Daryush
Oud Lover
Posts: 15
Registered: 7-15-2020
Member Is Offline
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Some observations on tuning/intonation
I realise there are a lot of threads about various tunings and a few on intonation systems, so I’m just sharing a few observations from my own
experience in becoming more serious about learning Arabic music. I should also note I’m talking only about the Arabic tradition here.
Although I’ve been listening to Arabic music since I was young, I only began learning music according to the Western tradition on equal-tempered
instruments, until I became serious about learning the oud (still very much a beginner though). This has given me some problems: sheet music became a
crutch, I relied too heavily on the notated form, rather than my ears. Although I could reproduce on an instrument what was written, I wasn’t able
to make proper sense of the musical relationships in a piece or let my ears guide me. Sight reading was a big part of my practice.
Something clicked that made me start paying more attention to what I was hearing. I was listening to to a taqsim hijaz by Sunbati, and decided to try
and reproduce the lovely quality he gives it. I noticed that it sounded better when played a certain way – much sweeter than the “piano/ET
version”. I realised I was probably playing a “just intonation” (or close) version, rather than equal tempered (I don’t know if this is the
“old” Hijaz that has been mentioned here, or if “old” Hijaz was again different from JI version?). This probably seems trivial to most here,
but coming from ET instruments, it was a revelation.
Since then, I have been making more effort to hear/reproduce intervals that sound “right” – a lot of these seem to correspond to how they are
played by respected oud players. (Of course, what sounds “right” is subjective and culturally conditioned to an extent, but the just intonation
does seem to produce more pleasant sounding intervals to me at least.)
So, it seems to me that, overall, the Arab system essentially uses just intonation (or a variation of) as its preferred system, both for tuning open
strings and for fingered notes, with some variation in particular instances. I have also heard that singers naturally gravitate towards JI, which
would make sense in the context of Arabic music as many of the instruments tend to have a vocal quality.
I use the tuning: CFAdgc. Adgc seem uncomplicated: tune to pairs of perfect fourths and let your ear judge (this took me a while, as I had previously
relied on electronic tuners, but when I could properly hear the interval and tune accordingly, the whole instrument began to sound much better.)
F is still a bit problematic: do I tune to C with a perfect 4th, or to the A? I usually tune to it C as I find it easier to hear the interval
correctly, but perhaps this isn’t quite the usual way?
Some notes seem to be a bit more variable, particularly thirds and half-flat/sharp notes. These seem to change subtly depending on the maqam and
surrounding context being played.
Adjusting from ET instruments, electronic tuners, and notation-based learning to more ear-based learning has been challenging, but I now feel a lot
more confident in producing an “authentic” sound (even if I am still a long way from achieving this…!) I suppose the only way to really get a
feel for this music is to listen intensively and copy.
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
Posts: 2939
Registered: 1-30-2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Member Is Offline
Mood: Stringish
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Hey Daryush! sounds like you're on a great track, and your observations are astute. You're right that much of the structure of Arabic music matches
JI, particularly the open strings and notes tuned in 5ths/4ths. You're also right that the so-called 'neutral' intervals (half-flat/half-sharp),
thirds and 6ths are not great matches for a theoretical system like JI. But JI is a better reference point than ET for sure.
The biggest thing to accept with Arabic intonation is that the intervals are ultimately arbitrary and culturally determined (in a sense this is true
of all music, actually, because choosing to use ET, JI, or other temperaments are all still arbitrary decisions). So not just 'to some extent' but
actually quite fundamentally.
So the 'correct' tuning of a note is just whatever the tradition dictates. In some cases this matches Pythagorean or Just Intonation, in other cases
it isn't.
Saying Hijaz is in JI is a bit misleading. Using the standard intervals from 5-limit JI gives a much better approximation of Hijaz than using ET,
that is very true since the 2nd will be higher than the piano and the 3rd will be lower.
Of course, you can also play Hijaz using 2-limit (Pythagorean) JI and and the intervals will be even worse then ET.
But the bigger issue is that there is not "one" version of Hijiaz (or any other maqam). It has varied over time and geography. A 1930s Egyptian
recording and a 1960s Egyptian recording will be diifferent. A 1970s Lebanese recording and a 1970s Syrian recording will be different. If you
compare hijaz as George Michel plays it and as Sounbati plays it, they're a little different. Even 'simple' maqamat like Nahawand will vary.
So using your ears and trying to match the sound of recordings as you are doing is the best approach (some might say the only approach).
To answer your question about F: it should be tuned to match C. If you think of G as being the 'central' note in the Maqam system (it's literally the
center of the range and also is the ghammaz of most maqamat), then there is a spine of 5ths radiating outward: F <- C <- G -> D -> A
Seeing it this way, the F is structurally closest to C and G and very far from A.
As you note, this would make the third between the low F and the open A problematic. This is not normally a problem in any of the common maqamat.
If you really wanted to do something in F and use the open A, it might seem to make sense to tune the A to the F (of course then you have to adjust
the position of the fingered C and Bb to compensate).
If you do this, you will have shifted the 'problem' interval to either A-D (if you only retune the A) or D-G (if you retune A and D).
So you can see that there will be one 'problem' interval no matter which approach you choose, and which one is most obvious will depend somewhat on
what maqam you are in. The classical normal 'major' approach is to have the out of tune interval between 2 and 6, so that the I, IV and V chords all
have pure thirds and pure 5ths. This starts to make obvious why we have temperaments at all.
In the case of the oud, having open strings in anything other than pure 4ths is pretty jarring. So the traditional solution is that if you want to
play Ajam in F, do it in the upper register and not using the low F and open A 
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