From: Matt poot (mattpoot@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Jan 28 2004 - 00:08:43 GMT
I also enjoy listening to the musical variations from India, as well as the
rest of Asia. Being trained classically myself, I find that western musical
thought, can often attempted to be rigidly defined, both harmonically, as
well as theoretically. Although my favourite "classical" (and I use this
term loosely) composer is Bach, who exemplifies structured music at its
best, his particular fashion (baroque style) somehow attracts me, and his
intricate melodic and harmonic developments make a music which is not only
extremely challenging and fulfilling to play, but as well as to listen.
Now, to get back to the subject of eastern music, I have only recently, and
still very rarely, listened to traditional music from various countries in
the middle east. The strange tonalities share with asian music, a stark
contrast to western music, which I find very exciting and enjoyable.
As time is short, I will most likely continue this post at a later date.
Matt Poot
>From: Valuemetaphysics@aol.com
>Reply-To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>Subject: Re: MD SQ-SQ tension/coherence in the drone.
>Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 19:18:07 EST
>
>Dear forum,
>as part of my project to search for examples of exceptional SQ-SQ
>tension/coherence, i have been thinking about the following for a couple of
>years:
>
>From: http://www.library.duq.edu/newsletter/Summer2000/worldmusic.htm
>
>What was it about the music of India, and specifically the form called the
>raga, that captured the imagination of musicians from George Harrison to
>violinist Yehudi Menuhin? Everyone has heard the Beatles' incorporation of
>the form
>with attendant Eastern mysticism. Lesser-known efforts at that time
>included
>numerous hybrids a multitude of folk/rock/blues/jazz ragas. Does any
>one remember"East-West" by the Butterfield Blues Band? Or jazz trumpeter
>Don Ellis'
>Hindustani Jazz Sextet? The music became inextricably tied to images of
>lava lamps
>and love beads, which lends to it an anachronistic quality nowadays. That
>is
>unfortunate, because this is Indian classical music, not a fad.
>
>At the same time, Ravi Shankar, the leading exponent of this music, became
>a
>smash with jazz aficionados and later with rock fans at the Monterey Pop
>Festival in 1967. Shankar played the sitar, a north Indian stringed
>instrument
>previously unknown in the West, but soon to become almost as recognizable
>as the
>electric guitar. Hippies adopted the musical traditions of India as part of
>their consciousness.
>
>Ragas, a new addition to the Gumberg Library's world music selections,
>featuring Shankar on sitar and Ali Akbar Khan on the more resonant sarod,
>affords a
>glimpse into the why of it all. This is a recording from the mid-Sixties,
>around the time George Harrison introduced the sitar to his fans. The
>mysticism
>inherent in the raga holds the Western listener before its structure and
>complexity of a different sort from our own musical evolution but no less
>complex
>becomes clear.
>
>Musicologists may have an explanation for this spell. It is the concept of
>ethos, or personification of character in music. It was important to the
>ancient
>Greeks and included morality or ethics. What we know in the West is that
>each
>raga type (which can be a spin-off on a melody, a central note, scale,
>mode,
>or a collection of these) has a special persona or character and this
>embodiment lends itself to metaphysical possibilities and the idea of
>musicas a means
>of meditation or getting closer to the Divine.
>
>Perhaps this explains why the raga (which is Sanskrit for color or musical
>tone) became such a touchstone in pop culture during the Sixties,
>drug-addled
>yet searching for transcendence. But whereas some of the synthesis in the
>West
>was rather heavy-handed and used ostinato, or repeated figures, to
>approximate
>the drone of the raga, the Indian musicians create subtle music that seems
>to
>flow out of another dimension and sense of time. And this drone is the
>opposite of the harmonic movement which is our frame of reference in music.
>
>Western ears attuned to harmony may at first find this an arid landscape
>with
>no familiar landmarks. The backdrop of the music lies in the drone, which
>is
>created by the stringed instrument called the tambura. The tambura does in
>fact generate some overtones (harmonics) that hover over the sitar and the
>sarod.
>
>Each raga is a cycle that starts in free rhythm, based on certain scales,
>modes or melodic motifs. There may be short bursts of melody and numerous
>"bent"
>notes or ornaments. These notes fall in the cracks between intervals known
>in
>the West and are something like "blue notes" in jazz or rock, but actually
>more intricate in the possibilities of articulation. These bent notes also
>held
>fascination for rock musicians, for whom blues guitar was important.
>
>Gradually, imperceptibly, rhythmic patterns emerge, spelled out by the
>tabla,
>or hand drum, the pace quickens, and the structure builds to a climax.
>
>On Ragas, there are four offerings in this form, and underneath a deceptive
>sameness, the personality of each raga emerges. And indeed one can listen
>to
>them raptly enough to induce a reverie that could be likened to a
>meditative
>state. This is in large part improvised music, so that while there is a
>sketch or
>plan to the gradual unfolding of the raga, spontaneity is always there.
>Shankar and Khan are truly masters of the style, who play with elegance,
>wit and
>nuance.
>
>Note the phrases and words i have highlighted.
>
>Over the last few years i have become a huge admirer of the Raga, and would
>recommend any Shankar material or the Nimbus 4 CD survey of 74 basic raga
>patterns.
>It is the drone i wish to draw attention to - here we have a static centre
>on
>which SQ-SQ tension is made coherent with the patterns of the human
>player/listener. Essentially, any conceptual distinction in this coherence
>other than
>that explained by the MoQ does not make any aesthetic sense to me.
>The dharma of the raga, if this is an acceptable way of putting it, is DQ?
>I
>wonder what the forum thinks about this?
>
>There appears to be a close connection between the drone in Indian raga,
>the
>drone is celtic pipes, the clave in Latino music, the modes of Christian
>liturgical cannon, and many other examples of static centres around which
>SQ-SQ
>tension between Inorganic, organic, social and intellectual patterns are
>brought
>into exceptional coherence - DQ.
>
>These exceptional states seem to me to have a high moral status which is, i
>venture to suggest, Universally explored in Human culture - and from an MoQ
>perspective, culture means social and Intellectual patterns of value also.
>
>Mathematicians use musical analogues to express the Quality of their art,
>which urges me to consider were the drone/centre/clave in a mathematician's
>creative experience is?
>Is there a drone/centre/clave in social patterns?
>
>One last word, listening to Holts' Beni Mori recently, i noted again, as is
>always the case when i here the third movement of that piece, the rhythmic
>drone you may hang onto throughout the performance - he uses a similar
>device in
>'Mars' from The Planets. It kills you - it removes you - it transforms you
>into
>nothingness. And one feels wonderful to be alive.
>
>Mark
>
>
>
>
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