intonation of 'Song of Zomadou'

Hey folks, I found the following at MTO-talk
ftp://boethius.music.ucsb.edu/pub/mto/mto-talk/mto-talk.may2000

about 3/4 of the way down the page, and thought that maybe someone
on this List was familiar with this music. I heard it once about
two years ago and certainly can't remember any particular pieces.

I'd bet that Mr. Grauer's conclusion:

> 'on the recording at least some of these pitches seem distinctly
> "off" from any of the tunings we're used to.

would *NOT* apply to many of the listeners on *this* List!! It
would be nice to see a more accurate (and more detailed) analysis
than what Mr. Grauer gives here. Perhaps it can be run thru
'Spectrogram'?, since it's for unaccompanied voices.

('Our own' John Chalmers has a contribution to this discussion near
the end of this webpage, but it's more about rhythm than tuning.)

> Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 10:26:36 -0400 (EDT)
> Sender: Victor Grauer
> Subject: Re: Princes of Dahomey
>
> Robert B. Cantrick wrote:
>> Victor Grauer states that the tuning system employed in
>> "Princes of Dahomey" is esoteric, conforming to no familiar
>> intervals at all. It seems to me, on the basis of repeating
>> listening during a period of many years in classroom teaching,
>> that there is a simple, familiar interval pattern in the opening
>> song, SONG OF ZOMADOU. The piece is by unaccompanied chorus in
>> unison throughout. The simple, familiar interval pattern is
>> (a) a descending minor third, then (b) a descending major third,
>> then (c) the descending minor third an octave lower. In the
>> following notation I am assuming that there are appoggiaturas
>> which I omit for the sake of showing the fundamental interval
>> scheme
>>
>> (a) c2 down to a1
>>
>> (b) g#1 down to e1
>>
>> (c) c1 down to a
>>
>>
>> I am taking c1 as middle c. This pattern is repeated many times.
>> I assume that the pattern is established by the rhythm, and I am
>> assuming that the rhythm is determined by the words (which I
>> don't understand). The rhythm is basically short-long in each
>> descending third. Again, I omit the appoggiaturas for the sake
>> of simplicity, but my justification for calling them appoggiaturas
>> is the rhythm: all of them are short. In other words, an
>> appoggiatura, as I use the word here, can be a third as well as
>> a second.
>
> I must admit I've never listened to this music with any degree of
> care and never attempted to notate it. My reaction was based on
> an overall impression. Nevertheless, listening now more
> carefully, I have to stick with my original assessment.
>
> For starters, the first note we hear, played by the bell, is
> clearly an f2, no? The other bell note is roughly a minor 7th
> below, close to tempered g1. Immediately after this, we hear a
> solo voice singing what I'm hearing as roughly a d#1 followed by
> a g#1, then b1, a#1, g#1. The d# sounds flat to me, I can almost
> hear it as a d natural going up a tritone to g#, but the g# also
> sounds a bit flat. Later the pitch of the vocalists rises a bit,
> so at some points, yes, I can hear the notes Cantrick is referring
> to: c2, a1, g#1, e1. But the e1 also sounds flat, almost the
> effect of a tritone with the following a1. At some points the
> g# sounds closer to a g natural to me. And sometimes I hear
> something close to a diminished triad, consisting of d#1, c1, a,
> c1. I agree with Cantrick that, if we ignore what seems to be
> a certain amount of vocal "drift," one can attempt to produce a
> kind of "ideal" notation using the notes a, c, e and g#. But on
> the recording at least some of these pitches seem distinctly
> "off" from any of the tunings we're used to.
>
> If you try to sing this music I think you'll see my point rather
> quickly.
>
> Victor Grauer
> Chatham College
> Pgh. Pa.

-monz
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html