From: mclaren
Subject: Raga pitches
--
In Tuning Digest 712, Bruce Gilson mentions:
"The book "Ragopedia" was mentioned on the digest of the 10th of last
month. I've seen it, and unfortunately it is next to useless for tunings.
Everything is reduced to normal scale notation, with no clue as to which
notes are to be played sharper or flatter than 12-tET."
Thanks for the info, Bruce.
Alas, this accords with my suspicions.
My experience in perusing Western books about Karnatic Indian music
is that Western authors almost universally assume that the ignorant
Indian musicians are trying to play the Western diatonic scale and
getting it just a bit wrong, poor dears. The "errors" are generally
Indian musicians are trying to play the Western diatonic scale and
getting it just a bit wrong, poor dears. The "errors" are generally
"corrected" by writing down the pitches in standard Western
notation.
This appears to have had untoward results. To wit, Carol Krumhansl
has written an article in which she makes the amazing claim that
"the seven pitches of the Indian scale are identical to the
pitches of the Western diatonic scale."
If you have some CDs or cassettes of Karnatic Indian music
lying around, you might want to give 'em a listen. Ask
yourself whether Carol Krumhansl knows what she's talking
about.
Inasmuch as Krumhansl is a purportedly reputable researcher
who is thought to have done some significant work on
music perception and cognition, this is not a trivial
issue.
--mclaren
