I was making reference to that odd key on the top (which I love, btw)... With it (no need for quarter tones), it is very easy to play many Arabic-Turkish tunes.
What I meant too was what you mentioned on your last paragraph. There was (as still is to a point) a lot of exchange between Eastern Europe and the muslim world, especially via Turkey and the Ottomans. Many tunes that the Arabs or the Turks claim that are theirs, the Greek, the Bulgarian or even the Hungarian claim the same. An example (which is great for bellydancing, BTW) is "Üsküdara" (there are great videos of it on youtube, especially one by a Spanish group called Mediterranea or something like it), which the Arabs call "Yaa banaat Iskadariyya" and the Greeks, "Apo Xeno Topo" On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 12:45 PM, Arle Lommel <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Augusto. > > I'm wondering the basis for the claim that the Hungarian HG follows > Arabic/Turkish modes? The tuning, aside from absolute pitch, is identical to > the French instrument. The keyboard looks different (because of the spaces > in it), and yes, one key looks inverted compared to a piano, but the lower > row (the only row on some of the earliest examples known) plays the Ionian > (major scale), and the upper row simply adds in the missing pitches on the > Western diatonic scale (and no, it doesn't use any quarter tones). So I'm a > bit confused about what you're trying to say. I know you play the Hungarian > instrument, so you do know what you're talking about, and I suspect that > I've misunderstood what you wanted to say, but without further explanation, > your statement conveys something about the Hungarian instrument that isn't > the case (that it uses a "different" scale from most European instruments). > > Now it is true that Hungarian HG music uses a lot of modes besides Ionian, > including Mixolydian (very common), Lydian (less common), Dorian (extremely > common), and Aeolian (very common), all of which appear in the HG > repertoire, but the modes one plays and the instrument's basic scale are two > different things. Other modes, notably the Hungarian Gypsy scale (which does > correspond to a maqam in the Kurd family), appear frequently in Hungarian > music, but are not often found in the Hungarian HG repertoire. Maqāmāt > consist of multiple ajnas, but the combinations are not fixed, so no single > keyboard would be an "Arabic" keyboard. > > However, if you assume an Ajam-family maqam, your statement would be > generally true of both French and Hungarian HGs (as well as all diatonic > major scale Western instruments), so that wouldn't seem to be what you mean > as it wouldn't differentiate or tell us anything other than that there are > Ajam maqāmāt that generally correspond to the western Ionian scale. > > Regarding the bellydance repertoire, that I have less trouble seeing, since > maqāmāt corresponding to the Hungarian modes (none of which are uncommon in > Western folk music) exist and there was a considerable period of musical > exchange in the region and ongoing contact with Balkan music where your > statement about using Arabic modes is indubitably true. > > Best, > > -Arle > > > On Dec 13, 2009, at 1:38 AM, Augusto de Ornellas Abreu wrote: > > > but wait > > > > there are hurdygurdies all over europe - from Russia and Hungary, up > until Galiza (in Spain) > > > > the scale on the Tekero, for example, follows one of the Arabic/Turkish > maqaamaat (arabic modes) and some of the Hungarian HG melodies are the same > I have seen bellydanced to in the Middle East. Exactly the same tunes! > > > > The HG is not only confined to a couple of French rural regions... > > > > Augusto > > Brazil > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "hurdygurdy" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<hurdygurdy%[email protected]> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy > > The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at > http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from > new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster.
