Re: [MMM] Digest Number 1225

I once stumbled across someone playing Persian piano on our local "ethnic" TV station; yes, he was playing a standard acoustic piano with some of the notes retuned. As I recall, the effect was very odd, with the retuned notes sticking out - without specifics or exact knowledge of the acoustics involved, I'm guessing the piano doesn't acoustically support those types of tunings very well (though it supports harmonic tunings quite well, and of course 12-tone temperaments).

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 14:17:01 -0000
From: "paolovalladolid"

Subject: Iranian piano

Once again I heard music featuring a piano with quarter tones on
RadioDarvish (a Persian classical Internet radio station). Do they
tune the chosen note up/down a quarter tone or do they actually build
24tET pianos in Iran?

Just curious,
Paolo

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--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Christopher John Smith
<christopherjohn_smith@y...> wrote:
> I once stumbled across someone playing Persian piano on our local
"ethnic" TV station; yes, he was playing a standard acoustic piano
with some of the notes retuned. As I recall, the effect was very odd,
with the retuned notes sticking out - without specifics or exact
knowledge of the acoustics involved, I'm guessing the piano doesn't
acoustically support those types of tunings very well (though it
supports harmonic tunings quite well, and of course 12-tone temperaments).

Thanks for confirming this. Retuning a standard piano seemed like the
likelier scenario.

I asked my Persian music teacher about the tar (4 double-course, or
8-string, plucked instrument) tuning and he replied that it has the 12
Western notes plus quarter-tones. My observation of the instrument is
that it is unlikely that all 24 quarter-tones of the octave are on the
tar. However, we ran out of time in our lesson, with the next student
coming in, so I am yet unable to confirm this. I also asked if the
frets on the tar were ever moved, as they appear to be nylon and tied
onto the neck, and he said "no".

BTW, a cybercast of the March 2005 concert featuring my teacher and
his ensemble is here:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/amed/cybercasts/neareastcybercasts.html

His introductory lecture on Persian music theory, immediately followed
by his improvised duet on tar with tonbak, starts at around 6:47 into
the cybercast. The full orchestra includes harp and santur instead of
piano.

Paolo

This is not the case, which many iranians state .
There are a whole series of recordings by Darish Talai, where he comments on the necessity to move the frets.
I have never seen any iranian using 24 ET, nor do i have any with a sample of probably over 25 recordings from the area.
One can listen to the now quite popular Masters of Persian music which have been touring th US and can easily hear what intervals they use against their drones

paolovalladolid wrote:

>
> I also asked if the
>frets on the tar were ever moved, as they appear to be nylon and tied
>onto the neck, and he said "no".
>
>
> >

--
Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles

To be fair to my teacher, he was, as I said, rushed because our lesson
was over and the next student was coming in. He just didn't have the
time to elaborate further on tuning theory in Persian music.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@a...>
wrote:
> This is not the case, which many iranians state .
> There are a whole series of recordings by Darish Talai, where he
> comments on the necessity to move the frets.
> I have never seen any iranian using 24 ET, nor do i have any with a
> sample of probably over 25 recordings from the area.
> One can listen to the now quite popular Masters of Persian music which
> have been touring th US and can easily hear what intervals they use
> against their drones
>
> paolovalladolid wrote:
>
> >
> > I also asked if the
> >frets on the tar were ever moved, as they appear to be nylon and tied
> >onto the neck, and he said "no".
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> Kraig Grady
> North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
> The Wandering Medicine Show
> KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@a...>
wrote:
> I have never seen any iranian using 24 ET, nor do i have any with a
> sample of probably over 25 recordings from the area.

Shame there's no edit function here...

I certainly did not mean to say that Iranians use 24t-ET.

> One can listen to the now quite popular Masters of Persian music which
> have been touring th US and can easily hear what intervals they use
> against their drones

Even better, one can simply tune in to RadioDarvish.com.