for the translation.
>
> This electrifying recording you hear has turned into a grandiose re-
> arrangment, or dare I say, "soaring", over the preliminary
> lackadaisical version that featured arbitrarily/haphazardly hand-
> traced MIDI pitch-bends to emulate the intonation of the maqam:
> Offsets from 12-tET pitches by slides and slews of the PC mouse,
> undertaken during my neophyte years in studying Maqam music, before
> I even so much as knew the basics of tuning scholarship and
> professional audio production.
>
> Having discarded the preliminary pitch-bend data grotesquely
> resembling Huzzam in the aforesaid novice version recorded years
> ago, I used this 12-tone "Sonbirkez scale" in my fresh entry for the
> Ethno2 competition:
>
> Sonbirkez Huzzam scale
> 12
> !
> 8/5
> 121/108
> 847/720
> 57/46
> 4/3
> 81/50
> 3/2
> 64/39
> 121/72
> 847/480
> 171/92
> 2/1
>
> There are three types of "perde hisar" (or "perde huzzam" if you
> will) at 8/5 (814 cents), 81/50 (835 cents) and 64/39 (857 cents),
> cleverly placed in the scale so as to complete the 12-tones to the
> octave picture... a picture that I find myself constantly returning
> to in my lethargic progress toward xentonality havens.
>
> Note, that the notes C#, F# and Ab are assigned to aforesaid three
> inflexions of perde hisar. All I needed to do in my project was to
> move a pitch over to one of these notes for the correct, i.e. sassy,
> intonation required by the ecstatic and doleful Hüzzam melody.
>
> I took as reference Jacques's Egyptian Rast scale in the Ethno2
> tuning library when starting to formulate my scale. It appears I was
> left with only 121/72 and the octave in common at the end. Such is
> the incorrigibility of the Turkish Hüzzam!
>
> The length of the piece is 4:45 minutes. I realise that this a bit
> more than ordinarily expected. That is because of the "naqarat"
> section, or reprises for the consequent strophes of the lyrics. If
> need be, I can prepare an alternative mix that fits the 3 minute
> constraint. But I truly wish the piece is preserved the way it is:
> Complete as it is.
>
> The instruments used in the mix were, Maghrib Violin+Strings,
> Sustained+Tremolo Ouds, Tambourine, Oriental Tambourine, Bendir,
> Daire, Darbuka and my very own singing voice. Countless hours of
> digital mastering in my home studio unaccounted for!
>
> My eyes searched for a Romanian clarinet in Ethno2, but I couldn't
> find any. The only reed-wind I found suitable for the piece
> imitative of clarinet, the Bamboo Sax, was too limited in pitch
> register. Motu needs URGENTLY to incorporate Turkish sounds in its
> future Ethno bundle!
>
> I tackled and finished the production of "Son Bir Kez" ("One Last
> Time") in a period of utter exasperation with the Ethno2 mix of my
> Nishabureyn Peshrev and intense summer heat in Istanbul. The Peshrev
> uses too many pitches and Ethno2 is a resource-gulper when setting
> it up in such a way as to facilitate switching easily between same
> instruments tuned to different tunings. I hope Jacques and his team
> will understand and show leniency to me as I grapple to finish the
> Ethno2 rendition of the Peshrev and also a surprise piece, hopefully
> in time!
>
> Ok, there it is... Son Bir Kez for your ears. Comments welcome!
>
> Cordially,
> Oz.
>
> ✩ ✩ ✩
> www.ozanyarman.com
>

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