Snuck that one in!
Jun. 30th, 2007 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raystrobel47Wow, good thing I scrolled down my own journal! I would've missed this question from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
baronalejandro:
How come Middle-eastern music sounds different from western-style music, even when it's played on western insturments?
It's all about the scales, bro. I posted about the pattern for the major scale. Very western. Middle eastern music (and similarly Indian and Asian music) has a different basic pattern of going from one pitch to the next octave up. Many more half steps are used, and in much of middle eastern music quarter steps can be found. What's a quarter step? Well, it's a note that's halfway between two keys on the piano, like halfway from E to F, or G to G#.
In fact, there's a thing known as the "Arabesque" scale used by many western composers in the Romantic period (late 1800s to early 1900s). Think "Scheherezade" by Rimsky-Korsakov. If a C major scale is C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C, then the "arabesque" scale is this: C-Dflat-E-F-G-Aflat-B-C. If you break that down further you'll see that it's the same pattern of steps repeated. C-Dflat-E-F follows the same pattern as G-Aflat-B-C. That pattern is what sounds middle eastern, whether played on an Oud, a Turkish Baglama Saz or an accordion.
The other element that gives middle eastern music away is the embellishments to some of the notes, those dips and bumps in the melodic line you hear. They may sound random, but they are very much on purpose. That treatment of a melody can make even a western melody like Happy Birthday sound almost acceptable at a Hafla. Well, having a tabla or bendir play along wouldn't hurt.
baronalejandro:How come Middle-eastern music sounds different from western-style music, even when it's played on western insturments?
It's all about the scales, bro. I posted about the pattern for the major scale. Very western. Middle eastern music (and similarly Indian and Asian music) has a different basic pattern of going from one pitch to the next octave up. Many more half steps are used, and in much of middle eastern music quarter steps can be found. What's a quarter step? Well, it's a note that's halfway between two keys on the piano, like halfway from E to F, or G to G#.
In fact, there's a thing known as the "Arabesque" scale used by many western composers in the Romantic period (late 1800s to early 1900s). Think "Scheherezade" by Rimsky-Korsakov. If a C major scale is C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C, then the "arabesque" scale is this: C-Dflat-E-F-G-Aflat-B-C. If you break that down further you'll see that it's the same pattern of steps repeated. C-Dflat-E-F follows the same pattern as G-Aflat-B-C. That pattern is what sounds middle eastern, whether played on an Oud, a Turkish Baglama Saz or an accordion.
The other element that gives middle eastern music away is the embellishments to some of the notes, those dips and bumps in the melodic line you hear. They may sound random, but they are very much on purpose. That treatment of a melody can make even a western melody like Happy Birthday sound almost acceptable at a Hafla. Well, having a tabla or bendir play along wouldn't hurt.
