> This was interesting but at the same time
> misleading because shakuhachi music and even the shakuhachi are not=20
> based on scale.
What? No notes? The concept of an octave was/is nearly universal and
certainly the Japanese recognized it as octave is inherent in the
excitation of any flute. Anytime you've divided an octave in any way
you've got notes--thus a scale. That's what the holes do. Are you saying
they didn't use any scale at all or that they didn't use 'our' scale? If
they didn't use any scale (i.e. notes) how was pitch determined?
Dear Nelson,
My comment is similar to Westerners who hear harmony and can be chords
under a melody from a place which traditionally have no notion of
harmony whatsoever. The concept of scale is a Western concept. We play
the scale on the shakuhachi, we conceive it as a scale, not necessarily
Japanese (at least before the Western hegemony). The shakuhachi kanjis
do not refer to notes but fingering; for the koto, they use the number
of the strings; for shamisen, the number of the position of the hand and
the number of the string. The concept of notes as we Westerner conceive
it does not exist. They of course conceive of pitches which a fingering
on the shakuhachi can give, but not necessarily notes.=20
The Chinese musicologist Sin-Yan Shen in "China: A Journey into its
Musical Art" mentioned that Chinese music is based on intervals and
their relations (being octaves, fifth, fourth, etc.) But intervals do no
necessarily refer to scales. Historically, this concept of scale become
a tacit part of our musical philosophy following the advent of the
tempered scale. Without it, harmony and symphony orchestra would not
exist. The Japanese musicologists Akira Tamba in "La th=E9orie et
l'esth=E9tique musicale japonaise" and Yosihiko Tokumaru in "L'aspect
m=E9lodique de la musique de syamisen" both indicates that Japanese =
music
is modal, not tonal, thus do not refer to scale (unfortunately, these 2
excellent books have been published only in French). And it is the
interval relationship which dominate, not their relationship within a
scale of some sort.
Akira Tamba mentions that Chinese and Japanese mathematicians spent few
centuries calculating scales. Apparently, Chinese even calculated the
tempered scale 200 years before the Europeans. They did not bothered
about it because they found it uninteresting. Even though they did
really calculate scales, it did not went into the everyday concepts of
music performance and writing.=20
My of course limited understanding of Japanese music theory is that
pitches and their relationships as intervals dominates. Although all
musical instruments are able to play scales as we define it in the west,
traditionally it did not seem to have so much important in conceiving of
music. (The best book to read in this respect is Tokumaru's book.
Although it is about the shamisen, it applies as well to all other forms
of music.)
Thanks a lot for your questions! I appreciate the discussion!
Bruno
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