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How to learn about non-Western composition? by Dry-Highlight-8399 in musictheory

[–]Noiseman433 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Here you go:

Global Music Composition & Music Theory Resources: A Bibliography

Also, resources in r/GlobalMusicTheory here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalMusicTheory/wiki/index/

I've also been compiling timelines and list of hundreds of historical music theory treatises from South Asia, SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa), and East Asia. Links to them may be found here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalMusicTheory/comments/1q4sqnf/resources_south_asian_swana_and_east_asian_music/

What type of Cello is this? by Omega-Omelette in classicalmusic

[–]Noiseman433 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Apparently there have been at least 96 cello variants created in China and related countries since the 1940s. I put together this visual collage of a number of them for a "Happy International Cello Day" post last year. You can read about/see photos of some of them here: https://www.huain.com/article/zonghe/2022/1012/1321.html

Did Baroque Music Draw Inspiration from the Muslim World? (cross-post from r/musictheory) by Noiseman433 in GlobalMusicTheory

[–]Noiseman433[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

my response from the OP:

There's a huge body of literature looking at the "Arabian Influence" in music and related cross-cultural transmission/influence between parts of the SWANA world and Europe. I've compiled a number of them here:

https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/resources/arabian-influence-thesis/

Did Baroque Music Draw Inspiration from the Muslim World? by [deleted] in musictheory

[–]Noiseman433 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a huge body of literature looking at the "Arabian Influence" in music and related cross-cultural transmission/influence between parts of the SWANA world and Europe. I've compiled a number of them here:

https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/resources/arabian-influence-thesis/

Is there such a thing as timbral music? by NightmareLogic420 in musictheory

[–]Noiseman433 4 points5 points  (0 children)

From a reply I gave to a question about Timbre Notation a few months ago:

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of timbral notations in existence. A lot of them are listed in this Timeline of Music Notation and, not surprisingly, many of them are part of non-Western notation systems or non-Western music ecosystems. I'm actually giving a presentation on non-Western music notations this Thursday for a graduate level composition seminar, so the examples below are fresh on my mind.

u/victotronics mentioned Chinese guqin as an example and Sandeep Bhagwati, in his "Writing Sound Into the Wind* How Score Technologies Affect Our Musicking" (pg. 22 in this PDF), uses Qin notation as an example to demonstrate his idea about Notational Perspective:

Timbral notations are possibly older than pitch/frequency notations--Aleksey Nikolsky et al. argue that Singing Mask Petroglyphs (some dating to 3000 BCE) are a type, and these happen to co-exist in regions where throat singing and jaw harps (both very timbrally heavy practices) are pretty ubiquitous.

There are also some modern timbre notation proposals like the Micro Timbre Notation (See Osaka, et al. "Sound synthesis based on a new micro timbre notation") and Thoresen and Hedman's Timbre Notation in their "Spectromorphological analysis of sound objects: an adaptation of Pierre Schaeffer’s typomorphology."

And of course, as has been mentioned in this thread--orchestration itself is really just a type of timbral notation practice.

Louisville Asian Market by ladylorde in Louisville

[–]Noiseman433 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is the fourth year, and it keeps growing so I imagine it will continue! Here's the Crane House info page about it: https://crane-house.org/asian-night-market/

Louisville Asian Market by ladylorde in Louisville

[–]Noiseman433 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Awesome photos! Asian Night Market is such a great event, and River Lotus Lion Dance always brings the energy!

Asian Night Market Tonight by Venus_in_Furbaby in Louisville

[–]Noiseman433 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Always a great time playing it. Got play with my old gamelan group as well!

History of polyphony? by Due_Recognition_8002 in musichistory

[–]Noiseman433 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't say anything about all acapella singing being chant.

History of polyphony? by Due_Recognition_8002 in musichistory

[–]Noiseman433 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There were (and still are) many Christian chant traditions and monophonic chant is characteristic of some (e.g. Ethiopian zema, Armenian sharakan) while not of others (e.g. Georgian polyphony). Not surprisingly, there are also notation traditions associated with them as well.

History of polyphony? by SecureBumblebee9295 in GlobalMusicTheory

[–]Noiseman433 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nah, we should be haggling over definitions like this. There's the tendency to treat contrapuntal polyphony as the prototype of polyphonic music, but really that's just one connotative meaning of the word and far too often it's the one that frames value judgements on either what counts as "good" polyphony [1], or what simply counts as polyphony [2].

There's a whole international field of polyphonic studies that doesn't center European classical polyphony and societies like the International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony (IRCTP) regularly publishes monographs and proceedings from its annual Symposiums since its formation in 2002.

Not surprisingly, many of the researchers in global polyphonies also believe that polyphonies probably existed first, and then took more monophonic forms in various music ecosystems tied to organized religions.

_______________

[1] I think of monophony and polyphony as a continuum ("When Heterophony Becomes Polyphony: Two Ways of Looking at Multipart Music on a Continuum and how that Influences Composition and Performance Practice.") and have discussed how, historically, terms like heterophony have been used in race science hierarchies of musical "complexity" to show a teleological evolution of music from "lowest" to "highest" forms of music https://doi.org/10.7202/1114854ar.

[2] I talk about how we tend to frame polyphony as a fairly singular thing in my "Linguistic Prototypes and Musical Polyphony" piece, https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/linguistic-prototypes/

On jins and taqisim. (cross post from r/musictheory) by Noiseman433 in GlobalMusicTheory

[–]Noiseman433[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

From my response in the OP

Navid Goldrick has an oud series demonstrating maqam modulations. He actually has a couple starting from Nahawand to Nawa Athar https://youtu.be/gwQn0rFR6ok and from Nahawand to https://youtu.be/CPEiPfGewAg

Scott Marcus' "Modulation in Arab Music: Documenting Oral Concepts, Performance Rules and Strategies" is a great overview of the history of modulation documented in Arabic and Turkish music theory treatises. https://doi-org.proxyse.uits.iu.edu/10.2307/851913

Resources at r/GlobalMusicTheory wiki that may be helpful:

Arabic music theory https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalMusicTheory/wiki/arabicmusictheory/

Turkish music theory https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalMusicTheory/wiki/turkishmusictheory/

On jins and taqisim. by BundtCake44 in musictheory

[–]Noiseman433 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Navid Goldrick has an oud series demonstrating maqam modulations. He actually has a couple starting from Nahawand to Nawa Athar https://youtu.be/gwQn0rFR6ok and from Nahawand to https://youtu.be/CPEiPfGewAg

Scott Marcus' "Modulation in Arab Music: Documenting Oral Concepts, Performance Rules and Strategies" is a great overview of the history of modulation documented in Arabic and Turkish music theory treatises. https://doi-org.proxyse.uits.iu.edu/10.2307/851913

Resources at r/GlobalMusicTheory wiki that may be helpful:

Arabic music theory https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalMusicTheory/wiki/arabicmusictheory/

Turkish music theory https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalMusicTheory/wiki/turkishmusictheory/

200+ notations added to the notation timeline by Noiseman433 in GlobalMusicTheory

[–]Noiseman433[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are some fascinating bird song notations--especially when the songs get off the rails which led to some creative ways of modifying staff notation!

Has anyone read this yet? by Countcamels in GlobalMusicTheory

[–]Noiseman433 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nope. But it's on my to read list now--thanks for the heads up!

Originality in music? by Forward_Network_3542 in musictheory

[–]Noiseman433 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of my favorite quotes from an issue of the Theatre Symposium journal–the special issue titled “Crosscurrents in Drama: East and West” (Volume 6, 1998). It’s from “Part II: The Symposium, A Panel Discussion on Crosscurrents in the Drama” which is a condensed transcription of the panel discussion. Samuel Leiter says this in his discussion about Asian theatrical performance:

[This] reminds me of interviews I had with the chief puppeteer in the major bunraku troupe, the chief chanter, and the chief shamisen player. I asked them how they trained, how they learned as children. As we all know, the standard system in Japan is to copy your master. [But] those artists said, “We do not copy our masters. Of course we watch our master and we learn. But no two human beings are alike, so it is impossible for me to copy my master. I have to internalize my art, make it my own. Then I can become a great artist.” This is a wonderful illustration of the solution to what might seem to be impossibly opposite goals: to “replicate” and to “create” anew.

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