[HANASHIR:5499] Re: minor/major?

[Daniel A. Singer <dasinger...>]

Very interesting.  What ever happened to the consideration of our tuning
systems?  Is it possible that our chanting has changed slightly resulting
from our adoption of an even tempered tuning system?  Is it possible that
our own intervals might have been "half flatted" at one point, but as a
result of European musical developments the sounds of our original melodies
might have changed?  Just curious.

Dan

At 10:11 PM 3/13/00 -0500, you wrote:
>It is possible that maqam Rast somehow became the HaShem Malakh mode as it
>switched from one tradition to another, but it is unlikely an Classical
>Arabic musician would identify it with the HaShem Malakh mode if he heard
>it.  Maqam rast can be identified by a "half flatted" third and seventh
>degree (check out Habib Hassan Touma's "Music of the Arabs" (1996), or
>D'Erlanger's major study from 1932)--and I've always identified it by the
>half-flatted third.  Nonetheless, I think this is a great example of how
>professional pedagogy links the Jewish traditions.
>
>Judah.
>----------
>>From: BZcantor (at) aol(dot)com
>>To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
>>Subject: [HANASHIR:5493] Re: minor/major?
>>Date: Mon, Mar 13, 2000, 8:25 PM
>>
>
>>>
>>>  Just for the record, an A scale with a flatted seventh
>>>  is a mixolydian scale,
>>>
>> and, it happens to also be Makaam Rast, an Arabic
>> musical mode (Makaam) which we Jews use as the
>> HaShem Malach mode, and which is the basis of the
>> "Lithuanian-Jerusalem tradition" for Torah chant
>> as taught by Rosowsky at JTS and Binder at HUC.
>>
>> A good way to remember the scale of Mixolydian -
>> Makaam Rast - HaShem Malach mode is to think
>> of the ascending passage in "If I were a Rich Man".
>> This shows the "Major" scale with the flat seventh.
>>
>> BTW, when we use this mode during the first part of
>> Kabbalat Shabbat services (such as "Arbaim Shana"),
>> the resting point is the fifth degree of the scale, which
>> also appears in this song from "Fiddler".
>>
>>                         Cantor Neil Schwartz
>>
>
>


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Daniel A. Singer        H: (734) 397-1950  W: (810) 238-1350 ext. 4253
1713 Glenshire Dr.      Flint Institute of Music, Temple Beth El
Canton, MI 48188        Bass Voice, Guitar
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