more of the same

Haverstick here...I saw a very interesting CD/booklet package at Tower
Records today...put out by Bart Hopkin of Experimental Musical
Instruments mag fame, it is a project about just those weird ass
instruments and folks that he always features in the mag...it loked very
cool, and I believe I'll go back and get it. It had a great name, which
I wrote down somewhere...also, I have gotten the impression over the
years, that there seems to be a lot of unanswered questions about just
what Indian (and other modally oriented folks} musicians are doing when
they play...perhaps this is because no Indian master has ever yet
written a major book explaining the subject in English; perhaps , also,
it has to do with some other, deeper issues, issues which may not be so
easy to put on paper, and that you can only understand if you are a
participant in the tradition. But, whoever put the great quote "Play in
tune or go to hell" on the board left us a great clue, at least: if
playing in tune is so important, then just how far away from basic,
powerful, naturally pure intervals are they likely to get? If they stay
within the parameters of the harmonically real, ratio based intervals,
than is it wrong to make certain assumptions about their system? Does
anyone out tjhere really know what's going on with Indian, Turkish,
Persion, and other such traditions? Or, is it mostly speculation and
mathematical ideas, which may or may not be what's "really" happening?
I do know that blues is MIGHTY hard to teach in any "logical" fashion,
becaus within a loose framework of 3 chords and the 6 tone blues scale,
there's a whole lot of room for individual interpretation as to where to
put a note, for instance, when you bend the 4th up to the 5th...what is
the FEELING you're trying to communicate, that is the issue, and believe
me, blues is both profound and microtonal as anything. In this way,
perhaps the secrets of blues, which, by the way, is a very improvisatory
art form, where performer/composer are one and the same, just like
Indian and other "Eastern" modally based forms...perhaps in the essence
of the blues we may find some of the keys to understanding those
mysterious Oriental traditions.
So, is Danielou correct in his interpretattions? Does he miss the boat?
A lot of the stuff he says seems pretty sensible and well thought
out...but, since I sure don't know the secrets of the stuff he talks
about, I could get taken for a ride the wrong way if I am not
careful...again, just what IS going on with these deep and ancient
traditions, because I feel there's a lot of good concepts about music
which we can (re)learn by studying them. Also, has anyone heard of an
author named Raouf Yekta Bey? Sounds like an interesting fellow...Hstick





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