The Interface between Theory and Practice: Intonation in Arab Music

Marcus, Stanley

doi:10.2307/834466

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…The small details are eventually adjusted in group singing, which partly explains the lack of tonal unison as it is perceived and performed in western art song. 40 This is a reflection of the theoretical problem of intonation, which Iskandar treats in Syriac music (Ibrahim 2003), and Scott Marcus (1993) in the context of Arab music. Both conclude that much of the apparent indeterminacy in terms of pitch accuracy is a question of performance practice: Iskandar focuses on regional variation, and Marcus on performers' preferences and personal style.…”

Section: Ethnomusicology Forum 65mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…soghdinan); then the congregation may consider one rendition more 'correct' than another or more 'beautiful' than the other. Suryanis have long conversations on 39 A large degree of tonal flexibility is intentional, particularly when sung by skilled cantors who exercise great care and control in rendering microtonal inflections (see Marcus 1993). Moreover, such detail may also be considered integral to the melodic structure of a chant.…”

Section: Ethnomusicology Forum 65mentioning

confidence: 97%

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Ḥasho: Music Modality and the Economy of Emotional Aesthetics

Jarjour¹

2015

Ethnomusicology Forum

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This article is an ethnomusicological investigation of mode and emotion. It addresses connections between musical modality and emotionality by studying a musical phenomenon in the chant of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch. The article proposes that a certain construct in Syriac chant, locally known as ḣ asho, lies at the intersection of emotionality, spirituality, musicality and knowledge, and mediates multilayered modalities of being and song. Focusing on Passion Week modal practices and on the ethnic overtones of ḣ uzn as religious emotion, this article studies the emotional power of music in terms of its aesthetics of affection. In doing so, the article proposes an understanding of music based on an emotionally inscribed economy of aesthetics.

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Section: Ethnomusicology Forum 65mentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Ethnomusicology Forum 65mentioning

confidence: 97%

Ḥasho: Music Modality and the Economy of Emotional Aesthetics

Jarjour¹

2015

Ethnomusicology Forum

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“…Such mode differs from pentatony by contrast of gap and semitone, where expansion of one causes shrinking of another, inducing tonal tension. Instability of both gapped tones is responsible for their flexibility in expressive tuning, which enables them to come closer to a target stable tone, thereby exaggerating tension and relaxation (Marcus, 1993 ). The emotional expression of hemiolic gaps also opposes that of pentatonic trichords: related to heightened pleasure and even ecstasy (ibid.…”

Section: Chromatic Polymodal Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of Tonal Organization in Music Optimizes Neural Mechanisms in Symbolic Encoding of Perceptual Reality. Part-2: Ancient to Seventeenth Century

Nikolsky¹

2016

Front. Psychol.

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This paper reveals the way in which musical pitch works as a peculiar form of cognition that reflects upon the organization of the surrounding world as perceived by majority of music users within a socio-cultural formation. Part-1 of this paper described the origin of tonal organization from verbal speech, its progress from indefinite to definite pitch, and the emergence of two main harmonic orders: heptatonic and pentatonic, each characterized by its own method of handling tension at both domains, of tonal and social organization. Part-2, here, completes the line of historic development from Antiquity to seventeenth century. Vast archeological data is used to identify the perception of music structures that tells apart the temple/palace music of urban civilizations and the folk music of village cultures. The “mega-pitch-set” (MPS) organization is found to constitute the principal contribution of a math-based music theory to a new diatonic order. All ramifications for psychology of music are discussed in detail. “Non-octave hypermode” is identified as a peculiar homogenous type of MPS, typical for plainchant. The origin of chromaticism is thoroughly examined as an earmark of “art-music” that opposes earlier forms of folk music. The role of aesthetic emotions in formation of chromatic alteration is defined. The development of chromatic system is traced throughout history, highlighting its modern implementation in “hemiolic modes.” The connection between tonal organization in music and spatial organization in pictorial art is established in the Baroque culture, and then tracked back to prehistoric times. Both are shown to present a form of abstraction of environmental topographic schemes, and music is proposed as the primary medium for its cultivation through the concept of pitch. The comparison of stages of tonal organization and typologies of musical texture is used to define the overall course of tonal evolution. Tonal organization of pitch reflects the culture of thinking, adopted as a standard to optimize individual perception of reality within a social group in a way optimal for one's success, thereby setting the conventions of intellectual and emotional intelligence.

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“…An attempt was made to standardize the system at the Cairo Congress of Arabic Music of 1932 (Recueil des Travaux du Congrès de Musique Arabe, 1934). Marcus (1993a) suggests that this may have been the first major rethinking of the Arabic pitch system since Safiyyu d-D_n (also referred to as Safi al-Din) in the 13th century.…”

Section: Tuning Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Marcus, 1989a), whereas some Arab authors of the Pythagorean tradition consider as structural features that distinguish maqāmāt as well as their regional variants (e.g., Ayari, 2003;Ibn Dhurayl, 1969). There are a number of clear cases in which systematic flattenings or sharpenings (the "plus or minus a Pythagorean comma" concept; Marcus, 1993a) of scale degrees in certain maqāmāt are recognized and were admitted in the Cairo Congress: the "shrunken" augmented seconds in maqām H Z ijāz, or the different mean pitches adopted by the same note s_kā in different maqāmāt (the E half-flat in Rāst being systematically higher than that in Bayyāt_). All of these cases are related to the E half-flat (the Medius of Zalzel) being more or less flattened or sharpened, a source of much heated debate among Arabs, Persians, and Turks at the Cairo Congress that led to the Turks leaving the Congress.…”

Section: Tuning Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aural Analysis of Arabic Improvised Instrumental Music (Taqsīm)

Ayari¹,

McAdams

2003

Music Perception

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This study addresses the perception of Arabic improvised music. The modal musical system (maqām) as well as the model par excellence of instantaneous musical exposition and composition-instrumental improvisation (taqs_m)-are presented. The classical Arabic maqām (plural maqāmāt) is defined in terms of other fundamental interactive elements. The role of modal perception in the mental organization of a taqs_m performed on thèū d was explored with tasks involving the identification of musical elements, the segmentation of the musical work, and verbal descriptions and performed melodic "reductions" of the segments. Strong differences in identifications and segmentations are found between listeners of European and Arabic cultural origins. Both groups make segmentations on the basis of salient surface features such as pauses and register changes, but Arab listeners make segmentations that are defined by subtle modal changes that often go unnoticed by the Europeans. However, not all of the Arab listeners agree on where such changes take place or even sometimes on which maqāmāt are being played. One major ambiguity in maqām identification in the taqs_m studied is discussed in detail. The melodic reductions of segments in a given maqām reveal the nature of Arabic modes as involving not just a tuning system, but also essential melodico-rhythmic configurations that are emblematic of the maqām. A music-analytic approach to the deployment of the maqāmāt within the form of the taqs_m that is informed by the perceptual results is developed. This approach involves the factors that lead to implicit recognition of maqāmāt, including ambiguities in identification, and those that inform the hierarchical organization of the form on the basis of larger-scale movements among maqāmāt.

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The Interface between Theory and Practice: Intonation in Arab Music

Cited by 18 publications

References 1 publication

Ḥasho: Music Modality and the Economy of Emotional Aesthetics

Ḥasho: Music Modality and the Economy of Emotional Aesthetics

Evolution of Tonal Organization in Music Optimizes Neural Mechanisms in Symbolic Encoding of Perceptual Reality. Part-2: Ancient to Seventeenth Century

Aural Analysis of Arabic Improvised Instrumental Music (Taqsīm)

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