Flamenco

Today is a red letter day. Debbie came home from work to announce that there IS some microtonal music she likes - Flamenco. Apparently, microtonal melodic inflections are common - if one is to believe wikipedia.

Melody

Dionisio Preciado, quoted by Sabas de Hoces [3] established the following characteristics for the melodies of flamenco singing:

1. Microtonality: presence of intervals smaller than the semitone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamenco

I did quickly point out that this is also true of the Blues she likes - and that microtonal harmonies are the real sticking point. However, this is great from the standpoint of getting a bit more understanding at home of my preoccupation of making music such as we do.

Chris

Chris>"Today is a red letter day. Debbie came home from work to announce that
there IS some microtonal music she likes - Flamenco."

Interesting. From what I've read so far, the extent of microtonality in
Flamenco is limited to it's using enharmonics, especially by singer. So it's
kind of more like "higher precision/adaptive JI" type stuff rather than a
completely new mood or feel.

Far as blues...someone like Neil would probably be more of an expert...but I
recall there are only two microtones used...between the major/minor 3rd and the
major/minor 7th...inherited from African music which blends between major and
minor scales. Plus they are used almost exclusively in melody, and not in
chords (at least in standard Blues). It's funny, in contrast, you say
"microtonal harmony is a sticking point"...I've always heard it as merely being
things like single-neighboring-tone bends done with clockwork precision by
artist like BB King...but generally never of entire held chords.