From: mclaren
Subject: Indian music
--
"Intonation in Present-Day North Indian
Classical Music" by N. A. Jairazhboy and
A. W. Stone, BUlletin of the School of
Oriental and African Music, 1963, pp.
119-132, raises some interesting
evidence about Alain Danielou's claims
that North Indian music is based on
just intonation.
Jairazhboy measured the intervals
sa-re, re-ga and sa-ga in recorded
performances of various ragas. From
this information (gleaned by examination
of oscillograms), he concluded that
modern Indian music does not make use of
the 22 microtonal srutis which in various
Sanskrit texts are described as the basis
of Indian music.
Did Jairazhboy dispose adequately of the
errors introduced by changes in the motor
driving the film through the oscillograph
errors introduced by changes in the motor
driving the film through the oscillograph
camera, or the changes in speed of the
tape recorder motor?
Hard to say. He claims to have done so,
but I've got my doubts.
Moreover, he makes some brash claims:
"The ready acceptance and popularity of the
keyboard insrument, the harmonium, as an
accompiment to the voice, should be
adequate proof that the North Indian
octave is, in fact, divided into 12 semitones."
This doesn't parse.
It could equally mean that North Indian
popular music is being Westernized, or it
could mean that audiences tolerate a distortion
of the "correct" sruti-derived svaras for the
convenience of chords offered by the harmonium,
just as the wide acceptance of the awful-sounding
Hammond organs was due largely to issues of
cost and conveience, rather than the excellence
of their tone quality.
In the same way, it has been shown by record
company surveys that audiences will consistently
prefer a mediocre performance of a classical
work recorded in a studio to a superb performance
of a classical work recorded live with coughs and
sneezes disrupting the listerner's attention.
There seems to be a huge amount of controversy
surrounding the intonation of North Indian music,
and time hasn't dispelled it.
Regardless, Jairazhboy concludes: "In view of the
findings in this paper, is seems unlikely that
musicians would play these fine [just] intervals
consistently and accurately enough to form the
basis of any such theory, and that this interpretation
consistently and accurately enough to form the
basis of any such theory, and that this interpretation
is closer to fiction than fact." [pg. 132]
This 1963 article is worth citing because, remarkably,
it's one of the few objective measurement *by an
Indian* of the intonation of North Indian music (in
English). Virtually everything that's been done wrt
the intonation of North Indian music is either by
white guys or non-quantitative and largely subject
to varagaries of the researcher's opinion.
How about it, folks?
Isn't it time for some new quantitative studies of the
intonation of North Indian music with modern equipment?
--mclaren
