World Music Tunings and Western Compatibility

Western Compatibility:

The microtonal inflections used in Persian and Indian music aren't necessarily incompatible with western harmony. Right now, the case is that many musicians in Persia improvise in 24 or 48 equal on microtone capable instruments over 12 equal harmonies played on western instruments like the guitar and piano.

Expanded Tonal Palette:

Some people who are more heavily involved in the modern avant-garde microtonal movement are saying that 24 and 48 equal just highlight the limitations of 12 equal and many are calling for an expanded palette such as that based on 31 equal which more or less includes the usually preferred “just” intonations of western and Persian scales without overburdening the performer or composer with divisions that are too large and unweildy like 104 divisions of the octave for example! However, instruments with moveable frets, no frets, sliding mechanisms or easily inflected wind instruments like bassoon have many advantages in that they're not locked into anything really and can be asked to play whatever the composer wants or made to actualize whatever the player wants.

Minor keys and chords handle dissonances well, so scale options like Afshari/Esfahan which go C D Eb F G A1/2b Bb will easily work in C aeolian or C dorian with careful attention to the chords whose fifths and roots have the sixth "A" in them

It's other mode starting on the Bb results in a dominant scale that has a 1/2 tone flat 7th. The dominant chord handles dissonances better than anything, even allowing for sharp and flat fifths so this is very doable with consciousness given to chords that have the b7th as their root or fifth.

Suznak C D E1/2b F G Ab B is basically a "harmonic" minor scale with a slightly raised minor third. This is probably a very useful scale over classical western harmonies in a non-modal minor "key" while watching out for the b3rd in the chords.

Rast is basically the same scale as Afshari except it also has a 1/2 flat second. Not really a problem in a minor key. Attention being payed to the chords as stated previously.

Another scale is Hijaz which is the same as the dominant mode of Afshari except with an added nonmicrotonally flat second.

A possibility allowing for "weird" scales is to limit the accompaniment to the notes from the scale that are not microtonal. This would not be a chordal accompaniment per se but provide harmonious elements. This is an aspect of the kind of modified harmonic theory we are in need of today.

The dominant scale of Afshari that goes C D E F G A B1/2b would work well over an accompaniment built on the Chinese form of the pentatonic scale C D F G A since it doesn't have any kind of "B", microtonal or otherwise.

We could also adopt the Chinese concept of using notes outside of the pentatonic scale, which occur in the melody, as passing tones or neighbor tones.

The regular form of Afshari that goes C D Eb F G A1/2b Bb would work well over the more American form of the pentatonic scale C Eb F G Bb.

Hijaz would work over a pentatonic made of C E F G Bb, Suznak over C D F G Ab or C D F G B, Afshari/ Esfahan would also work over C D F G B among others.

There is an important connection between timbre and tuning. An instrument that has the prominent overtones that correspond to the microtonally flat intervals of a "weird" tuning doesn't sound particularly out of tune anymore. This has important implications for composers, synthesists and instrument builders. For practicality, tunings up to 41 equal divisions of the octave are about as many divisions that can be made, heard and played reasonably.

It has been suggested that tactile frets be added to the fingerboards of violins and cellos so performers unfamiliar with the tunings could approximate them on western style instruments. Another suggestion is to have a wavy fingerboard that will approximate different tunings by high and low crests on the fingerboard.

Some "weird" tunings are more consonant than others by western standards. The less consonant ones can be made more consonant by choosing the correct instrumental timbre to play it. The sitar has the jiwari bridge that creates the buzzing which brings out more prominently many of the upper partials. I suspect this allows them to play 1/8 or 1/2 flat intervals which don't sound so weird to us in that context. Maybe a classical flute might be particularly inappropriate for unconventional tunings because of its almost pure sine wave.

Lately I've been thinking about why the gamelans have instrument pairs tuned about a 1/4 step apart and how the Setar is tuned to C and C1/4 sharp.

In Persian music, it's often the case that the scales have tones which are only 1/4 flat instead of real quarter tones/1/2 flat intervals except in Turkey. This does not produce the visual symmetry as I said before. They must be sacrificing the perfect visual symmetry because some other element of the music is affecting it or is more important. I was pondering this when I came to the insight that if there is a B1/2 #, its tone might easily be confused with C or C1/2b. The same with F1/2b and E or E1/2 sharp. Diatonic scales probably favor less flattedness or sharpedness to maintain the distinctions between notes. Gamelan music is pentatonic without half-steps so the paired notes can be seriously sharp or flat even when played simultaneously without losing their identity to another scale degree.

Another related phenomenon is the binaural beats of gamelan and Persian music. Why do two systems of music in non-western tunings use simultaneously sounding 1/4 steps? Is there a connection to the tuning? Probably.