David Kilpatrick in response to Janice Hopper wrote:
Another point is the use of slightly microtonal sharps/flats and
instruments which are not in modern equal temperament. This is why most
Scottish music sounds utterly, totally wrong on electronic keyboards;
even the accordion, which is well loved for dance music, has a
temperament which is not compatible with correctly played Scottish
fiddle, or with traditional pipes (some modern pipes are set up to play
more compatibly with other instruments). A good reason for NOT
accompanying a solo singer is that left unaccompanied, the singer will
use the natural vocal temperament and intervals, and when this happens
some of the classic Scots tunes take on a special quality and beauty
which they don't have if forced to a piano scale..........
When learning a reel in A major with a fiddler, I had to question a 7th
frequently used: was it a minor of major, G or G sharp? Neither - it was
a note similar to the G on smallpipes and distinctly sharper than a
standard minor 7th. So on the guitar this needed a sort of 'bluesy' bend
upwards. It is written as a minor 7th in the music.
I believe that these are separate and unrelated problems. The first
relates to centuries of musicians' struggle with "scales" with which to
play music; i.e. the Pythagorean scale; the mean-tone scale; the
tempered scale, etc. They are not related to Scottish music exclusively
but to all western civilization music and to at least some extent to
music throughout the world. The problem results from the fact that when
our scale is constructed from the two intervals, octaves and fifths,
which are most pleasing to the human ear, a discrepancy occurs. When
moving in 12 fifths and 7 octaves from a common note, say C, the final
notes are both C but differ in pitch by a small amount called the
Pythagorean comma. In the equal tempered scale this discrepancy is
distributed equally among the twelve notes of the chromatic scale. The
result is that every note in the scale is slightly our of tune; with,
for example, the interval of a fifth being very close to correct and the
third considerably off. A second problem occurs because even in a scale
constructed using "pure" intervals the notes must be mutable so as to
make the concords exact [For example in the interval of a fifth the
ratio of the fifth note to the first must be exactly 3\2.] The
compromise reached to deal with the problem[s] is the tempered scale.
However the "problem" only occurs in fixed pitch instruments such as the
piano. It does not exist in the fiddle or violin if you prefer that name
because the player can adjust the pitch of the note to suit The piano
[and its predecessors] has so dominated western civilization music that
we tend to use it as a basis from which to compare, etc. We should not.
Re "When learning a reel in A major with a fiddler"
Many violinists/fiddlers have a common problem. There is a tendency to
play certain notes out of tune, for example C#'s on the A and G strings;
G#'s on the E and D strings are frequently played flat to correct pitch,
C and G [naturals] on the A and E strings are played sharp,etc. This is
due to the combination of those notes being physically difficult to
execute in the early stages of learning to play the instrument and
subsequent inattention to the need to listen with the consummate
attention required to play precisely in tune.
The fiddler to which you refer playing the 7th note [G] in the key of
A neither sharp nor flat is typical. There is an added complication in
Scottish music because many of the tunes are in A mixolydian requiring a
G natural and are often played in sequence with A Major tunes requiring
a G sharp This, I think, further confuses the issue.
Alexander
Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
