Re: Remove arabic.ly from common note name languages. (issue2755041)

[Valentin Villenave]

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 10:40 PM, Hans Aberg <address@hidden> wrote:

Hi Hans,

> Just mentioning it. When LilyPond expand being capable of handling more
> music outside CPP, there might be more such details pooping up.

(no comment)

> The description of Turkish music is rather cursory: there are several
> descriptions. See for example Ozan Yarman, "A Comparative Evaluation of
> Pitch Notations in Turkish Makam Music".
>
> The LilyPond text refers, I take it, to the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek (AEU) system.
> It does divide the major second M into 9 parts, but the minor second m is
> divided into 4; so it is 2*m + 5*M = 2*4 + 5*9 = 53 equal temperament. The
> file makam.ly, I recall, departs from E12 dividing the major second into 9
> parts. So it should be in E108.
>
> So I avoid using the terms "whole" and "half" tones, because the half tone
> is not in general a half of the whole tone. :-)
>
> Also, when listing the note names as c, d, e, ..., then that refers to the
> octave numbering of major scales which I think was introduced by Helmholtz,
> possibly influenced by Romantic period centralizing CPP major/minor harmony.
>
> At the Maqam World site <http://www.maqamworld.com/>, they number the
> octaves according to the minor scale. I do not know why, but perhaps they
> have never started using the Helmholtz system. So perhaps the notes should
> be named a, b, c, ... in this context.

Hans, you always have very interesting things to say on these
subjects. However, since we're drifting waaay beyond my area of
expertise here (if I ever had one), could you please be a tad more
specific and suggest, concretely, how I can improve the documentation
for makam tunings and maqam modes?

I'm fine with adding precise references and explaining what the
different systems are, why we use AEU/E108 tuning, etc. The Turkish
music section is not very detailed right now, and could certainly be
improved (possibly by adding a new section, I'm not sure yet). But
please do keep in mind that I'm driving blind here, so to say.

Moreover, the patch we're discussing adds a whole chapter to the music
Glossary, dedicated to "non-Western" languages (even though I now
understand it could be more accurately named "non-CPP").

Thanks!
Valentin.