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RE: [microsound] complexity



brian, this is interesting... outside of general searches through
comparative socio-linguistics and general linguistics or other
anthropological studies, do you have any references (books, essays,
urls, etc.) to share that relate language variations across cultures to
the types of music they create, as you cited in your email?

much appreciated,
dan

"I'll play it first and tell you what it's called later."
      - Miles Davis


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Redfern [mailto:bredfern@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 12:10 AM
> To: microsound
> Subject: Re: [microsound] complexity
> 
> Intersting enough you can also look at Miles Davis, who basically used
> next to no vibrato, while before bebop during the swing era guys were
> using vibrato to death. Its like the fake emotion sound to 
> make. What's a
> trip though is that we can't understand how someone could 
> literally speak
> with a drum, because english is not a tonal language, but 
> languages like
> Yoruba are tonal, so each inflection of the drum is literally 
> a different
> word, so people can actually speak through the drum. This is even
> different than indian tin-tal, which is a rythm language, but 
> the sylabals
> are similar to the do-re-me-fa-so of westerm music, where the 
> syllables
> are just used to teach certain patterns. What's unique about 
> west african
> music is the ability to literally speak who scentences of an 
> actual human
> language using a drum with a varying pitch. Thus people could 
> acheive long
> distance communication to masses of people, where the drum is a huge,
> giant megaphone. 
> 
> Not everyone can use the drum well enough to effectively 
> communicate with
> it, that's why the master drummer traditionally has a vital 
> role in west
> african kingdoms, as it takes years and yeasr of practice to get good
> enough to communicate effectively, but when you get a chance to hear a
> master drummer from west africa its quite an amazing 
> experience and will
> definitely change your musical life. In fact I have to get off my lazy
> butt and start going back to study at the Yoruba House cause I have a
> Yoruba master drummer in my own 'hood I should be studying with :-)>.
>