Traditional Turkish Music

At 16:07 3/17/99 -0500, you wrote:
>From: "Paul H. Erlich" <PErlich@Acadian-Asset.com>
>
>Kraig Grady wrote:
>
>>>It seems the only places that Wolf saw these instruments was
>>place adjacent to 12ET countries. I<
>
>Daniel Wolf wrote,
>
>>Kraig Grady:
>
>>I think your geography is a bit skewed. It is only in Turkey -- the
>major
>>Islamicate country closest culturally to Europe -- where non-tempered
>>tunings have maintained their monopoly in both classical, folk, and
>>arabesque repertoires.
>
>Though I think Daniel's right, it should be mentioned that Turkish
>theory recognizes a division of the octave into 53 equal parts. However,
>the difference between 53-equal and Just/Pythagorean versions of Turkish
>scales is exceedingly small -- on the order of 0.1 to 1 cent -- far
>smaller than the deviations that would occur in even the most ideal
>musical circumstances. I've played on a Turkish saz with very unevenly
>spaced frets but the smallest intervals were eighth-tones (approximately
>1/53 octave) and these tended to occur in pairs, dividing in half the
>second smallest interval (quartertones or 2/53 octave). The placing of
>these frets was surely too approximate to distinguish between 53-equal
>and JI/Pythagorean (by the latter I could mean either JI extended much
>farther along the 3-axis than the 5-axis, or Pythagorean with schismatic
>approximations to 5-limit intervals).
>
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Gentlemen,

It is true that for the past 150 years or so 'theoreticians' in traditional
Turkish music have tried to divide an octave into 53 equal sub-intervals.
Various models have been constructed with the intent of modeling all modal
scales (around 120+ modes) in deterministic form. The most recent model was
proposed by Huseyin Sadettin Arel where the octave is partitioned into 24
unequal sub-intervals.

I am trying to determine the nature of the modal scales by making direct
measurements
on improvisations given by indisputable master musicians coming from the
'dergah' tradition. My findings are several light years away from the 24
unequally tempered deterministic model suggested by Arel and company . The
'scales' that are emerging from my research are not even deterministic.
Instead, they are sound clusters along the pitch axis in the form of
distributions with statistical characteristics. In view of my findings so
far, I am inclined to think a search for a 'magic' deterministic scale is
going to be a futile attempt on the part of the researchers.
Dr. Can Akkoc
Alabama School of Mathematics and Science
1255 Dauphin Street
Mobile, AL 36604
USA

Phone: (334) 441-2126
Fax: (334) 441-3290
Web: http://199.20.31.100/GIFT/