The Other Leading Note
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The Other Leading Note: A Comparative Study of the Flat Second Pitch Degree in North Indian Classical, Ottoman or Arabian Influenced, Western, Heavy Metal and Film Musics Sarha Moore This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in Music, Department of Music, University of Sheffield 24 April 2014 Abstract This cross-cultural and cross-genre study considers the flat second pitch degree (♭2), a semitone above the tonic, in its significant functional role in tonal musics. The ♭2 appears variously in Indian raga, Ottoman and Arabian influenced music, and in Western music, including heavy metal and film musics. This study aims to balance the exploration of difference in connotations of the ♭2 across cultures with an understanding of commonalities in its use and significance. With the ♭2 as a central focus, I deploy combined methodologies to ask what structural use and connotations it has in various musics, and how it speaks to ideological worldviews such as Orientalism. Through interview, music analysis and literature study I investigate the melodic and harmonic use of the ♭2, its metaphorical associations and meanings past and present. I find that the ♭2 has as strong a ‘yearning vector’ as the major seventh ‘leading note’. Across many world music genres there are nuanced and complex connotations, with metaphors of verticality underpinning many interpretations of the falling cadence ♭2–1. To the Western listener the ♭2 usually signifies anxiety, reinvented in metal as positive and transgressive. Together with the Western signification of the ♭2 as Oriental, a hybrid may be created. I argue that this hybrid may portray the ‘East’ as a negative Other, as exploited in film’s ‘unheard’ soundtracks. In traditions such as Oriental metal and Bollywood, in contrast, hybrid connotations may support articulations of powerful, modern identities. By showing that the ♭2 is used in different yet comparable ways in multiple genres, I bring different harmonic practices, metaphorical associations and ideologies into the foreground, highlighting expanded significations across cultures. By focusing sharply on a specific musical feature as it appears in various contexts, this study aims to provide a well-defined site for disciplinary debates on cultural boundaries. 2 CONTENTS ABSTRACT 2 CONTENTS 3 LIST OF FIGURES/CD AND DVD CONTENTS 8 LIST OF TABLES 13 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 14 INTRODUCTION 16 The subject of this research 16 Research aims in relation to current academic discourses 20 Research questions 22 The case for cross-cultural comparisons 22 Argument for this cross-cultural interval study 25 The Other: Exoticism, Orientalism and binary separations 26 On similarity and difference in world music (studies) 30 On Glocalisation 31 Contextualising the ♭2 32 Ethnomusicology 33 Musicology 36 Popular musicology 37 On dissonance and metaphor 38 Dissonance 38 The leading note 40 Metaphors of narrowness and falling. 42 Cultural specificity 45 Knowledge gaps in the understanding of the use of the ♭2 46 Methodology 47 Interview technique: asking questions concerning the ♭2 48 Choice of examples and use of notation 51 3 Layout of thesis 52 1 KOMAL RE: THE ♭2 IN RAGAS OF NORTH INDIA AND PAKISTAN 55 1.1 The background to raga interpretation 56 1.2 Performance and spirituality 58 1.3 Komal Re within raga 60 What exactly does the name mean? 61 Komal Re and ‘leading note’ tensions 62 Connotations of the upper leading note: ‘sadness’ and ‘pathos’ 64 Komal Re at dawn and dusk 65 Godhuli bela: ‘cowdust time’ 69 1.4 Mood creation with komal Re in specific ragas 71 Ragas of the first dawn 71 Sunrise ragas 73 Later morning raga Todi 77 Dusk sandhi prakash ragas 80 Raga Shri 82 Raga Basant 85 Later dusk raga Marva 85 Conclusion 89 2 ‘TOUCHED BY THE MAQ[K]AM’: FLAT 2 IN MEDITERRANEAN GENRES 91 2.1 Overview of musical traditions 93 The Arabian Empire and its influence in Spain 93 The Ottoman Empire and its influence 94 Transient Mediterranean and Eastern Europe communities 95 2.2 The prevalence of the flat 2 in Mediterranean genres 97 2.3 Use of the flat 2 in specific Mediterranean genres 99 Microtonal variations in the use of the flat 2 99 Microtonal shifts of the 2 according to melody direction 101 Flexibility of 2 in non-classical folk and urban genres 102 The Hijaz/ Hicaz maqam/makam 106 ‘Phrygian-like’ maqamat/makamlar 114 4 Cadential motifs on the descending tetrachord 119 2.4 Harmonic innovations in popular music 122 Ostinato basslines using the flat 2 122 Oscillating Chords 126 Modal harmony in Mediterranean urban musics 126 2.5 Connotations and associations of the flat 2 in the Mediterranean 133 Associations of mood, spirituality and nostagia 134 Emotional connotations of intensity 145 Connotations of Nation 157 Conclusion 161 3 A HISTORY OF THE OTHER IN THE WEST 165 3.1 Early musical connotations of the Phrygian mode 165 3.2 New sounds in medieval music 167 Moorish influence on medieval secular music 170 The ‘Black Legend’ 171 3.3 Renaissance 1400–1600 172 The development of a harmonic framework 173 How the Phrygian continued in the Renaissance 173 The ‘weeping’ pianto 175 3.4 Baroque rhetoric: the ♭2 as lament, passion, the Other. 176 The ‘lament’ motif 178 Of the use of the Phrygian in chorales 180 The rise of the Neapolitan sixth chord 182 The Iberian Baroque 183 3.5 The ♭2 in the Romantic era 187 The zenith of the Neapolitan chord 187 The Neapolitan Complex 196 The Phrygian mode returns 197 3.6 The late nineteenth and twentieth century: the ♭2 as ‘exotic’ trope 199 3.7 The tritone substitution and modal jazz 205 Conclusion 208 5 4 DISSONANCE AND DISSIDENTS: THE ♭2 WITHIN HEAVY METAL MUSIC 210 4.1 Metal context 211 The development of a metal signifier 212 The guitar and bass ostinato riff 216 4.2 Metal, the Gothic and the Phrygian mode 217 The Gothic connection 217 The influence of film music on metal 218 The development of the ♭2 within metal 219 4.3 Machismo and the ‘feminine’ Phrygian mode 221 Men in the metal scene 221 Women in the metal scene 222 Gender complexities and the Phrygian mode 223 4.4 Metal music as a soundtrack to war 224 4.5 Self-discovery and the ‘East’ 226 Metal and the ‘exotic’ Phrygian mode 227 Combining the ‘East’ and metal signification of the ♭2 229 The Self as Other 230 4.6 Oriental metal 231 Conclusion 235 5 THE ♭2 IN FILM, TV AND VIDEO SOUNDTRACKS 237 5.1 Part One: Western film soundtracks’ use of the ♭2 239 Signifier 1: Sadness, anxiety and pathos 240 Signifier 2: Sinister and threatening 242 Signifier 3: The East and the exotic 245 Signifier 4: The sinister East 247 Signifier 5: The ‘beast within’ 251 An ‘East’ and ‘beast’ hybrid in war films 252 5.2 Part two: Bollywood and the ♭2 254 Inherited connotations from classical raga 255 The modern Indian hero 259 The disturbing Western influence of dissonance 264 6 Pastiche and exotic connotations of the ♭2 266 The ‘Bad boy’ 269 Conclusion 272 CONCLUSION 273 The ♭2 plays a significant cadential role in tonal musical cultures 274 The ♭2 is frequently ascribed emotional or narrative connotations 275 There are common metaphors for the ♭2 across these traditions 277 There are different cultural interpretations of the same metaphors 278 Cultural ideologies are revealed through the use of the ♭2 281 Similarity and difference revisited 285 New significations and transformed meanings for the ♭2 287 Contributions and theoretical implications of this study 288 Limitations of the approach, and ideas for future directions 290 Final conclusions 291 REFERENCES 294 DISCOGRAPHY 305 FILM AND RADIO 307 APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEWS 309 APPENDIX 2: MAIN RAGAS WITH KOMAL RE 310 APPENDIX 3: MAQAMAT/MAKAMLAR CONTAINING FLAT 2 313 APPENDIX 4: LEADING NOTES IN WESTERN SCALES AND MODES 315 7 List of Figures/CD and DVD Contents Links to audio and video tracks are on http://theotherleadingnote.blogspot.co.uk CD 1 Figure Name Page no. Track 1 1.1 Shrivastav singing komal Re 64 1.2 Raga Lalit ascent and descent. 71 1.3 Raga Sohini ascent and descent. 72 1.4 Raga Bhatiyar ascent and descent. 72 2 1.5 Khan singing raga Bhatiyar. 73 1.6 Raga Gunakri ascent and descent. 73 3 1.7 Khan singing raga Gunakri. 74 1.8 Raga Bhairav ascent and descent. 74 4 1.9 Shrivastav singing characteristic phrases of raga Bhairav. 74 5 1.10 Roy singing characteristic phrases of raga Bhairav. 75 5 1.11 Roy singing Re in raga Bhairav. 75 1.12 Raga Bhairavi ascent and descent. 76 6 1.13 Khan singing raga Bhairavi. 76 1.14 Dhrupad Jagata janani––Baiju Bavare. 77 1.15 Raga Todi ascent and descent. 78 7 1.16 Khan singing raga Todi. 78 1.17 Gujari Todi ascent and descent. 78 8 1.18 Datta singing raga Gujari Todi. 79 9 1.19 Datta singing Gujari Todi bandish 79 1.20 Raga Komal Rishabh Asavari. 80 1.21 Raga Gauri ascent and descent. 81 1.22 Raga Multani ascent and descent. 81 1.23 Raga Shri ascent and descent. 82 10 1.24 Shrivastav singing raga Shri. 82 1.25 Bhatkande Shri. 84 1.26 Basant ascent and descent. 85 11 1.27 Roy singing raga Basant. 85 1.28 Raga Marva ascent and descent. 85 12 1.29 Khan singing falling phrases in raga Marva. 86 8 12 1.30 Khan singing raga Marva. 87 1.31 Raga Dhanashri ascent and descent. 88 2.1 Notation of microtones between La (A) and Si (B).