Ghrab Anas-Occident and Intervals in Arabic Music 2005

Contents • 1
the world of music
vol. 47(3) - 2005
The Music of “Others” in the Western World
Max Peter Baumann

Editor
Jonathan P. J. Stock
Co-Editor
Bruno Deschênes
Guest Editor
Helena B. Simonett
Book Review Editor
Kevin Dawe
Recording Review Editor
VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung

Berlin 2006
2 • the world of music 47(3) - 2005
Contents • 3
Journal of the
Department of Ethnomusicology
Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg
Vol. 47(3) – 2005
CONTENTS
The Music of “Others” in the Western World
Articles
Bruno Deschênes The Interest of Westerners in Non-Western Music . . 5
Steven Casano From Fuke Shuu to Uduboo: The Transnational

Flow of the shakuhachi to the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Jay Keister Seeking Authentic Experience: Spirituality in

Western Appropriation of Asian Music . . . . . . . . . . 37
Anas Ghrab Occident and Intervals in “Arabic Music,” from the

Seventeenth Century to the Arabic Music Congress 57
Véronique Alexandre What is the Interest of Westerners towards Chinese

Journeau Music? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Christopher J. Miller Orchids (and Other Difficult Flowers) Revisited:

A Reflection on Composing for Gamelan in North
America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Christian Utz Beyond Cultural Representation: Recent Works

for the Asian Mouth Organs Shô and Sheng by
Western Composers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Tanya Kalmanovitch Jazz and Karnatic Music: Intercultural Collaboration

in Pedagogical Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Book Reviews (Helena B. Simonett, ed.)
Alejandro L. Madrid Antonio García de León Griego. El mar de los

deseos: El Caribe hispano musical: Historia y
contrapunto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Rowan Pease Stephen Jones. Plucking the Winds: Lives of Village

Musicians in Old and New China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Peter Cooke Peregrine Horden (ed.). Music as Medicine: The

History of Music Therapy since Antiquity . . . . . . . . . 206
Peter Cooke Penelope Gouk (ed.). Musical Healing in Cultural

Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Ola Belo Mai Palmberg and Annemette Kirkegaard (ed.).

Playing with Identities in Contemporary Music in
Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Recording Reviews (Kevin Dawe, ed.)
David Cooper Máirtín Pheaits Ó Cualáin: Traditional Songs from

Connemara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Trevor Wiggins James Burns: Ewe Drumming from Ghana: The Soup
Which is Sweet Draws the Chairs in Closer . . . . . . . 214
About the
Contributors ......................................... 217
the world of music ......................................... 221

the world of music 47(3) - 2005: 57-53
Occident and Intervals in “Arabic Music,” from the

Seventeenth Century to the Arabic Music Congress
Anas Ghrab
Abstract
This article explores the history of the work done on music intervals in Arabic music
by Westerners during the last three centuries. This analysis tries to unveil the theoret-
ical precepts underlying their work and uncovers the assumptions it had on under-
standing the original literature on Arabic musical theory. Moreover, although the ba-
sic interests behind this exploration differed from one researcher to the others, some
of the ideas put forward were extremely influential. They served to put forth strong cli-
chés thought to be representative of the music of the Arab world. Finally, although this
theoretical veil, we can discern a historical evolution which is closely linked to the his-
torical rapport between the European and Arab cultures.
Starting in the first half of the seventeenth century, we notice an interest of the Occi-
dent towards oriental music, in particular an interest with the music of the Arabo-Is-
lamic civilisation.1 Right from the onset, this interest has been on technical ques-
tions, and particularly, music intervals. Historians, musicologists, philosophers or
simply translators, were hard at work trying to explain, mainly by mean of theoretic
texts what the first travellers had commented and noted on these musics. Thus, they
were face with a complexity so suspicious, that it became a quagmire that lasted
more than a century. Based on the observations and views of these musicians and re-
searchers, this study tries to trace back this historical endeavour.
1. At The Beginning
The first Westerner interested in studying intervals from Arabic sources seems to
have been the French Joseph Sauveur. To show the universality of his “General Sys-
tem of Sound Intervals”,2 Sauveur, who is considered “the founder of acoustics,” ex-
plains the “oriental music system.” His source was Pétis de la Croix’s translation of
the Kitbb al-Adwbr by Safi al-Din al-Urmawv (Sauveur 1701, 1973/R:30-32).
Sauveur presents the division of the monochord divisions in a different way than
al-Urmawv . Instead of showing al-Urmawv ’s complete method, he uses his own sys-
tem of Eptamerides which can be described as a method of succeeding tones:3 from
the fundamental sound (S), he goes up by a succession of four major tones (s sounds);
from its octave (R), he goes down by five major tones (r sounds); from the fifth (T),
he goes up by two majors tones (t sounds); and finally, from that fifth, he goes down
by four majors tones (τ sounds). However, Sauveur notices that the octave in al-Ur-
mawv ’s text is divided in 17 intervals, with two types of “Elements:” the comma
which is 5 Eptamerids and the baqiyya interval (limma) which is 23 Eptamerids. He
puts forward a tempered scale with 17 equal intervals and gives its values in Epta-
merids:
Interval Names Exact Ratios Intervals in Tempered System

Eptamerids in Eptamerids
Free string 1 0 (S) 0
limma = baqiyya 256/243 23 (τ) 18
dilimma = Zalzal’s second (256/243)2 46 (r) 35
tone 9/8 51 (s) 53
tone + limma 9/8 x 256/243 74 (τ) 71
Zalzal’s third 9/8 x (256/243)2 97 (r) 89
ditone (9/8)2= 81/64 102 (s) 106
fourth 4/3 125 (τ) 125
limma + fourth 256/243 x 4/3 148 (r) 142
dilimma + fourth (256/243)2 x 4/3 153 (s) 159
fifth 3/2 176 (T) 176
limma + fifth 256/243 x 3/2 199 (r) 195
Zalzal’s third + fourth 9/8 x (256/243)2 x 4/3 204 (s) 212
ditone + fourth 81/64 x 4/3 227 (t) 230
dopple fourth (4/3)2 250 (r) 248
limma + dopple fourths 256/243 x (4/3)2 273 (τ) 266
dilimma + dopple fourths (256/243)2 x (4/3)2 278 (t) 283
octave 2/1 301 (R) 301
Fig. 1. General System of Sound Intervals according to Joseph Saveur, 1701.
A century later, Charles Fonton publishes the first account of his “field study” on
the intervals of “oriental music.” In that essay he indicates that he does not know any
Turkish or Persian book describing this music in details, and that he finally studied
the theory and practice of this art from the masters themselves (Neubauer 1999:34).
In his approach, comparing the oriental musical system with the Western one,
Fonton indicates the presence of seven basic notes in both musics,4 as well as “half-
tones,” called here nim-s. Yet, he warns that it might be hard for him to believe that
Anas Ghrab. Occident and Intervals in “Arabic Music” • 59
“oriental music” has “voices” that do not exist in Western music. To become con-
vinced that this is the case though, he asks the reader to have a look at one oriental in-
strument: the tambur.5 The positions of the frets on this instrument show intermedi-
ate intervals between basic “tones” and “semi-tones:” for example, two frets are
present between the second and the third basic notes, and also between the third and
the fourth ones. Since these divisions exceed the Western half-tone, for Fonton these
intervals “are more than semi-tones, they constitute third- and quarter-tones” (Neu-
bauer 1999:46)
Contrary to Fonton, Benjamin de La Borde indicates paradoxically that he is not
surprised at all that the scale of “Arabic music” differs from the European one, even
suggesting that the European scale is incorrect (La Borde 1780:436). Moreover, he
proposes a “new scale,” what he considers to be “the only true one,” and which has
some similarities with the Arabic scale:6
Arabic scale European scale in True scale

equal semi-tones
RASD ut ut
nim zergoula ... ré b
zergoula ut # & ré b ut #
tik zergoula ... ...
DOUGA ré ré
nim kourdi ... mi b
kourdi ré # & mi b ré #
SEIGA ... mi
nim poussalef mi fa b
poussalek ... mi #
CHARGA fa fa
arba ... sol b
hegeas fa # & sol b fa #
tik hegeas ... ...
NAOUA sol sol
nim heussar ... la b
heussaf sol # & la b sol #
tik heussar ... ...
HUSSEININ la la
nim ageam ... sib b
ageam la # & si b la #
AOUCH ... si
nim neuft si utb
neuft ... si #
MAOUR ut ut
Fig. 2. The scale of Arabic music accorduing to Benjamin de La Borde, 1780.

It can be noticed that, with his “true scale,” de La Borde discovered the distinc-
tion between what is practiced by musicians and what is called today a “Pythagore-
an” division of the scale, in which chromatic half-tones differ from diatonic ones.7
We can notice in the above table though that the “Arabic scale” has three more
sounds than the scale de La Borde gives. He thus concludes that both scales cannot
follow the same principles. Moreover, he remarks that the “Arabic scale” is divided
into four intervals whereas the Western one is divided into two. He deduces then that
Orientals “are roughly as wrong as those who follow the equal semi-tones system.”
What was the most astonishing for him is that, although both scales have seven basic
notes, they do not always coincide: the notes Seiga and Aouch do not correspond to
the European notes mi and si.8 Finally, he sees an analogy with “the enharmonic sys-
tem of the Greeks” and declares that he does not understand anything of this system
and that he does not want to understand anything of any systems based on quarter-
tones9 (La Borde 1780:439)
The last author of the 18th century to tackle oriental music is the Italian Giambat-
ista Toderini. Helped by a European musician who knew Turkish music as well as by
two Ottoman musicians, Toderini gives us a scale with non-Western notes. For To-
derini however, Turkish music does not divide the octave in twelve intervals, but in
24 “quarter-tones.” He also thinks that this different way of dividing the octave could
be used by Italian masters to enrich their music and render it more attractive. He con-
siders it a knowledge that could “spread a new day on the theory of that science, and
clarify the dark night that surrounds ancient music.”10
“L’abbé Pizzati”11 read Toderini’s book with great delight. In a letter, of which
an extract is included in Toderini’s book, Pizzati finds in oriental intervals a proof of
the reality of the “diatonic scale,”12 not only theoretically, but also in practice, a mat-
ter that some people have not accepted to that date. “[They consider tones] necessary
to be aligned on our division of the scale, and that there isn’t any better division.
There is no doubt that the Turkish diatonic scale that we see in your book is more
complete than ours, because it contains more voices; Turkish [people] divide the tone
into more parts than we do. Thus, their melodies are likely to be more varied and be
more pleasing than ours.”13
Possibly motivated by Pizzati’s support, Toderini seems to have looked further
into the analysis of intervals. For him, the Turks make also use of the seventh with
the ratio 1:7.14 As he indicates, this latter is more logical than the common seventh
9:16 because it is naturally present in the string vibration.
Reading Sauveur, Fonton, de La Borde, Toderini or Pizzati, today gives us the
impression that having knowledge of oriental music has become a necessity for
them. Except for Fonton, the Orient is here seen as a proof of the existence of univer-
sal theories,15 or more specifically in support of Western theories, which could not
be considered any other way than a succession of equal tones and semi-tones. At the
time the Orient as well as Islamic Orient was represented by the still powerful Otto-
man empire. It will be in the nineteenth century that we will find the first works
studying the Arabic world as such.
2. History of Third-tones
If today one assigns gladly “quarter-tones” to the “Arabic music”—an idea that took
shape actually in the twentieth century—, it might be interesting to know that there is
also a history of third-tones in the nineteenth century.
The nineteenth century author who played the strongest role in initiating this
view is certainly Guillaume-André Villoteau. Having joined the Egypt expedition
undertaken by Napoleon, he was able to study this country’s music and especially
“Arabic music,” to which the first chapter of his book is devoted.16 Villoteau shows
his difficulty investigating this music, to such an extent that he considered abandon-
ing the project (Villoteau 1812, 1826/R:117). Naturally, for this difficult task he had
to exploit all available sources, from direct contact with musicians17 to the study of
manuscripts and the consultation of specialists in oriental languages.18 He ended up
with so much information that it became too problematic for him to integrate it all in
his work (Villoteau 1812, 1826/R:2-3). Although contradictory as it may seem, it is
the weakness of his sources and the lack of references that one notices first in reading
Villoteau’s work. Moreover, although conscious of the complexity of the matter, he
did not hesitate to look for a uniform musical theory from all these sources. He be-
came convinced that the “Arabs musical scale” was based on third-toned:
It appears that the Arab musical system did not maintain a constant form, and the
authors did not agree on how to create it: some divide the octave into tones, semi-
tones and quarter-tones, and thus calculate twenty-four different tones in the musical
scale; others divide it by tones and thirds of tone, making a musical scale of eighteen
sounds; others consider half quarter-tones, which give forty-eight sounds; some oth-
ers, finally, pretend that the general diagram of sounds contains forty sounds: but the
most generally accepted being the third of tone, these forty sounds therefore consist
of two octaves and a third for all the system’s range, that correspond, indeed, with the
general diagram of sounds that we found noted in Arabic, diagram that we will
present later (Villoteau 1812, 1826/R:2-3).19
It is not at all clear where Villoteau had obtained this information. He probably
read about the quarter-tone division from de La Borde’s work, information he re-
ceived from the Baron de Tott. The scale for third-tones derives from a reading of
Safi al-Din al-Urmawv’s Kitbb al-Adwbr, in which we read that, based on its division
of the string, the tone contains three intervals and the octave consists of 17 intervals.
The division into forty sounds appears to come from some manuscripts by al-Ur-
mawv’s in which he indicates the notes on the lute:20
Fig. 3.
De La Borde reproduces this same diagram but he is less precise about the posi-
tions of the frets. His indication of notes respects the original diagram by al-Urmawv
although he does not count them:21
Fig. 4.
For his part, Villoteau changes considerably the diagram information and enu-
merates by extension 40 sounds, as will Kiesewetter later, which are not present in
the original (see fig. 5).22
The most astounding in all of this is that Villoteau does not cite any sources
which uses the twelve half-tones. Yet, it is a division that has been presented by the
anonymous author of the Arbre couvert de fleurs dont les calices renferment les
principes de l’art musical [The Tree Covered by Flowers for Which Chalices Con-
tains the Principles of Musical Art],23 an important in his presentation of Arab musi-
cal theory. Villoteau takes the liberty to modify the scale while notating it and warns
the reader that he uses a scale divided into third-tones. For him, this scale is widely
accepted among Arabic authors and it is the one which concurs with the tablature of
their instruments (1812, 1826/R:15-16). He thus conceived of a scale with third-
Fig. 5.
note 24
missing
tones, in which the interval called “diatonic semi-tone is only a third-tone.” This ad-
aptation to an Occidental diatonic scale, of Villoteau’s own invention, where tone
and half-tones have an established place, will lead him to nonsense. Thus, in his
study of the modal system presented by al-Urmawv, whom he did not quote, he could
not obtain the same intervals between the notes ré, mi, x fa, sol and la, si, x do, ré, a
gap that he assigns to Arabic sources (1812, 1826/R:65-66).
However, his way to understand intervals in general changed through his musical
writing. Whereas in the beginning he was using only very general views on inter-
vals—that is what any musician learns in music schools—, he had to deepen his
knowledge of Western intervals. He encountered different principles in which,
among other things, he learns that the major tone has a ratio of 8/9, and the minor
tone has a ratio of 9/10 (1812, 1826/R:111), principles which he will not fully under-
stand and embraced. Refusing to put into question his views about the Arabic musi-
cal system, i.e. one that is divided into third-tones, this one finally appears to him to
be simpler than the Western one:
[…] it ensues thus that the musical system of Arabs is necessarily more regular
and more analogous than ours. Such claim would seem to us absurdly revolting, and
we would reject it with contempt, before we would have been convinced of its accu-
racy; but today we are forced to admit that: as tiresome as this avowal would be for
our self-esteem, truth obligates to recognize it, and we can not silence it. May some-
one, in this century so productive in marvels, with courageous genius undertakes to
help removing from the system of this form of art [that music is] the rust of wrong
principles and prejudices, a sure indication of ignorance and barbarism of the centu-
ries during which it is has been developed! Could this endeavour restore the zeal of
all skilful musicians, in order to finally get this art out from the narrow circle in
which routine has awkwardly locked it in, and where it is incessantly being outraged
by bad taste, and troubled by strange whims of a capricious and fickle fashion!25
Concerning the instruments’ tablature of Arab music, Villoteau indicates later on
in his book that musicians “really distinguish [on their instruments] […] a diatonic
scale; they know also that there are other degrees that go between the previous ones,
and they quite frequently use them: but they cannot say really what is their nature and
the intervallic distance between these degrees […]. They ignore that their musical
scale is divided into eighteen degrees that comprise seventeen small intervals where
each one is a third of tone!” (1812, 1826/R:122-123). We see here that Villoteau
could not keep away from the division of third-tones. Conscious of the fact that
something was missing, he deepened his investigation of the theory to recognize that
there exists some sort of comma, which is present among Arabs, as well as among an-
cient Greeks and Westerners (1812, 1826/R:132-133).
Even if the erroneous information given by Villoteau have mislead some of his
readers, it is unfair not to see in Fétis, who has been mislead as well, a willingness to
show the best integrity possible in his work. As part of an official mission, he could
not give the reader—who did not travel to Egypt—, a false image of Egyptian music.
The only mean he felt he had to appropriately understand what Egyptian music is was
Western notation. Aiming at being the most detailed possible, he threw himself into
a conundrum for which he was not ready. It is probably for that reason that he had to
explain himself when he introduced the question of comma. He insisted mostly on
the fact that there was a difference between what the musician plays and what is indi-
cated using the traditional notation. The latter does not consider differences between
intervals, something of great importance when it comes to intonation, following
some experiments he did with an Egyptian musician (1869:133) before going back to
France. He was thus forced to explain more thoroughly why there was a difference
between intonation and notation.
Few years later, between 1833 and 1835, the Englishman Edward William Lane,
back from a trip to Egypt, wrote a book on sociology and in which he discusses mu-
sic, including a brief passage on intervals. He also proposes a division of the octave
in third-tones which he relates to the Egyptian musical aesthetic.26 Being not a music
specialist, he quite probably based his comments on Villoteau’s work.
From the German-speaking side, the study of oriental manuscripts of music is
owed to Hammer-Purgstall’s work. The first person to profit from this is R. G.
Kiesewetter (1842-1968/R) who could thus offer the first book presenting a history
of the theoretical systems of Arabic music, and which also tries to give an idea of re-
cent practices.
Kiesewetter was impressed by the Persian “musical arithmetic” to such an extent
that he saw in it a field where he could exhibit his own intellectual ingenuity. In his
view, the 17-interval Arabic system was developed with the influence of Persian mu-
sic, thus creating an “Arabo-Persian” one. But, for him, it is the European system
with its “7 full tones and 5 half-tones” that was implemented in the Persian musical
practice (1842-1968/R:13-14), while theoreticians maintained Safi al-Din’s tradition
in their theories. Kiesewetter (1842-1968/R:15) gives us thus the following historical
developments:
1. The system of 17 intervals is an Arabic system the development of which started
in the 9th century.
2. At the beginning of the 14th century, Persian theoreticians had developed a
mathematical formulation of this system.
3. At the same time a new system imported from Europe was implemented in Per-
sia. Although it got modified over the years, its European origins are obvious, in
particular, the system of “7 tones and 5 half-tones.” Few Persian scholars were
interested by it.
Wishing to limit his presentation, he chooses to focus on what he considered to be
the “true Arabic system” without any of the Arabo-Persian variants or acoustical de-
tails (Kiesewetter (1842-1968/R:16). Thus, in his chapter about the scale, he will dis-
cuss only about the 17 sounds of the octave which he brings up to 40 sounds spread
over two octaves and a half. Contrary to Villoteau, he links this system to the cycle of
quarters, without renouncing the “third-tone” (Drittenltöne) terminology which he
considers to be an extension of the Western “semi-tone” (Halbtone). He will never-
theless try to explain how these intervals are calculated.27 In his concluding remarks,
he re-asserts once again that ”third-tones” do not really exist, and that in practice,
only the diatonic scale corresponds to the human organisation (36, note). For this, he
will be severely criticized by Fétis (1869:34-36).
After presenting the “theory of the Messel,”28 Kiesewetter discusses back the 17
intervals. He considered them—maybe rightly—third-tones.29 But these are not real-
ly equal because that would contradict the “theory of the Messel,” in addition to the
fact that the fourth and the fifth will not be pure intervals. But for Kiesewetter, the Ar-
abs’ division of the monochord seems to have been a sort of trial and error process. In
fact, Kiesewetter did not understand the logic of the division given by ‘Abd al-Qbdir
ibn Gaybi which he presents. He was able to calculate only the octave, the fifth and
the quarter. Other ratios, even if they are typically “Pythagorean,” are more difficult
to seize. He understood though that these intervals were neither real half-tones nor
third-tones, and was able to give a logical approximation of the tone’s division: 4/9 +
4/9 + 1/9 = 1 (Kiesewetter (1842-1968/R 33-34). Concerning the third-tone, Kiese-
wetter notices, although he does not give detailed calculations, that the division
based on the “theory of the Messel” of al-Shirbzi, which is derived from al-Urmawv’s
theory, gives a “consonant third”30. For that reason, he will call al-Urmawv the
“Zarlino of the Orient” (Kiesewetter 1842-1968/R 13).
Seven years later, Eli Smith publishes his free translation—as he indicates him-
self—of M. Minbqa’s text; someone with whom he had personal contacts (Smith
1849:174). Although there exists a terminology using quarter-tones, in which an ar-
ithmetical-geometric model of calculating equal quarter-tones was succinctly ex-
plained (Smith 1849:208-209 and second image), this system will be ignored until
the work of J. P. N. Land.31 Here too, with Smith, the idea of third-tones still reigns.
We can read it later on in A. W. Ambros’ chapter on the music of “Muhammadian
people.” He states that that people has developed a “very strange” system where they
replace “our half-tones by third-tones,” a system which appears to be a distortion of
the Greek one (Ambros 1887:432, note).
The situation is not much clearer with French authors. Written in the second half
of the 19th century, l’Histoire générale de la Musique of François-Joseph Fétis, fol-
lowing his study of different oriental musics, takes the form of a general theory on
races in their relation with music. For him, differences between aesthetics and theo-
ries of musics from various peoples reflect more biological and physiognomic differ-
ences than cultural ones (Fétis 1869: Introduction). In his approach, the musical sys-
tem—which continues to be reduced to the number of intervals in the octave—is the
main argument in support to this theory, and his conclusions will come to include
some aspects of the “Aryan race” evolutionary theory:
In summarizing the content of this chapter, we are able to demonstrate that in the
high antiquity there existed a scale of twenty-four quarter-tones within the octave
among Aryas of Persia; of the propagation of this scale in Minor Asia and in Greece,
through the ancient migrations; and finally, of the similarity of this scale with Turk-
ish music. After the conquest of Persia by the Arabs, in the seventh century of our
era, the musical system of victors, based on a scale of seventeen intervals within the
octave, was used in some provinces of the land, however without loosing track of the
ancient scale, since the Turks, after establishing their domination as early as the tenth
century, had adopted this even scale of twenty-four quarter-tones. Finally, the antiq-
uity and the identity of these systems can be shown by the Greek notation used previ-
ously to Pythagoras’ time, […] and which has been preserved by Aristides Quintil-
ianus […]. (Fétis 1869:369)
Fétis based his comments mainly on Toderini’s works (Persian and Turkish mu-
sic), Villoteau’s (Arabic music) and the quotation by Lane, and refer to them without
verifying their validity: for him, from now on, third-tones are “the basis of Arabic
music.”
However, following the publication of the first volume of the Histoire Générale,
Fétis had to face the critics, which seem to target not his sources or his working mod-
el, but the fact that he assigned to other peoples non diatonic scales. It is even the ex-
istence of other systems different of a twelve semi-toned scale, considered as “natu-
ral fact,” that was not acceptable by the critics. Fétis does not doubt the reality of
third-tones, even though, since 186332 Francisco Salvador-Daniel asserted that the
“classification of sounds [in Arabic music] is made by tones and half-tones like us.
Never could I distinguish in their music those intervals of third and quarter of tones
that others pretend to find in it” (Salvador-Daniel 1986:30). Fétis knew of Salvador-
Daniel’s work and refuted it by accusing him of getting used to Arabic music to such
an extent that he could no longer distinguish its correct intervals, of having not stud-
ied it with the same methods used by Villoteau, that his comparison of Arabic modes
with those of plain-chant and Greek music had been a serious hinder, and that he
seems to believe if this music uses only third of tones, this would leads him to a “pro-
found error” (Fétis 1869:37-38). Fétis also indicates that some people have indicated
that Tunisian musicians, heard at the Universal Exhibition of Paris of 1867, used no
third-tones in their singing. He uses a similar argument, saying that their music does
not only use third-tones, meaning by this comment that the songs heard were using
scales without third-tones. There is a feeling here that Fétis felt that his argument was
lacking; he thus support it by commenting, among other things, on the contact be-
tween Maghrebians and Europe through Spain. Could it be suggested that the half-
tones of Maghrebian music are of European origin? The strangeness of the intona-
tions are for him a proof of the use of third-tones: he comes to affirm that he had no-
ticed, while listening to musicians from Tunis, “that they showed wrong intonations
and monotonic songs,” and that he did not have time to do a proper investigation “to
determine the nature of their scale” (Fétis 1869:IV-V).
The belief that third of tones are representative of the Arabo-Persian scale had re-
mained until the beginning of the twenetieth century, as the Italian Chilesotti is
showing (1901-1902). He presents three interpretations of third-tones, which he pro-
poses to give detail calculations and ratios: one from Helmholtz, one from Kiesewet-
ter and one from Riemann. Following his reading of Helmholtz’s, Chilesotti suggests
that the 17-interval scale is no more than a strict cycle of fifths, but shows a “zarlin-
ian” form33 where the tone 9/8 is composed of 256/243, 135/128 and 81/80 (1901-
02:595). Kiesewetter’s one is a strict division of the octave into equal third-tones,
following the proportion of 17√ 2. Riemann, for his part, proposes two Pythagorean
divisions. The first amounts to the divisions of al-Urmawv while the second is in an-
other organisation which, according to Chilesotti, Riemann preferred.34 For Chile-
sotti, Riemann’s is the best division for the reason that it would be the “most logical
and simplest one.”35 However, Riemann (1929/R:36) considers both divisions
equivalent even if he did not give detailed calculations. Yet, he points out that one
can find in it a number of pure thirds. “Harmonies [of arabo-Persian music] would
thus be more pure than in the tempered system of 12 half-tones. Since the theory of
the Messel defines the third as a consonance of 4/5, this is no accident. With such re-
sults, we think that the 12 maqamat made by theoreticians are abstract theorems of
melodies. Practical music is not constructed from scales but from melodies. But al-
ready in the 14th century, the Western system had become widely known in practical
music while theoreticians maintained their interest in the theory of the Messel.”
3. Diatonic Foundation of the Arabic System
At a certain point, the re-affirmation of the primordial importance of diatonism be-

gins therefore to be felt. As Fétis and Ambros, Félix Clément integrates “Arabic mu-
sic” in a general history of music, under a chapter titled: “Music of the Arabs.”36
However, his study of intervals is much less authoritarian than his predecessors, but
to the prejudice of clarity. It can be suggested that Clément tries to rally diatonism
and “appreciation of closed intervals,” as well as reducing the differences found by
Fétis between Oriental and Western music. He bases his argumentation on musical
practice as such and on musical perception by listeners. Indeed, he asserts that Arab
music is diatonic because it contains tones and half-tones. He thinks that it is the
character of that people and their approach to music that lead musicians to be attract-
ed by small intervals. Besides, instruments with fixed sounds lack in this culture,
contrarily to Western one. But a musician would integrate “third- and quarter-tones
while linking them to tonality with such an art that one do not perceive [them] and do
not think about a theory of the scale composed of seventeen thirds or twenty-four
quarter-tones” (Clément 1885:61).
On the other hand, “in choirs [of Western music], mostly in those of male voices,
a scrupulous ear notices […] that a half-tone is often lower than it should be, and that
singers move down of two thirds of tone rather than a half-tone.” He wonders also:
“Which well organized musician has not been stricken by the difference of intona-
tion that exists while playing a Haydn or Mozart trio by a violin, an alto and a cello,
and a Mendelssohn trio, for example, by a violin, a cello and a piano, in which string
instruments are frequently in discord with the equal temperament of the piano. Imag-
ination of the listener, and moreover his comprehension of the musical discourse, re-
place what he does not really hear. He thinks that he had heard the correct sound be-
cause he grasped the composer’s intention.”
These two comments by Clément somehow show that, after all, he believes that
there is no real difference in the practice of intervals in both musics. “Their musical
practice is empirical and based on feelings and musical expression.” Besides, West-
ern musical practice of intervals is more complex than it seems to be. Without giving
a real conclusion, he only asserts the diatonic foundation of “Arabic music” and fol-
lowed by Salvador-Daniel’s statements. Furthermore, he underlines the fact that the
treatises used by Villoteau and Kiesewetter contradict themselves and cannot thus be
used as references.
We can distinguish similar conclusions in J. Tiersot’s writing: one should ob-
serve practice and this shows that those intervals are not specific to Orient. “What is
true is that the foundation of music is and always was, with all peoples, the diatonic
scale. But this scale can get chromatic alterations by sharp and flat. Let these alter-
ations be slightly more or less wide than half-tones, and we get the third-tones of the
Arabs.” (Tiersot 1905:60 du Ménestrel)
Diatonism is also confirmed in practice by the Baron Carra de Vaux in his work
on the second book of al-Urmawv, al-risbla al-sharafiyya, which was at that period
still unknown, and which presents a context completely different from the 17 inter-
vals in the octave. This author gives no opinion on third-tones, which were developed
from the first book of al-Urmawv or from derived works. Therefore, facing up the
large number of intervals broached in this second work, he makes only this remark:
We have shown that the series of eight sounds in the octave dominated this art, as
the scale in ours. The number of sounds, very large in theory, was much reduced in
practice, in which subsists only half-tones and sharps.37
4. Genesis of Quarters of Tone
At the same time of the publication of the Histoire de la musique by Félix Clément, J.
P. N. Land gives us one of the main 19th century works that delved the most into in-
tervals from Arabic sources. The idea of diatonism in Arabic music is also very
present in his study (Land 1884-1885:99), but his real interest resides in the wide his-
toric reading of interval practices, started previously by Kiesewetter. Land values the
text of al-Fbrbbi,38 neglected by his predecessors, presents the wsstb of Zalzal from
which he will put forward the expression neutral third (98), and refers to Minbqa’s
treatise, translated some years earlier by Eli Smith.39 Because these authors all make
mention of quarter-tones, Land brings about a transition from the history of third-
tones to one of quarter-tones in “Arabic music.”40 But he considers quarter-tones as
a part of a multitude of practices presented by authors from different periods, and not
as the “Arabic musical scale.” For him we have here different variants of a diatonic
foundation.
His work had an immediate impact. Starting in 1884, Alexander J. Ellis, an ac-
oustician who helped Land to interpret and provide mathematical calculations for his
work, insists that his aim was to give an auditory idea of “non-harmonic scales” in
current musical practices, and among others, for musics of “Arabia and Syria.” He
mentions of a “scale of Zalzal” which contains a third and a sixth lower of about a
quarter of tone from a diatonic third of 408 cents.41 This scale would have been tem-
pered not long ago as read in Mishâqâ’s treatise.42 Ellis goes further and claims that
the crusades, which took place after Zalzal’s death, have brought the Syrian bagpipe
to England, which later became the national instrument of Scotland’s Highlands. In
analyzing the intervals of the scale produce by this instrument, he discovers in its
tempered form the intervals of the “damascanian form of the Zalzal’s scale” (Ellis
1885:371-372)!
Dom Parisot also discusses the “Arabic scale” from a historical perspective. For
him, the origin of music and its beginnings are similar among all peoples, but after-
ward, each “race” adapts it to its own requisites. Although Parisot gives some histor-
ical and theoretical data—not always with proper rigour—, he values more a distinc-
tion between the theory and practice of intervals: the complex calculations of Arab
theoreticians existed only in theory (Parisot 1899:281), and arbitrariness prevails
among theoreticians (Parisot 1899:82).43 Concerning the scale as it pertains to prac-
tice, he first presents a scale composed of four half-tones and five steps, ut, ut#, ré,
ré#, mi, fa, and argues that it has a greater number of steps than the Greek tetrachord
and than those of the current scale (Parisot 1899:82). He comes to the conclusion that
“the Arabic scale” has ten intervals and eleven steps.44 Is this related to his interest in
showing, after presenting an evolution of the scale using Land’s and De Vaux’s
works, some common principles in the creation of Gregorian modes (Parisot
1899:87)? He will not, however, follow up on this idea. After the conference of 1898,
he presents Minbqa’s scale of twenty-four tempered quarter-tones, whose treatise
seems to have been “the practical handbook of musicians in Syria” (Parisot
1899:281), even if its scale is “defective in its principle and shows lack of clarity”
(Parisot 1899:89).
Dechevrens’ view of the “natural” scale is typical of a great number of musicolo-
gists of the end of the 19th century, a view which has been widely maintained later
on:
I showed, in my second Étude (chap. II), how the first theoreticians of Gregorian
music went about to put in place the harmonic canon, i.e. the true measure of all mu-
sical intervals, and we saw from the first Étude, that this method is a most scientific
one, as it is based on a natural fact, today well-known in acoustics, that is, the phe-
nomenon of the harmonic resonance.
That is the scale which we have been using for a long time; the Occidental Arabs
as well maintained it, not for its scientific principles which they ignored, but because
it is the only scale which conforms to nature and also because, there, nature has not
been destroyed, neither tainted by a wrong musical education. Arabs of the Orient,
on the contrary, and modern Greeks, between the tenth and the fourteenth century,
abandoned the traditions of their fathers and had pounced on innovations which are
as unscientific as disastrous to the musical art itself. What else did they find in it, ex-
cept ruin and decline? (Dechevrens 1898, Annexe I:11-12)45
Dechevrens talk may be misleading. His description of the harmonic resonance
as the source of his scale could lead us to think that he is describing the “Zarlinian”
scale, also called the “physicians’ scale.” This scale uses more consonant intervals
than the “Pythagorian” scale and provides the pure third (5/4). But upon close exam-
ination of the Études, he is talking about the “Pythagorian” scale deriving from the
cycle of fifths.46
Following his reading of Dechevrens’, Parisot suggests that the ancient Arabic
scale was purely diatonic and that, through foreign influences coming from Persia
and Greece, for example, it was later altered. Dechevrens contends that the Arabs did
not stop or slow down the corruption of their music from various origins, such as
Greek and Turk. However, he uses Salvador-Daniel’s work to distinguish African
Arabs’s music, where ”primitive” traditions were maintained, while musical decline
continued among the Arabs of Syria, who have wrongly imported the Greek theory.
He concludes that number of degrees and intervals became greater in Orient, and this
“fanciful multiplication” of intervals possibly produced confusion among theoreti-
cians of “Arabic music.” In this context, the tempered scale of Mi_âqa appeared to
Dechevrens as a simplification of a chaos. Even if it is “strange” one, it gives a per-
fect regularity in which “Arabic music” would use only three “simple” intervals: the
“great tone” composed of four diesis47 which correspond to a major tone, the “small
interval” composed of two diesis the value of which is exactly a tempered half-tone,
and the “mean interval” of three diesis which correspond approximately to the minor
tone.48
The one who left a most persuasive mark at the beginning of the twentieth centu-
ry is M. Collangettes, professor of physics in Beirut. Similarly to P. N. Land, he pre-
sents a fairly lengthened work based on theories from Arabic authors who distin-
guish mathematical processes from practice. Moreover, he refutes the third-tone
scale proposed by Villoteau and Kiesewetter (Collangettes 1904:409). For the “mod-
ern scale,” Collangettes asserts that “all oriental Arabs agree nowadays with a scale
of twenty-five notes in the octave. The numerous testimonials written and oral that I
have gathered are concordant on this point” (Collangettes 1904:411). He leans to-
wards Minbqa’s work —the scale of which was, according to Mahmsd Kahhbl, uni-
versally accepted in Damascus—, on the Safinat al-mulk of Shihbb al-Din, and on the
Egyptian ‘Otmbn ibn Muhammad al-Jundi. He also emphasizes that that scale is sim-
ilar to the one used by musicians from Bagdad. Collangettes admits however that
those musicians agree only on the overall form of the scale asserting that, besides the
tone and the half-tone, there exists a interval smaller than a half-tone called “quarter”
(rub’), but its exact value is to be calculated. Meanwhile, we have to notice the work
of Ibrbhim Bey Mustafb, that Collangettes’ theory does not consider, who contends
that all bardbt49 are divided into four parts to get 28 intervals by octave. Moreover,
Mustafâ, member of the Egyptian institute, apparently attempted to apply the third-
tone scale proposed by Villoteau.50
After having analysed Minbqa’s text, Collangettes concludes that it is not possible
to establish a theory of the “modern scale” solely from Minbqa’s text, “all the more so
that in his different methods,51 his own calculations do not concord.” Finally, he de-
cides to measure intervals by experience from miscellaneous instruments, with vari-
ous musicians and with a sonogram:
There were divergences between the results obtained, one had to expect such
thing, but they were ordinarily of little importance, and there were as well absolute
concordances. Our research pertained mostly to the intervals: yeka-‘iraq, rast-sika,
nawa-aouj, and our results agreed with the wosta of Zalzal: as for the flat that pre-
cede the notes ‘iraq, sika, aouj, our measures provide us with the certainty that they
correspond to the diatonic wosta. Entire tones are major tones, other “quarters” are
really quarter-tones, which seem to have been brought up by a desire to get some reg-
ularity in the division of the octave. But it is rarely put to use. Modern scale is not a
tempered scale which follows a progression of 24√2; it is an old XIIIth century scale
with some added intervals. (Collangettes 1904:414)
5. The Berlin School
A new development will mark the beginning of the XXth century: the analysis of
practice in order to resolve the question of the intervals of music. It is in Germany, in
parallel to Collangettes’ work with the sonogram, that a totally new approach in the
study of intervals appears. The invention of the phonograph by the American Edison
in 1877 has allowed the “Berlin school” to make live recordings, these recordings in-
cluded Arabic music.52 Following Ellis, Hornbostel & Abraham (1904:204) will use
the cent as a new reference and as a mean of comparison. The work of Hornbostel
(1906) on some Tunisian melodies will remain unique in its method since it analyses
the pitches within these melodies without trying to integrate them into a precon-
ceived scale. Hence, twenty melodies lead him to twenty scales, but, he indicates
that, even though this large number of different scales might give an impression of
hazardous intonation, some internal concordances are present, and one needs to ana-
lyze a larger number of melodies to uncover clearly these scales. These “hazardous
differences” as other constants possibly come from psychological phenomena, as
well as the influence of the melodic movements of intonation. But these variations of
pitch would not be specific to this music but could be found in any music having a
broadened feeling of tonality, this including Western, music which lacks such types
of studies (1906:32-33). Hornbostel concluded that the state of our current knowl-
edge does not allow to ascertain a representative Arabic scale. However, this did not
prevent him from presenting a table which summarized his results, with 24 tempered
quarter-tones as reference. All values between 275 and 325 cents were considered
minor thirds, and values between 325 et 375 “neutral thirds.” Moreover, his 24 inter-
val scale was a reference already known (1906:35).
6. Intervals of “Arabic Music” in Max Weber’s Sociology of Music
It is not at all unexpected to suppose that, in comparing different musics, a sociology

of music will be put forward in order to explain the peculiarities of Western music in
comparison to other musics. In considering social conditions which led him to con-
clude that only Western music has developed a “harmonic” music, Max Weber
showed an interest in non-European musics and in particular “Arabic music.” His
main focus centered on the question of the rational and the irrational, a line of
thought which could guide a development of a harmonic system or be its impedi-
ment. For him, “primitive musics” have interval modulations that are based on me-
lodic expression; this is made possible by the use of small irrational variations.
These would influence the “music of high cultures”, among them Arabian music,
which has made a “progress in precept” by ignoring the fact “that some neighbour
sounds which are irrational between themselves can be used at the same time”
(1998:82). The fifth, one of the fundamental harmonic intervals, was not reliable
among Arabs […]” (1998:128), the fourth, on which the ‘sd tuning is based, was “ra-
tional,” but most of all, it is the third which appeared to be “irrational.”53 Weber will
not limit himself to the third, but will talk about an entire “irrational system”
(1998:65). He concludes that the evolution of the Arabic system supports the irratio-
nal third. Based on Weber’s conclusions, we would have chronologically: [1] a ratio-
nal Pythagorean system; [2] with the Persian influence and the reform of Zalzal, irra-
tional intervals find themselves alongside with diatonic intervals which had been
enriched between the Xth and the XIIIth century; [3] in the XIIIth century all intervals
are brought back to a system based on the cycle of fifths;54 [4] and finally, the “mod-
ern Arabo-Syrian manner of calculation,” in reference to Minbqa.
What Weber considers here is only the non-tempered aspect of Minbqa’s discus-
sion, which is what Colangettes has underlined (1904:417). Minbqa has distin-
guished 24 quarter-tones, but in reality he has divided “each of both joined fourth
into a whole tone (8/9) that he considers equal to 4 ‘quarter-tones,’ and two different
intervals of almost ‘three quarter of a tone’—11/12 et 81/88—, that he considers as
being both equal to 3 ‘quarter-tones’ (1998:71). Minbqa’s scale would thus contain
the seven intervals the most used in practice,” including among others “Zalzal’s an-
cient third.” It was important for Weber’s theory to maintain that these “quarters” or
“thirds” of tone are not really “equal” (1998:72). Land’s criticism of Villoteau’s and
Kiesewetter’s “third-tones” were of great help (1998:69). In this sense, even from
Minbqa’s theory, we do not get equal intervals between notes, neither a “tempera-
ment,” something essential for a true harmonic system. The tendency to “equality of
distances” between intervals could be found in all cultures, including the “Arabic
scale,” except that this scale “was deeply confused because of these irrational thirds”
(1998:74).
Thus, the “irrational thirds”–also found on instruments described by al-Fbrbbv–
comprise intervals which are made “in a totally arbitrary and mechanical way,” and
found their way into Minbqa’s theory: “such musical arbitrariness have deeply al-
tered our perception of music and took us away from an understanding of harmonic
relations.” (1998:128)
For Weber, this is not specific to Arabs. It is all of Western music which seems to
have this “irrational third” which in all likelihood comes from the bagpipe. The “par-
ticular ethos of this irrationality” had been an important source for musical reform-
ers, enticing them to produce new irrational thirds. Moreover, the invasion of the
Middle-East world by the musical system of the Arabs has definitely stopped any
evolution toward harmony or even toward a strict diatonism.” (1998:125)
7. “Micro-intervals,” a New Market?
Piano manufacturers have also shown an interest fairly early in dividing the octave
beyond the twelve half-tones. In 1912-1913 is created a piano the purpose of which is
to play al-Urmawv’s scale; it was a collaboration between Nagib Nahhbs and the so-
ciety Rud IBACH Sohn (Berlin) (Collective 347-348). A document of 1928 indicates
that Nahhbs has collaborated also with the manufacturer Gaveau in Paris and with the
keyboard maker Herburger (idem.). The piano that Nahhbs presented during the Con-
gress of Cairo of 1932 is a result of these last attempts, but was finally made by the
manufacturer Föster. It comprised 3 levels, the first for quarters of tone, the second
for half-tones and the third for third-tones.
Georges Sammân, backed by the Egyptian minister of foreign affairs, has also
been in contact with a German company in order to commercialize his piano, named
OLO-A and made in 1922. It has the following inscriptions: Rosoval Piano; Rosoval
Piano, SCHMITT Hagen i.W; Breveté n° 5896 SAMAN; Schmitt’s Resonanz Sys-
tem D.R.P. N° 225369 u 233880 (Collective 1992:351). An OLO-B, made by the
same company was also built. Concerning it, an agreement, involving the Gramo-
phone Company, would have been signed in 1931 between Sammân et Mansûr ‘Aw-
wâd. Among other attempts, one could also quote the French manufacturer Pleyel
who has collaborated with Emile ‘Ariybn, and the Föster manufacturer with the com-
poser Aloïs Haba (353).
8. Toward a Settling of the Scale
Research on intervals will continue with the intensification of contacts with practi-
cians of Middle-Eastern music. J. Rouanet (1992:2749-2754) referred back to Col-
langettes adding the divisions of other modern authors, among them Muhmmad
Kbmil al-Khula‘I,55 Idris Rbgheb Bey, Muhammad Dhaker Bey56 and, concerning
the transposition which began to be updated in the Arab world, Nakhla Ilybs
Matrji.57 For Rouanet (1922:2753), although all these divergences between ancient
and modern, and the different approaches used so far, make it difficult to break even
for the Arab scale with the modern scale, in practice; “the scale of Arabian musicians
gets along very well with all the meticulousness and the calculations, and this insis-
tent fact allows us to agree even with Meshâqa and his translators in giving us an ex-
act notion of the modern Arabic scale which is reduced to its simplest expression.”
Finally, Rouanet confirms that the scale given by Collangettes is conformed “to tra-
ditions as well as current practice.”
At the time of the Congress of Cairo, the Western viewpoint on the question of in-
tervals is best presented by the Baron d’Erlanger.58 One can notice that the scale giv-
en by Collangettes remained marginal; further researches needed to be pursued. De-
spite the progress of the knowledge acquired from Arabic writings, the trace of some
doctrines strongly remain. Indeed, right from the first pages d’Erlanger (1930-1959,
V:3) writes that “the diatonic scale, Pythagorean or the one from physicians, the
scale built out of consonant sequences of fourth, fifth and octave, would be the only
natural scale, the only one to be immediately given by the Nature, according to an
opinion generally admitted by musicologists.”59 Having certainly noticed that the
fret positions of the ‘sd as found in the tunbsr of Khurasbn and in the kitbb al-adwbr
give this scale, d’Erlanger came to consider that the Arabic modal system contains
all possible scales that could be produced by this “natural scale.” Besides, this system
has some notes that are considered “artificial.” For d’Erlanger, even if “we admit
with the acousticians that the human voice by itself would produce only sounds
which belong the so-called ‘natural’ scale,” musical instruments would be used here
to get the voice accustomed to artificial sounds, preventing it to be solicited by
sounds of the Nature. Musical instruments allow for all imaginable ways of dividing
the scale (Vol. V:3-4). One could deduce this from Collangettes’, and as indicated in
the La Musique Arabe (Vol. V:4-5), the problem was not to better understand the in-
tonation and the intervals used by Arabs, but has become a problem of fixation of the
“Arabic musical scale.”
9. Synthesis and Conclusion
With this investigation of the Western literature on the study intervals in Arabic mu-
sic, during a period of more than two centuries, we hope we have clarified the histor-
ic and conceptual grounds which dominated those studies. We see first of all a split
between acousticians, and musicologists and historians. While the firsts master the
physical and mathematics of sound and could make correct relations between the
Western scale and the data they gathered about Oriental systems, the seconds dealt
only with the traditional reference of 12 semi-tones in the octave, without taking hold
of its conventions, fluctuations, history and practice. When a musicologist was more
thorough in his study of the scale (e.g., Dechevrens), the “Pythagorian” scale was the
reference because it was considered as the natural scale of comparison.
Usual methodologies to the study of intervals were not adapted to such enter-
prise. That is, knowledge about the history of “temperaments” of Western music and
understanding of the problem of the octave incommensurability were necessary for
such an investigation. Charles Fonton, for example, noticed the large number of frets
on the Turkish tambur, but he had no knowledge of Niccolo Vicentino’s Archicem-
balo. In his view, one could wonder if the aim of al-Urmawv who presented a division
of 17 intervals in the octave differs from that of Salinas, in 1577, who proposed a di-
vision of 25 intervals in the octave. Both Fonton and Salinas wanted to find the most
just intervals, i.e. the just fifth (3/2), and the just third (5/4). They both went beyond
the typical Western diatonism.60
Moreover, these authors were interpreting their readings of limited sources with-
out taking into consideration the cultural complexity of the Oriental world. The over-
all attitude was to find some kind of universal model while ignoring what could not
be integrated into it. Although d’Erlanger new about them, the work on “Arabic mu-
sic” by Dechevrens, based on the one by Salvador-Daniel and Parisot, which was in-
terpreted as occidental “African Arabic Music,” and oriental “Syrian Arabic Music,”
did not have much impact. It helped researches on Gregorian music and ancient
Greek music but was not characterized as “Arabic music.”
If the study of texts had progressed, by referring to and studying translations of
known manuscripts, the view about sound pitches did not change among musicolo-
gists, the five tone and two semi-tone divisions of the octave remained dominating.
Analysis of the practice, intuitive in its beginning, but systematised with the “Berlin
school” did not have followers. Yet, this is the only scientific type of work which can
give a more thorough explanation of the whole subject matter. On the other hand,
works done from secondary sources have imposed their views on intervals and on
their history, and ended by classifying as “Oriental music” the music coming from
the Islamic world, and later by confusing the Arabic-speaking world and Arabs.
Paying a closer look at the general evolution of these investigations, one notices
in the Western attitude, even in a schematic manner and with possible overlaps, a
progression in three steps: First, the interest for Oriental music reflects an interest for
the Other. The Other toward whom we travelled, the Other that we observe and then
we study. In that situation what takes precedence are comparatives approaches, and
some of the collected information feed universal theories, which must be underlined
even if they do not constitute the central point of a study. Once one got an idea of the
music of the Other, the second step was to return back onto Oneself. The look back
onto Oneself allowed some authors, while elaborating General Histories and study-
ing Western particularities, to refer back to Western music not only in its internal his-
tory but also toward ancient and foreign cultures.
Finally, with the third step we observe an involvement with the Other. The Occi-
dent having conceived of an “Arabic music,” the fixation of a unique scale was es-
sential to the definition of that music, and was thus imposed. However, even if we do
not detail the nature of this involvement, we have to evoke the fact that Arabic na-
tionalism found evidently its interest in it. In a colonial universe, in a period where
actors were numerous, it becomes a complex venture to determine everyone’s role.
But what one cannot conceal is that, even before the Congress of Cairo, the division
of the scale into twenty-four quarter-tones has been adopted. Egyptian institutions
were in contact not only with musicological research representatives, but also with
piano makers. In some ways, the Congress has been organized only to officialize the
scale. European scientists were invited or involved not only as scientific authorities,
but mainly as a witness of that change. Once that musical system of the Arabic world
was validated and officialized, everyone was ready to lead a new market with new
commercial products. If some years earlier, researchers were put out on the question
of the scale, political and commercial powers have settled the question. Even if at
that time a commercialisation of pianos with twenty-four quarter-tones did not occur,
in 1986, the YAMAHA PSR-62 was ahead of the “Oriental” electronic keyboards. A
simple key adds to the equal tempered twelve semi-tones a third reduced by a quarter
of tone. The exact quarter-tone was finally realized.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Mr. Christian Poché for his remarks during the redaction of this article.
Notes
1 On the French interest with a general view, see. Eckhard Neubauer: Musique arabe en France
1680-1830, esquisse chronologique des débuts de l’intérêt français pour la musique arabe, sa
théorie et ses instruments; Christian Poché: La musique arabe vue de France. Both articles
were published in Le Monde Arabe dans la vie intellectuelle et culturelle en France, Institut du
Monde Arabe, 1989. On the evocation of the Orient in Western music of the nineteenth cen-
tury, see. Jean-Pierre Bartoli, L’orientalisme dans la musique française du XIXe siècle, la
ponctuation, la seconde augmentée et l’apparition de la modalité dans les procédures exo-
tiques, Revue belge de musicologie, LI (1997), p.137-170.
2 “Système Général des Intervalles des Sons”.
3 In this method, the octave is divided into 301 equal units, each one being an Eptamerid. The
“major tone” (9/8) is composed of 51 Eptamerids.
4 The names of the seven basic main tones are: ïeguiah, achiran, arak, rast, duguiah, seguiah et
tchareguiah (Neubauer, 1999:45).
5 An Ottoman long-necked lute.
6 Benjamin de La Borde indicated that this scale was transmitted to him by the Baron of Tott, a
diplomat and French general in Turkey. We reproduce here de La Borde’s transliteration.
7 The division deriving from the cycle of fifths: scale given only by pure fifths (ratio 3/2) and
pure fourths (4/3). It gives the tone of ratio 9/8 and a non-consonant third (ratio 81/64). The
division of al-Urmawv indicated above (see the table of Sauveur’s Eptamerids), is an extension
of the “Pythagorean scale.”
8 The notes mi and si are equivalent to E and B.
9 Later on, many authors will regularly try to find a link between oriental and ancient Greeks
music, “quarter-tones” being the common principle in their investigation.
10 “[…] répandre un nouveau jour sur la théorie de cette science, & éclaircir la nuit obscure qui
enveloppe la musique ancienne.” (Toderini, 1789:238)
11 This Pizzati is possibly Giuseppe Pizzati, author of La scienza de’ suoni e dell’armonia diretta
specialmente a render ragione de’ fenomeni ed a conoscer la natura e le leggi della mede-
sima, Venezia, 1782.
12 Referring here to the “Pythagorean scale.”
13 “comme s’il falloit nécessairement se régler sur la division de notre échelle, & qu’il n’y en eût
pas une meilleure. Il n’est pas douteux que l’échelle diatonique des turcs telle qu’on la voit
dans votre savant ouvrage, ne soit plus complète que la notre, parce qu’elle est plus abondante
en voix, les turcs divisant le ton en plus de parties que nous ne faisons. Aussi leur mélodie est-
elle certainement plus suceptible de variété & d’agréments qu’elle ne l’est chez nous.”
(Toderini, 1789:239)
14 Or also another with the ratio 9:15 3/4.
15 It was in order to write his Harmonie Universelle that during the 17th century, Marin Mersenne
looked for Oriental music manuscripts (cf. E. Neubauer’s article cited above, p. 132).
16 Volume XIV of the Description de l’Égypte. The second part of the volume XIII is dedicated
to musical instruments. A section of the volume VI by Villoteau also discusses musical instru-
ments, but from sculptures present on antiquity monuments.
17 Cf. chapter II, De la pratique de la musique parmi les Égyptiens modernes.
18 He misreads of some translated texts. He inverses, for example, the meaning of the sentence he
indicates in the note 1 of the page 13. The author he cites, al-Mbrdini, says that name of modes
he gives are different from those of Persians. Villoteau translated that by “according to the
Persian system.”
19 The diagram can be found at page 45 of Villoteau.
20 This picture comes from the manuscript of this page: http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/ljs/
PageLevel/index.cfm?ManID=ljs235&Page=14. See also, d’Erlanger, La Musique Arabe,
Vol. III, p. 372.
21 De La Borde, p. 163.
22 Villoteau, Vol. 14, p. 45.
23 Translation of al-Shajara dbt al-Akmbm al-Hbwiya li ’Ussl al-Angbm, edited by Gattbs ‘Abd
al-Malik Khanaba and Isis Fathallah, al-Hay’a al-Misriyya li al-Kitbb, Caire, 1983.
24 In the Volume 13, p. 238, Villoteau describes some logical, but fictive, intervals on the lute, in
which he makes use of the epimoric ratios.
25 “[…] il s’ensuit donc nécessairement que le système de la musique des Arabes est plus
régulier et plus analogue que le nôtre. Une pareille assertion nous aurait paru d’une absurdité
révoltante, et nous l’aurions rejetée avec mépris, avant que nous nous fussions convaincus de
son exactitude; mais aujourd’hui nous sommes forcés de l’admettre: quelque pénible que soit
pour notre amour-propre cet aveu, la vérité l’exige, et nous ne pouvons le taire. Puisse-t-il,
dans ce siècle si fécond en merveilles, déterminer quelque homme de génie courageux à entre-
prendre de faire disparaître du système de cet art de chez nous la rouille des faux principes et
des préjugés, indices trop certains de l’ignorance et de la barbarie des siècles où il a été formé!
Puisse-t-il ranimer le zèle de tous les musiciens habiles, pour faire enfin sortir cet art du cercle
étroit dans lequel la routine l’a mal-adroitement renfermé, et où il ne cesse d’être outragé par
le mauvais goût, et tourmenté par les caprices bizarres d’une mode fantasque et inconstante!”
(Villoteau, 1812, 1826/R:111-112)
26 “The most remarkable peculiarity in the Arab system of music is the division of tones into
thirds. Hence I have heard Egyptian musicians urge against the European systems of music
that they are deficient in the number of sounds. These small and delicate gradations of sound
give a peculiar softness to the performances of the Arab musicians, which are generally of a
plaintive character. But they are difficult to discriminate with exactness, and are therefore sel-
dom observed in the vocal and instrumental music of those who have note made a regular
study of the art.” (Lane, 1936:352)
27 See chapter Von den Verhältnissen der Töne, und von der Art und Weise dieselben zu berech-
nen. Von der Consonanz und Dissonanz.
28 The word “das Messel” is undoubtedly a latinisation of the Arabic word “al-mithl” (M-TH-L
becomes M-S-L and al- becomes das. Kiesewetter wrote the word at first on p. 25. “Mlssll”
maybe to indicate that “e” is something between an “i” and “e,” which is translated in the
french text by “le même” (“the same,” “the similar,” or “the similar to itself”). “Al-mithl” cal-
culates proportions by considering it equivalent to 1/1, which is the total lengh of the string,
and by comparing it to another proportion on the string. For example, “al-mithl wa al-thuluth”
(“the same and the third”) is the intervallic proportion between the total string (1/1) and its
third (1/3), which is equivalent to 3/3 + 1/3= 2/3, i.e. the proportion of the pure fifth. The term
“al-mithl” is the equivalent of the Greek term “epimoron.” Thus, one can say that the “theory
of the Messel” is the theory of “epimoric (or superparticular) intervals.”
29 In fact, if al-Urmawv’s division is clear, Kiesewetter will continue a linear type of reasoning.
When presenting the transposition of modes on all notes of the scale, his interpretation will
consider these 17 intervals as equal ones.
30 But for him, it was a knowledge belonging to Persians which was ignored by Arabs.
31 Minbqa’s system was quoted by Helmholtz, pp. 434-435.
32 Date of the first publication of La musique arabe et ses rapports avec la musique grecque et le
chant grégorien [The Arabic music and its relation with the Greek music and Gregorian
chant.
33 Helmholtz shows this connection without modifying the scale: he found out (Helmholtz, 1863-
1913/R, 1983/R:457) that a wrong interpretation of the 17 intervals were made by an analogy
to the 6-tone tempered system in order to get third-tones. He indicates that that scale can be
obtain by calculating a cycle of fifths which gives a third that do not differ in practice from the
natural third (Interval of ratio 5:4). But it must be said that for Helmholtz (1863-1913/R, 1983/
R:456), the Arabo-Persian system knew only of the cycle of fifths.
34 We do not find though such assertion in Riemann’s text. The order in question is: do, do#, réb,
ré, etc. instead of do, réb, mibb, ré, following the Pythagorean division.
35 "Tra le diverse interpretazioni del sistema arabo-Persiano, che ora possiamo giudicare a base
di numeri, mi pare che sia più convincente quella che diedi Helmholtz, perchè più logica e più
semplice. Nei gradi proporzionali del Kiesewetter poi riscontriamo serie di suoni che mancano
di qualunque analogia con quelli delle scale pitagorica, naturale e temperata. Tutto questo
diciamo per concederci il lusso di studiare una teoria molto singolare, chè lo stresso Riemann
riconosce come fino dal Secolo XIV i Persiani ebbero ad apprendere il nostro sistema, che fu
da essi accettato nella pratica.” (Chilesotti, 1901-1902:598).
36 [La musique chez les Arabes].
37 “Nous avons montré que la série de huit sons embrassant une octave dominait déjà dans cet
art, comme la gamme dans la notre. Le variété des sons, très grande en théorie, a été de beau-
coup réduite dans la pratique, où le demi-ton et le dièse seuls subsistent.” (Carra de Vaux,
1891:354).
38 Of which he gives a translation of some sections about musical instruments. Those sections
constitute mostly his history of the Arabic scale.
39 Eli Smith, “A Treatise on Arab Music chiefly from a work by Mikhail Meshaka, of Dam-
ascus”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, iii (1849), pp. 171-217.
40 It must be said here that the idea of quarter-tones was not new. Turkish and Greek was consid-
ered as representative of quarter-tone musics. See, for example: Bourgault-Ducourday, L.-A.:
Études sur la musique ecclésiastique grecque, mission musicale en Grèce et en Orient, jan-
vier-mai 1875, Hachette, Paris, 1877.
41 Given intervals in cents: C 204 D 151 qE 143 F 204 G 151 qA 143 Bb 204 C.
42 C 200 D 150 qE 150 F 200 G 150 qA 150 Bb 200 C.
43 For intervals smaller than the “primitive” intervals: octave, fifth and fourth.
44 It seems that he added here a second tetrachord without completing the octave.
45 “J’ai montré, dans ma IIe Étude (chap. II), comment s’y prenaient les premiers théoriciens de
la musique grégorienne pour établir le canon harmonique, c’est-à-dire la vraie mesure de tous
les intervalles musicaux, et l’on a vu par la Ie Étude, que cette manière de procéder est réelle-
ment des plus scientifiques, étant fondée sur un fait naturel, bien constaté aujourd’hui en
acoustique, le phénomène de la résonance harmonique.
Voilà l’échelle qui n’a pas cessé d’être en usage parmi nous; les Arabes occidentaux l’ont
aussi conservée, non en vertu de principes scientifiques qu’ils ignorent, mais parce que cette
échelle est la seule conforme à la nature et que, chez eux, la nature n’a été ni détruite, ni viciée
par une fausse éducation musicale. Les Arabes orientaux, au contraire, et les Grecs modernes,
entre le Xe et le XIVe siècle, ont abandonné les traditions de leur pères et se sont jetés dans des
innovations aussi peu scientifiques que funestes à l’art musical lui-même. Qu’y ont-ils trouvé,
sinon la décadence et la ruine?”
46 Because it gives two tones with the ratio 9/8, thus the third with the ratio (9/8)2 = 81/64, it
gave the terminology “diatonic”. Today, as we use it in this article, the terms “diatonic” and
diatonism refer to a scale using a system of high sounds in the octave, in other words three
intervals into the fourth and five into the fifth, with the possibility of altered notes. This scale
has been described first in Arabic texts on music and the system had continued to be used in
the Arabo-Andalousian music more for its diatonic character than for the nature of its ratios.
47 We translate here the french term “dièse” (sharp, in English), by its Greek etymological diesis.
48 If both tempered half-tones (the two “diesis” and the tempered half-tone) are the same thing,
the tempered tone (four “diesis” = 50.17 s.) is a little smaller than the major tone (9/8 = 51.15
s.). But, the correspondence between the three “diesis” (37.62 s.) and the minor tone (10/9 =
45.75 s.) is not adapted.
49 One must understand here principle intervals.
50 Cf. the article of Ibrâhim Bey Mustafb, La valeur des intervalles dans la musique arabe
[Value of intervals in the Arabic music], Bulletin de l’Institut Egyptien, II, 1888.
51 Arithmetic and geometric calculations.
52 On this school, see: Dieter Christensen ”Erich M. von Hornbostel, Carl Stumpf, and the Insti-
tutionalization of Comparative Musicology”, in Comparative musicology and anthropology of
music: Essays on the History of Ethnomusicology, Bruno Nettl and Philip V. Bohlman (eds.),
The University of Chicago Press, 1991.
53 Land had used therefore the expression “irrational third.”
54 According to Weber, the latter seems not to qualify as “rational,” as one would expect.
55 Author of Kitbb al-mssiqb al-sharqi [livre de la musique orientale], 1906.
56 This musician have apparently written a book entitled: Hayat El Insane fi tudit el elhane.
57 Based on his publication.
58 It is difficult to know how much one should integrate here Baron’s collaborators and to which
period one has to refer exactly. Even if the volumes of La Musique Arabe have been published
after the death of d’Erlanger and the four first volumes based on Mannûbi al-Snûsi. Although
volumes V and VI were published only in 1949 and 1959, in all likelihood, they have been
written before the Congress (cf. Christian Poché, preface of the reimpression of La Musique
Arabe, 2001, p. 22). Despite this, the chapter from which the quotations in this article were
extracted have been written after the Congress d’Erlanger’s books are cited in it.
59 Notice here d’Erlanger’s lacunas, possibly coming from Dechevrens’: the “Pythagorean scale”
and the “scale of physicians” are considered synonymous, while today, and probably also in
that period among acousticians, the “scale of physicians” is based on epimoric ratios (super-
particulars). See the note 46.
60 By diatonism we refer to a system of high sounds in the octave. See the note 46. The number
of possible combinations in dividing the octave, and the number of modes derived from that
are not part of the same problematic, although there is a relation between both.
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About the Contributors
Max Peter Baumann, Professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Bamberg, is also ed-
itor of the world of music. He received his doctorate in musicology at the University of Berne
and has taught at the Free University of Berlin and Columbia University in New York. From
1987 to 1997, he served as Director of the International Institute for Traditional Music of Ber-
lin. More information on the program at Bamberg and the world of music can be found at the
web site http://www.uni-bamberg.de/ppp/ethnomusikologie.
Seven Casano (MA, Mlisc, University of Hawai’i, BM Suny Potsdam, Crane School of Mu-
sic), a licensed teacher and active performer of the Japanese shakuhachi, is currently on the pi-
ano faculty of the Punahou Music School. As a recipient of the Japanese Ministry of Educa-
tion Scholarship, he conducted extensive research on the modern history of the shakuhachi
tradition at Osaka University and as a member of the Osaka-based Shakuhachi Kenkyuukai
(shakuhachi research group).
Peter Cooke lived and taught in Uganda from 1964 to 1968 before returning to the UK where
he became Senior Lecturer in the University of Edinburgh’s School of Scottish Studies. There
he taught, researched and published traditional Scottish music as well as introducing ethnomu-
sicology teaching into the Faculty of Music. In 1989 he took early retirement to allow more
time for research and writing but still does a little part-time teaching of ethnomusicology at the
Universities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton and at the School of Oriental and African
Studies (University of London). He is author of the book Fiddle Tradition of the Shetland
Isles, and during the 1970s was a Senior Consulting Editor for The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians. He has also written extensively on east African music.
David Cooper is Professor of Music and Technology and head of the School of Music at the
University of Leeds. His research interests include Irish traditional music, film music, Béla
Bartók and the applications of science and technology to music.
Kevin Dawe is Senior Lecturer in the School of Music at the University of Leeds. He has con-
ducted fieldwork in Greece, Spain, Papua New Guinea, and more recently, West Africa.
Bruno Deschênes is a composer, musician (student of the Japanese shakuhachi), part-time

ethnomusicologist (main field of interest: Japanese traditional music and aesthetic) and jour-
nalist and critics of World Music.
Anas Ghrab. Following studies at Tunis Conservatory of Music, Anas Ghrab did musicolog-
ical studies at University Lumière-Lyon 2. His research has been devoted to the exploration of
the relations between the Orient and the Occident in regards to music and its impact on theo-
retical practice of Arab music in the 20th century. For his Ph.D. research at University Sorbon-
ne-Paris IV, he is currently studying the available historical sources in the Arab literature on
Arab music.
Véronique Alexandre Journeau, following initial studies in science, changed her main field
of studies for Asian studies. After completed a first doctorate at Paris IV Sorbonne in history
of music and musicologie, on a chinese instrument, the qin, the seven-string Chinese zither
218 • the world of music 47 (3) - 2005
(but its specialty is not only in Chinese music as she studied piano and violin, is used to play
western music, notably orchestral and chamber music, and worked for nearly ten years in the
French ministry of culture, notably in the field of contemporary music). She has completed a
second doctorate in Asian Studies and Social Sciences, specialty in Chinese Arts and Poetry at
Paris VII Denis Diderot (both doctorate thesis and several articles to be published from 2005
onwards). She is currently comparing musical theory between Greece and China in the ancient
times.
Tanya Kalmanovitch is a violist and violinist who performs jazz and western classical music.
She is a PhD candidate in the Department of Music at the University of Alberta. Her research
examines the intersections of jazz and South Indian classical music from the perspectives of
postcolonial and globalization theory. She lives in New York City, and maintains a website at
<http://www.tanyakalmanovitch.com>.
Jay Keister is Assistant Professor in the College of Music at the University of Colorado,
Boulder, and received the Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los
Angeles. His research concerns individual agency in music, traditional social structures in
contemporary musical practice, and aesthetics of music. He has conducted field research on
contemporary performance practice of traditional music in Japan, which is the subject of his
book, Shaped by Japanese Music: Kikuoka Hiroaki and Nagauta Shamisen in Tokyo (NY:
Routledge, 2004).
Alejandro L. Madrid holds a PhD in musicology and comparative cultural studies from the
Ohio State University. He studies popular and art musics from Latin America from both his-
torical and anthropological perspectives. He received the prestigious Casa de las Américas
Award for Latin American Musicology (2005) and was recently appointed Researcher at the
Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Monterrey,
Mexico.
Christopher J. Miller is a composer/performer/improviser who works primarily with Jav-

anese gamelan. Also a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, his disser-
tation topic is contemporary art music in Java.
Ola Belo is a screen music composer, sonic artist, and performer. She studied Music with Art
at Brunel University and Ethnomusicology at Master’s level at the School of Oriental and Af-
rican Studies. Ola is coming to the end of her initial period of study on the Doctoral Pro-
gramme at the Royal College of Music, where her practice-based research explores the rela-
tionship between composition, the moving image and the environmental soundscape.
Rowan Pease lectures in the music department of SOAS (School of Oriental and African
Studies), University of London, and is editorial manager of The China Quarterly.
Helena B. Simonett received her doctoral degree in ethnomusicology at the University of

California, Los Angeles, and is currently teaching at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. She
conducted extensive research on Mexican popular music and its transnational diffusion. Her
publications include Banda: Mexican Musical Life across Borders (2001, Wesleyan Universi-
ty Press) and En Sinaloa nací: Historia de la música de banda (2004, Mexico: Sociedad
Histórica de Mazatlán). Her current field project and interest focus on ceremonial music-mak-
About the Contributors • 219
ing/dancing among the Yoremem (northwestern Mexico) under the onslaught of globaliza-
tion—more specifically, the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Jonathan P. J. Stock, co-editor of the world of music, is reader in ethnomusicology at the

University of Sheffield. His books include World Sound Matters: An Anthology of Music from
Around the World (London, 1996), Musical Creativity in Twentieth-Century China: Abing,
His Music, and Its Changing Meanings (Rochester, NY, 1996), and Huju: Traditional Opera
in Modern Shanghai (Oxford, 2003).
Christian Utz studied composition, piano, and music theory in Vienna and Karlsruhe; he is
professor for music theory and music analysis at the University of the Arts in Graz/Austria. In
2000, Utz received a PhD degree at the Institute for Musicology at Vienna University with a
thesis on New Music and Interculturality. From John Cage to Tan Dun (published in 2002 by
Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart / Germany). In 1998, he founded AsianCultureLink to enhance
intercultural exchange between European and Asian countries. He initiated collaborations be-
tween Asian and European musicians and composers. His research project on the “Relation-
ship between Traditional and Contemporary Music in Taiwan“ in 2000 was supported by the
Fondation Sino-Française pour l'Education et la Culture, Taipei. He has been guest editor of
‘Traditional Music and Composition’, an issue of the journal the world of music (Vol. 45/2).
Utz gave numerous lectures in East Asia and Europe and frequently presented papers at inter-
national conferences, his compositions have been performed by leading ensembles and musi-
cians worldwide.
Trevor Wiggins is Director of Music at Dartington College of Arts, Totnes, Devon, England.
He holds a PhD from Goldsmiths College, University of London and continues to research
into the music of Ghana with a focus on drumming and xylophone traditions. He is the author
of: Xylophone music from Ghana (White Cliffs Media Co: Crown Point 1992 (Book + CD)
and Music of West Africa (WOMAD (Heinemann: London 1993).

Ghrab Anas-Occident and Intervals in Arabic Music 2005

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Contents • 1

the world of music

vol. 47(3) - 2005

The Music of “Others” in the Western World

Max Peter Baumann

VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung

The Music of “Others” in the Western World

Bruno Deschênes The Interest of Westerners in Non-Western Music . . 5

Steven Casano From Fuke Shuu to Uduboo: The Transnational

Jay Keister Seeking Authentic Experience: Spirituality in

Anas Ghrab Occident and Intervals in “Arabic Music,” from the

Véronique Alexandre What is the Interest of Westerners towards Chinese

Christopher J. Miller Orchids (and Other Difficult Flowers) Revisited:

Christian Utz Beyond Cultural Representation: Recent Works

Tanya Kalmanovitch Jazz and Karnatic Music: Intercultural Collaboration

Book Reviews (Helena B. Simonett, ed.)

Alejandro L. Madrid Antonio García de León Griego. El mar de los

Rowan Pease Stephen Jones. Plucking the Winds: Lives of Village

Peter Cooke Peregrine Horden (ed.). Music as Medicine: The

Peter Cooke Penelope Gouk (ed.). Musical Healing in Cultural

Ola Belo Mai Palmberg and Annemette Kirkegaard (ed.).

Recording Reviews (Kevin Dawe, ed.)

David Cooper Máirtín Pheaits Ó Cualáin: Traditional Songs from

the world of music ......................................... 221

Occident and Intervals in “Arabic Music,” from the

Interval Names Exact Ratios Intervals in Tempered System

Fig. 1. General System of Sound Intervals according to Joseph Saveur, 1701.

Arabic scale European scale in True scale

Fig. 2. The scale of Arabic music accorduing to Benjamin de La Borde, 1780.

3. Diatonic Foundation of the Arabic System

At a certain point, the re-affirmation of the primordial importance of diatonism be-

4. Genesis of Quarters of Tone

5. The Berlin School

6. Intervals of “Arabic Music” in Max Weber’s Sociology of Music

It is not at all unexpected to suppose that, in comparing different musics, a sociology

7. “Micro-intervals,” a New Market?

8. Toward a Settling of the Scale

9. Synthesis and Conclusion

Ambros, August Wilhelm

Bruno Deschênes is a composer, musician (student of the Japanese shakuhachi), part-time

Christopher J. Miller is a composer/performer/improviser who works primarily with Jav-

Helena B. Simonett received her doctoral degree in ethnomusicology at the University of

Jonathan P. J. Stock, co-editor of the world of music, is reader in ethnomusicology at the

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