Great documentary here...

http://www.archive.org/details/NicholasPossSpeakingMusicallyAnIntroductiontoTraditionalHmongMusic

It might be hard to find a way to play it, but the MPEG4 version
should work in Quicktime.... this is about as "non-western" as
anything gets.

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, Mats Öljare <oljare@...> wrote:
>
> The video says this is from Laos and Thailand I believe.

It is not just another tuning system but a way to speak
with musical notes. This was used during wartime as a code
(about 55% into video) which got my attention (of course).

This is the link:

http://www.archive.org/stream/NicholasPossSpeakingMusicallyAnIntroduc
tiontoTraditionalHmongMusic/SpeakingMusically_572MB_256kb.mp4

Much of the basics is in the first 7 minutes or so.

A transcript of the narrators's words only (Nicholas Poss) is
here:

http://nicholasposs.com/transcript.html

Excerpts here:

This video will explore the world of traditional Hmong music and the
unique musical system that allows words to be turned into music.

Before we can learn about traditional Hmong music, we have to
understand a few things about the Hmong language.

The Hmong language is one of the few tonal languages in the world.
This means that a word can take on a different meaning depending on
how it is pronounced. There are seven possible word tones - high,
low, middle, rising, falling, low breathy, and low with an abrupt
stop. In the written language, the word tone is indicated at the
end of the word by the letters b, s, v, j, g, and m. The middle
word tone has no marker in the written language.

Already, we can begin to see how words could be translated into
music...

Also:

Although not a part of the Hmong musical tradition, Hmong popular
music is important source of entertainment today. Originally based
on Asian pop music, and more recently blended with American rock
style, Hmong popular music is enjoyed by both young and old. As the
music has become more Americanized, its appeal with younger members
of the community has soared. Even Hmong rap has begun appearing.

-Stephen

http://www.archive.org/details/NicholasPossSpeakingMusicallyAnIntrodu
ctiontoTraditionalHmongMusic
>
> It might be hard to find a way to play it, but the MPEG4 version
> should work in Quicktime.... this is about as "non-western" as
> anything gets.
>

Born With The Perfect Pitch?

SAN FRANCISCO - The ability to identify a note on the musical scale
without a single reference point - known as absolute or perfect
pitch - is a rarity even among musicians, but new studies with
infants suggest that everyone may begin life with this remarkable
talent...

...Saffran devised a way to measure whether subjects show a
preference for absolute or relative pitch in recognizing different
tunes. Relative pitch, unlike absolute pitch, relies on tracking
intervals between notes.

Not surprisingly, the adults in her test all performed well on
measures of relative pitch and poorly on absolute pitch. But the
infants showed exactly the opposite pattern, excelling at absolute
pitch but unable to recognize changes in relative pitch.

Absolute pitch provides a remarkably detailed tool for this
cartography of sound, giving infants the ability to track extremely
fine-grained information regarding everything they hear.

One the other hand, absolute pitch also has important implications
for learning language, Saffran says. Consider that one-third of the
world's languages are tonal languages, and absolute pitch is needed
to understand the subtle differences between similar-sounding words.
These languages include Cantonese,

Hmong,

Mandarin, Thai and Vietnamese.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010222074848.htm

-Stephen

The practice began back in the high, mountain jungles of Loas and
was a useful way to communicate out in the fields or far away from
home. During wartime, soldiers used leaf blowing as a means of
communication out in the jungle. Information could be secretly
transmitted because the enemy was unable to understand the Hmong
musical language.

http://nicholasposs.com/transcript.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Code talkers were Native American soldiers serving in the U.S. armed
forces who primarily transmitted secret tactical messages.

Native American languages were chosen for several reasons. Most
importantly, speakers of these languages were only found inside the
United States - the languages were virtually unknown elsewhere.

The Imperial Japanese Army and Navy never cracked the spoken code,
and high ranking military officers have stated that the United
States would never have won the Battle of Iwo Jima without the
secrecy afforded by the code talkers. The code talkers received no
recognition until the declassification of the operation in 1968.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker

------------------------------------------------------------------

"O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to
be invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the
enemy's fate in our hands." --Sun Tzu

http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/sun_tzu/6.html

----------------------------------------------------------------

-Stephen