Indian Music

In reply to Daniel Wolf:

>It has long been surprising that an electronic microtonal keyboard has not
been commercially produced in India or Pakistan. It seems like a product
that would have a great domestic demand as well as a potential for
profitable export to niche markets abroad (like American microtonalists!).
Maybe some list members have concrete ideas. Perhaps a 12 (Pyth)+10 (comma
varied) keyboard with a variable fundamental frequency would be sufficient.

I think I remember seeing an electronic microtonal keyboard used in
Middle Eastern music as far back as the 70's, but I don't remember
any details about it. I never checked on what kind it was or where
it was made, but it saw it in performances in Los Angeles.

In reply to Neil's reply to Kami:

>Haverstick here...Kami's post on Indian systems fits exactly with a
book I've been reading by Alain Danielou, "Music and the Power of
Sound"...

I haven't had a chance to look at this book, but I have seen one of
Danielou's previous books, "Northern Indian Music." This has a
number of ragas in it, and Danielou's notation system for their
tuning as he believes ithem to be. (It's controversial and I've
had serious discussions with ethnomusicalologists about it, as many
follow Jharaizbhoy's claim that real musicians don't play in
just nintonation or Pythagoriean tuning, as Danielou claims.) Anyway,
you can figure out the ragioshhtios for the ragas by matching a key at
the beginning of the book with Danielou's notation for teh tuhe tunings.
I prepared some charts about that and included them in my
dissertation, which is supposedly available from University
Microfilms, though I never received the copies that I ordered from
them. ("Exploring Microtonal Tuinnings: A Kaleidoscope of Extended
Just Tuinnings and Their Compositional Applications.)")

Anyway, whether or not Danielou (who isn't Indian) "gfoot it right" or
not, his tunings are very gbbeautiful and they sound reasonably "Indian"
to me. Real artists don't just play tunings, though, they add a
lot of "gamakas" which are different kind s of ornaments, with
sliding around a pitch. I would doubt that many singers are as
accurate as computers., but teh Che CD I just listened to by Lakshmi
is pretty awesome. ("Les Heures et les Saisons" Harmonia Mundi,
France, 1987, 1989)

Okay, got to finish packing now. We leave for a holiday in the
States in the morning, so don't expect any replies to your relies
to this message.

Best,

Lydia Ayers

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 23 Dec 1996 16:59 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA31466; Mon, 23 Dec 1996 17:02:04 +0100
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA01299
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id IAA23019; Mon, 23 Dec 1996 08:02:01 -0800
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 08:02:01 -0800
Message-Id: <199612231600.AAA06146@hk.super.net>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu