RE: Srutis

Graham Breed wrote,
>
>>Incidentally, I had Ma-grama as 4 3 2 4 3 4 2. Apologies to
>>anyone who received perplexing e-mails from me based on this error.
>
>Actually, this is the correct description of Ma-grama starting on Sa (the
>Hindu system tonic). Bill Alves' description (4 3 4 2 4 3 2) begins on Ma, or
>sruti 0. In the ancient texts, Ma-grama is derived from Sa-grama (4 3 2 4 4 3
>2, starting on sruti 0, called Sa) by raising the fourth note of the latter
>by two srutis, and then rotating the note names (Sa -> Ma, etc.) so that Sa
>remains what we would consider the tonic of a "major scale." Bill Alves'
>description reflects the intermediate step in this derivation, and when the
>two scales are compared side-by-side, they can be considered as subsets of a
>single sruti system. However, when Graham's descriptions are placed
>side-by-side, the fact that a single comma alteration was considered as one
>sruti is clearly seen.
>
>The evidence that temperament was used lies in the fact that sruti 2 served
>as a recognized chromatic alterations in both scales. It likely functioned as
>16/15 in sa-grama and as 135/128 in ma-grama. Early instruments seemed to
>have placed the fret for sruti 2 exactly halfway between the open position
>and sruti 4. This indicates that a compromise was likely adopted so that
>these two notes a diaschisma apart could be represented by one note. Graham,
>I'm not sure whether you were trying to say that the specification comma=1,
>diaschisma=0, leads unambiguously to 22 tones while your previous
>specification comma=diesis could lead to 12, 22, 34, or 46. If this is what
>you were saying, can you guide us through the math?
>
>In the 4th century texts, all 7 note names were shifted by one from their
>modern definitions (I used the modern names above). Sa was the second note of
>the "major scale," rather than the first note. Some have interpreted this
>fact to imply that the archetypal modes for the two gramas were actually what
>we would now call the "dorian modes" of those scales.



SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: Paul-Hahn@library.wustl.edu
Subject: Re: J Carrillo
PostedDate: 28-08-97 20:04:29
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