One last post on Arabic tuning...

I found Dr. Scott Lloyd Marcus' dissertation _Arab Music Theory in the Modern Period_ (1989) today, and it answered a lot of the questions I was asking earlier. Especially the one concerning Egyptian quarter-tone tuning versus Syrian comma/limma tuning.

The tunings given in the book:

Mikha'il Mashaqah, of Lebanon, had something close to 24-EDO. He divided the string into 3456 (128 � 27) equal parts and described pitches as parts of a string: 3456, 3361, 3268, 3177, 3088, 3011, 2916, 2833, 2752, 2673, 2596, 2521, 2448, 2377, 2308, 2241, 2176, 2113, 2052, 1993, 1936, 1881, 1828, 1777, 1728.

(The scale can be found in the Scala archives as "musaqa_24.scl", with all notes rounded to the nearest cent.)

Tawfiq as-Sabbagh, a composer from Syria, described the seven main notes in the octave (ad-d�w�n) in commas:

G-A, C-D = 9 commas ~ 203.77 cents (presuming a comma is a step in 53-EDO)
A-Bd (half-flat), D-Ed = 6 3/4 commas ~ 152.83 cents
Bd-C, Ed-F = 6 1/4 commas ~ 141.51 cents

So beginning with low G (Yakah), the scale in cents is 0, 203.77, 356.60, 498.11, 701.89, 854.72, 996.23, 1200. It's very close to Zalzal's tuning. Ali Darwish rounds the A-Bd/D-Ed steps up to seven commas and Bd-C/Ed-F down to six, a change of 5.66 cents in both cases: 0, 203.77, 362.26, 498.11, 701.89, 860.38, 996.23, 1200.

And finally, Idris Raghib Bey of Egypt, whose tuning I've already described.

The rest of the book describes tetrachords and maqamat, and gives references to two different pitches for certain notes (a comma apart), with no apparent consensus on which fine-tuned note belongs with which jins. And possibly three different pitches for the half-flats! On that CD of Syrian music I have, I hear E half-flat 17 commas higher than C on one track, and 16 commas higher on another.

So I think I found the answer to my question; now I can move on to the next topic. If only I had one. I still need to read d'Erlanger.

Danny, I would love to get my hands on that book. Can you suggest a viable way?

Cordially,
Ozan
----- Original Message -----
From: Danny Wier
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 24 Mart 2005 Perşembe 6:27
Subject: [tuning] One last post on Arabic tuning...

I found Dr. Scott Lloyd Marcus' dissertation _Arab Music Theory in the
Modern Period_ (1989) today, and it answered a lot of the questions I was
asking earlier. Especially the one concerning Egyptian quarter-tone tuning
versus Syrian comma/limma tuning.

From: Ozan Yarman

> Danny, I would love to get my hands on that book. Can you suggest a viable > way?

On this pagem http://www.maqamworld.com/references.html, the listing for the book:

Arab Music Theory in the Modern Period
Author: Marcus, Scott Lloyd, Ph.D - University of California, Los Angeles, 1989
Language: English
Publisher: UMI Dissertation Services
A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Music.
Order from: ProQuest Company, 300 North Zeeb Road, P.O.Box 1346, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1346, U.S.A. 800.521.0600 - 734.761.4700 - www.il.proquest.com.

The website is really confusing, so I think the best bet is to write them or call. Good luck!

Thanks Danny, I hope that it will work.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Danny Wier" <dawiertx@sbcglobal.net>
To: <tuning@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: 25 Mart 2005 Cuma 21:31
Subject: Re: [tuning] One last post on Arabic tuning...

>
> From: Ozan Yarman
>
> > Danny, I would love to get my hands on that book. Can you suggest a
viable
> > way?
>
> On this pagem http://www.maqamworld.com/references.html, the listing for
the
> book:
>
> Arab Music Theory in the Modern Period
> Author: Marcus, Scott Lloyd, Ph.D - University of California, Los Angeles,
> 1989
> Language: English
> Publisher: UMI Dissertation Services
> A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for
the
> degree Doctor of Philosophy in Music.
> Order from: ProQuest Company, 300 North Zeeb Road, P.O.Box 1346, Ann
Arbor,
> Michigan 48106-1346, U.S.A. 800.521.0600 - 734.761.4700 -
> www.il.proquest.com.
>
> The website is really confusing, so I think the best bet is to write them
or
> call. Good luck!
>