mysterious voices (seconds, sevenths, ninths, 3-limit?)

In one of Margos excellent postings she noted...

>
> Even as bare intervals, M2 or M9 and m7 are held to be somewhat
> "compatible" by various medieval theorists of polyphony ranging from
> Guido d'Arezzo (c. 1030) to Jacobus of Liege (c. 1325). Around 1200,
> when Perotin and other composers begin writing regularly for three or
> four voices, these intervals can actually have a relatively blending
> effect when combined with two fifths or fourths.
>

...at which point my head was suddenly filled with 'Mysterious Voices
of the Balkans', which contains many interesting uses of "M2" oriented
harmonization.

But if my head was filled properly, the major thirds seem to be 5/4
(or even flatter, toward some neutral third), the m7 could be 7/4,
but the M2 is certainly NOT an 8/7...

Anyone have tuning references for this music?

thanks a lot,

Bob Valentine

While doing transcriptions as part of my ethnomusicology studies of Bosnian
Moslem lullabyes supposedly sung to children while they are going to sleep
at night, I came across harmonic M2 at the beginning and at the final cadence.

For years I wondered how the 9/8 was elevated to a consonance and kept some
doubt. However in 1997 I became friends at a summer camp with a 17-year old
music star from Sarajevo named Alma. She performs Bosnia rock, hip hop, and
all manners of original Bosnia music ( I have her album...which is great!)

One day I asked her to sing with me my transcription (which I kept 15 years
after doing it). She recognized it and sang the 9/8 as well as several
quartertone intervals right on and we did perform it. I actually use part of
this for the trombone in my Odysseus cello concerto (played by the holy cow).

Yes, they do hear the sound spectrum in an apparently idiosyncratic manner.
This does not seem to be the case for the other peoples in the area.
Incidentlly, Bosnia Moslems settled their land before theire were Serbs and
Croats, and are oft consdiered to be descended from a wayward Ostrogoth tribe
(the Besii).

Johnny Reinhard
American Festival of Microtonal Music
Afmmjr@aol.com

Looking at Polegnala e Todora I have it starting on a sharpened P4 (+17�)
using a 72-tET followed by the P5. The two notes are held together.
Danielou might call it tone #24 of his universal scale or Sruti 10.
Basically it is the 27/20 interval under discussion several months ago. I
think someone said it was a preferred interval in some cultures. Others
said that it was unusable.

Robert C Valentine wrote:

> my head was suddenly filled with 'Mysterious Voices
> of the Balkans', which contains many interesting uses of "M2" oriented
> harmonization <snip>M2 is certainly NOT an 8/7...
>
> Anyone have tuning references for this music?
>
> thanks a lot,
>
> Bob Valentine
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