Savithri Scale for New Malay Gamelan

An experimental research meant to explore Malaysian gamelan to another level. By implementing purposive sampling in methodology, researcher chose Savithri scale to apply in ethnomusicology studies and producing three sets of new Malay gamelan piece way different than the original pentatonic scale of traditional Malay gamelan

EXOTIC SCALE DALAM LINTASAN SEJARAH

Exotic scale (exotic or foreign scales) is a scale that is not covered by Western musical traditions that is outside the major and minor systems. The number of notes in an exotic scale can be less than one octave (for example pentatonic scale) or can be more (for example octatonic scale). Exotic scales are also used to refer to certain cultural scales, for example the Persian or Hungarian scales, or certain composer finding scales, for example whole tone scales, or scales borrowed from types of capital music, such as jazz or world music . This is because these types of music do not heed the tuning system, melodic forms and aesthetic principles of Western tradition. The exotic scales basically existed long before the birth of major and minor systems. For the composer of the twentieth century the sound of this unique exotic scale became the main attraction after more than three hundred years lost by the dominance of the major-minor (1600-1900). In fact, there is now a tendency for exotic scales to be used by musicians to show the composer's identity.

Pythagorean Tuning: Pentatonic and Heptatonic Scale

Summary In this article, using the Mizar system [3], [4], we define a structure [1], [6] in order to build a Pythagorean pentatonic scale and a Pythagorean heptatonic scale1 [5], [7].

SHANGHAI JAZZ MUSIC FROM 1930 TO 1949

Jazz music emerged in Shanghai, China between the late 1920s and early 1930s. This paper documented and analysed Shanghai jazz music that was recorded from 1930 to 1949. Shanghai jazz music recorded and performed within this period was selected through stratified random sampling technique. All samples were analysed in terms of melody, harmony, rhythm and form. The results showed that Western diatonic scale was apparent in the melodies, instead of the usual Chinese pentatonic scale; primary chords were prevalent with minimal use of secondary chords in the harmony; the “oom-pah” rhythm in duple meter was most widely utilized; and the musical form has evolved from the earlier through-composed song form to the later “AABA” form. In conclusion, this research characterised Shanghai jazz music that were recorded between 1930 to 1949. It served to elevate the identity of this music and to prompt further research into Shanghai jazz music spanning from 1950s until present time.

On “Crystal Growth” in Harmonic Space

James Tenney talks about his “crystal growth” algorithm, an idea that suggests a new “harmonic syntax” for harmonic space. As a quantitative model, it is both suggestively rich for future composition and plausible as a description of the history of tonal expansion. In this algorithm, sets of points are chosen, one by one, in some n-dimensional harmonic space, under the condition that each new point must have the smallest possible sum of harmonic distances to all points already in the set. That is, at each successive stage in the growth of the harmonic lattice, the next ratio added to the set is one whose sum of harmonic distances to each ratio already in the set is minimal. In relation to this algorithm, Tenney considers the Pythagorean pentatonic scale, which may be conceived as a pitch set that arises when extension into the 3,5-plane is just slightly delayed beyond the point where the algorithm would have begun that extension.

3. Sounds in harmony

The words ‘tone’ and ‘note’ reflect the subjective/objective nature of sound: a tone is a sound wave with a particular frequency, a note is its subjective impact, with a particular pitch. ‘Sounds in harmony’ looks at what makes a note. In addition to pitch, a note also has duration, loudness, and timbre. Unlike pitch, duration, and loudness, timbre is a dynamic quality that can change over time and it is the only thing unique to a particular instrument or person. Why do we like what we do? Auditory pleasantness—consonance—and harmony are explained along with octaves, the pentatonic scale, major and minor scales, melodies, tempo, and metre.

Perception of a tonal hierarchy derived from Korean music

In two experiments, we assessed recovery of a tonal hierarchy in tone sequences. In Experiment 1, sequence tones were five tones of a Korean pentatonic scale plus seven nonscale tones located between scale tones. Sequences included all 12 tones, randomly ordered. Duration of scale tones in each sequence corresponded to the total duration of each tone in a piece of Korean music, as quantified by U. Nam (1998). Nonscale tones were shorter than scale tones. Listeners were either familiar or unfamiliar with the style of Korean music. Sequences were played 12 times, each time followed by 1 of 12 probe tones that had occurred in the sequence. Participants rated goodness-of-fit of the probe tone to the sequence. Ratings by both groups reflected the Korean tonal hierarchy including the relative salience of scale tones. Experiment 2 followed the same method and tones, but duration was assigned to tones quasi-randomly so that duration did not emphasize intervallic relationships in the Korean scale. Ratings differentiated long and short tones, but showed no other clear organization among long tones. Differences in results between experiments suggest that duration helps listeners organize pitch structure only when duration emphasizes intervallic relationships such as the near-perfect fifth.