Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup mills-tuning-list Arabs and the 17-tone equal

A few suppose that the Arab vocalists must use an approximation to the
17-tone equal, because they use close intervals better described as a
1/3 tone than a 1/4 tone, and because Arab instruments are often tuned
to a neutral third intermediate between minor and major third.

But Arab singers certainly use a minor and major third closer to just
than the dissonant minor and major thirds of the 17-tone equal, so this
opinion seems farfetched. The 19-tone equal much better suits the -
scanty and inconclusive - evidence. But 19-tone equal has no netural
third, which is well-attested for Arab instruments.

It is a problem. I do not even read Arabic, so I am conscious of my
amateur status in this respect. Nevertheless, determined to outrage
someone or other, I trudge on. The Arabs seem to be as confused as
anyone regarding the intonation of their singers.

The modern Arab theorists have done their utmost to impose the 24-tone
equal for instrumental music. But Arab singers cheerfully (if that is
the right word) go their own way, and certainly do not regularly,
deliberately use intervals as close as 50 cents. Also, this music is
full of glissandi, and musical temperament is of little relevance to
that kind of ornament.

So perhaps their system, rather like Western Rock music, amounts to a
mixed system, with instruments and singers on a very different melodic
wavelength. Rock musicians seem to find a way to live with this, though
they certainly do not do so _deliberately_, as a conscious device of
art, and it is preposterous to assert that this is a great advantage to
them. It is also possible that Arab singers actually can use the more
conjunct intervals of the 24-tone equal, excluding the 50-cent interval.
But this would exclude the enharmonic...

Insofar as one wishes to preserve enharmonic melodies without
eliminating the consonant thirds, there can be no choice except the
19-tone equal. It is true that the circa 150-cent interval, reasonably
well-attested for Arab melody - though under what degree of instrumental
tyranny or tutelage I know not - is not present in enneadecaphony. This
however is the _only_ interval outside the 19-tone system that has much
chance of being accurately singable; the neutral third is too dissonant,
atonal and disjunct to avoid confusing it with the minor third (which it
resembles in artistic effect more than the major third). But the circa
150-cent interval is quite conjunct and also happens to fall almost
exactly between the melodic centers of 16:15 & 10:9, so, as I have
noticed in my brief treatment of 31-tone equal, it does seem possible
that a singer could learn to definitely ascribe a definite, independent
melodic significance to this one interval, even though there is a
_great_ deal of overlap between this interval and the diatonic semitone
below and the minor tone above. Here then is a limited example where
singers _may_ be able to partly escape the powerful forces leading them
to the melodic division of the octave into 1/3 tones and the 19-tone
equal.

I think I have mentioned that this interval of about 150 cents occurs in
the 31-tone equal, where it corresponds to a 4/5 tone. Note however that
this interval is perfectly unadapted to harmony, which the modern Arabs
and Indians often seek to imitate. My own personal opinion is that Arab
(and Indian) vocal melodies are far, far more likely to be exactly
recognizable in the 19-tone equal than in the 17- 22- or 24-tone
divisions, in despite of the troublesome matter of the 150-cent
interval.

I would never claim that all singers throughout the world necessarily
sing in 19-tone equal (such a claim almost carries its own refutation)
but only that they necessarily _tend_ toward this system unless
deliberately, rigorously trained to use different pitch classes for
melody. Even then, I doubt that singers can be trained to sing arbitrary
intervals in consonant or disjunct dissonant melody. Such arbitrary
intervals are confined to the realm of the conjunct dissonances, that is
to say, to the intervals narrower than 6:5.

SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
From: "Brian B."
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Arabs and the 17-tone equal

🔗Gregg Gibson <ggibson@...>

🔗Paul Hahn <Paul-Hahn@...>