Re: Melodies move by step in any form of music?

On Jun 3, 1:45 pm, Jack Campin - bogus address
<bo...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> I was referring to musicians of an earlier time, and why they
wouldn't
> >> settle on the whole-tone scale as a scale which meets the
requirements of
> >> something that is felt not to contain any leaps. The problem with the
WTS
> >> is that it does not contain all the tonal degrees - it only has ^1,
while
> >> the ^4 and ^5 are sharp. So they wouldn't want to use that in
practical
> >> music-making.
> > In some places similar scales *were* used.  The slendro scale of
> > south-east Asia is pentatonic with five *equally spaced* notes
>
> And another one: I looked this up in the Africa volume of the Garland
> Encyclopaedia of World Music, and they mention some cultures in southern
> Africa that use heptatonic equitonic scales.  Their music is vocals with
> xylophone accompaniment.  The writer says that the equitonic system is
> used in practice to let the singer start on any pitch they like; and
> given the way they play the xylophone, you can see another reason why it
> might be preferred - most African xylophone music has two or more
players
> facing across the instrument and playing alternate notes by hocketing,
> each having a different set of pitches of their own in an interlaced
> pattern.  It's an im****tant value in that music that the players should
> be absolutely equal in status, with no part being more prominent than
> another, and having no tonal centre (which would have to be assigned to
> one or other player) is one way to ensure that.
>
> Unfortunately there are no recordings or transcriptions included - the
> Africa volume is thinner in that level of detail than some of the others
> in the series.
>
> I seem to remember some other African culture uses a four-tone equitonic
> scale as Alain was suggesting; can't remember which.  It's not unusual
> for African scales to omit the fifth or alter it by a semitone.
>
> ==== j a c k  at  c a m p i n . m e . u k  === 
<http://www.campin.me.uk>
====
> Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800
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fonts

Thanks Jack. This isn't Senegal is it? I don't know much about their
melodic music except that a  friend of mine that studied it said that
their xylophone was related to a bird that was from the region. I know
that this as well as the 4 tone equitonic scales are part of the
African music scene as I have read so much here that it is all mostly
pentatonic.

And then there are others that will not accept that this is true at
all because there are no recordings to sup****t your comments! lol

But African music is very varied from tribe to tribe and region to
region. It is a shame that we don't really know more about it. Every
time I run across a new study of African music or I stumble on to a
sub culture that is new to me, I usually find that I see at least one
aspect of Music in a different way than I had before. Thank you for
the information.
LJS