UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The Radif as a Basis for a Computer Music Model: Union of Philosophy and Poetry through Self-referentiality A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Music by Shahrokh Yadegari Committee in charge: Professor Miller Puckette, Co-Chair Professor Nancy Guy, Co-Chair Professor F. Richard Moore Professor Masao Miyoshi Professor Adriene Jenik 2004 Copyright Shahrokh Yadegari, 2004 All rights reserved. The dissertation of Shahrokh Yadegari is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: Co-Chair Co-Chair University of California, San Diego 2004 iii To My Parents, Sorour and Yadollah iv øñk. QÒ» QëX P@P© ð øñà ú× ð H. Q¢Ó IK Yg @P AÒªÓ áK© @ IÒºk éK. YK A K© ð Xñ K© » é» ¡© ¯Ag© “Tell us more of minstrels and wine And let us leave mysteries of universe behind For no one did or ever will Unlock this secret with wisdom alone.” Hafez “Without music life would be a mistake.” Nietzsche v TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page . iii Dedication . iv Epigraph . v Table of Contents . vi List of Figures . viii Preface........................................ ix Acknowledgements . xii Vita . xiv Abstract . xv 1 Introduction . 1 1. Persian Music and Poetry . 1 2. Computer Music and the West . 8 1. Tonality and Electronic Music . 10 2. Music and Metaphysics . 12 3. Overview . 16 2 Structure, Sign, Play, and Self-referentiality in the Discourse of the Human Sciences: Contemporary Metaphysics in the West . 18 1. Metaphysics in the Enlightenment Period . 18 2. Modernity . 21 3. Derrida and Postmodernity . 23 4. Post-structuralism, Form, and Continuity . 35 5. The Birth of Signification . 47 6. The Tension between Play and Totality . 51 7. Conclusions . 53 1. Music as Myth . 63 3 Deconstructing Tonality: Metaphysics and the Construction of Tonality in Western Cultures . 66 1. Introduction . 67 1. Tonality and Electronics . 70 2. Tonality and non-Western Music . 73 2. Pre-tonality and Post-tonality . 80 1. From Pre-tonality to Tonality: Origins of Harmonic Tonality . 80 2. Atonality . 91 3. Summary . 104 3. Tonality, Metaphysics, and Cultural Hegemony . 108 vi 4. Conclusions . 117 4 A Poetic View of the Radif as a Model for Computer Music . 128 1. Persian Music . 131 1. Metaphysics in Persian Poetry . 131 2. The Radif . 148 2. The Computer as an Instrument for the Radif . 157 1. Recursive Granular Synthesis . 157 2. Lˆila . 164 3. Summary . 168 5 Summary and Conclusions . 171 A An Undecidable Thesis . 184 B No Flowers, No Incense, Only Sound . 192 C Examples of Pieces . 240 Bibliography . 241 vii LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 Derrida’s Circle of Philosophy and Metaphysics in which every small circle is representative of some form of Western philosophical tradition . 28 2.2 Derrida’s circle of Philosophy and Metaphysics in the scale of a single philosophical tradition . 28 2.3 Derrida’s circle of Philosophy and Metaphysics combined in two different scales . 29 4.1 A model for axiomatically defined music . 149 4.2 A model for the mode of improvisation based on the Radif. 152 4.3 A diagram representing the multi-layered space of improvisation based on the Radif. 153 4.4 The basic shape of a goush´e in the Radif . 155 4.5 A simple progression in the Radif where the second goush´e returns to the space of the first goush´e, often called Darˆamad . 156 4.6 Modulation of the tonal center or the shˆahead . 157 4.7 Return to the original space of darˆamad using a more elaborated form of foroud and completing the shape of the original triangle . 158 4.8 Replicating the structure of the whole within a part. 158 4.9 The frequency fluctuation of a 2 point segmentation illustrated in table 4.1 (a) shows the frequency fluctuation in 2 seconds and (b) shows the fre- quency fluctuation in 1 second. The basic shape of both graphs are similar to each other. 163 4.10 Block diagram for Lˆila .............................167 viii Preface Science and religion both give us certain perspectives regarding our origins. However, the story of neither one can rationally be accepted. Based on theories of evolution, we have to accept the emergence of something out of nothing, and based on creationism we have to accept the presence of a creator, whose creation cannot be questioned. I have found that the story which the poetry of Omar Khayyam implicates regarding our origins, rationally more acceptable. After reading Douglas Hofstadter’s G¨odel, Escher, Bach (Hofstadter 1979) many years ago, I came to understand that the concepts found in Khayyamic materialism could be expressed in precise mathematical terms. Self-referentiality is the common theme in G¨odel, Escher, Bach and the poetry of Omar Khayyam. One of the precise mathematical manifestations of self-referentiality can be found in the studies of non-linear dynamics. I remember an evening at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991 while working on a problem as part of a graduate mathematics course I was taking on non- linear dynamics, that my understanding of scientific truth and the paradigm attached to it changed fundamentally.1 I concluded that the process by which we acquire knowledge, or in other words epistemology, is also a non-linear process, and therefore, the result of it changes based on our approach towards it. In other words, I understood that the question of origins is a self-referential question which depends on the process which studies it. Thus, the scientific view, which based on the representationist doctrine is 1 Specifically I had learned that numerical solutions to differential equations of third order and higher, which characterize the behavior of systems with three or more degrees of freedom, could substantially differ form each other according to the accuracy of initial conditions and the values used to specify the quantization of passage of time (∆t). (Refer to (Lorenz 1963) for one of the first published articles on precise mathematical reasons for this phenomenon.) Here I would like to thank Prof. Steve Strogatz who presented the material in such clear form throughout the course. ix to reduce matter to atomically signified parts, transformed for me from specific studies on specific objects, to understanding and studying the space in which the structures I perceived in the world operated and interacted with each other, without any dependency on existence of a level where matter could no longer be divisible. This approach explains many paradoxes of set theory, whose author, Georg Cantor, wrote: I am so in favor of the actual infinite that instead of admitting that Nature abhors it, as is commonly said, I hold that Nature makes frequent use of it everywhere, in order to show more effectively the perfections of its Author. Thus I believe that there is no part of matter which is not—I do not say divisible—but actually divisible; and consequently the least particle ought to be considered as a world full of an infinity of different creatures.(Dauben 1979, p. 124) At the time, I was working on a computer aided composition system, in which a rational and mathematical model is used as a generative process for synthesis. This system makes no distinction between form and material in the synthesis process—in other words sound and music are treated similarly. I found such an approach in tune with one of the dialectics used for explanation of Western tonality, in which the tonal form was related to the tonal material. By blurring the distinction between form and material, we also blur the boundary between the object and the action which produces it. Through my research at the time, I concluded that music was not just an object which we created by using sonic structure, but it is an element present in our actions. Thus, my research transformed from studying an epistemologically bounded subject into a non- linear approach to the steps I would take in my life. Shortly after my studies at MIT I arrived in Los Angeles, and as a musical act, I co-founded Kereshmeh Records, a label dedicated to preservation and dissemination of Persian new and traditional music—a musical culture which seemed to be under heavy oppression at the time. When I arrived at UCSD, I learned that similar conclusions regarding episte- mology had been made within the poststructural theory as well. Originally, based on such conclusions, I meant to write this dissertation in a non-linear form, meaning that I would allow my subject, music, to direct the form of the studies. However, I learned that epistemological establishments are not yet prepared to engage with such an approach. Thus, in this dissertation I have done my best to define specific epistemological bounds x for the subjects I discuss, even though one of my arguments within the dissertation is that such boundaries cannot exist. I find it relevant to mention my level of engagement with a few of the subjects I have discussed in this dissertation. I have completed the Radif of the santur (Persian hammered dulcimer) with Esmaeel Tehrani, and have studied the various parts of the vocal Radif on the ney (Persian cane flute) with Hossein Omoumi. I have studied Western harmony and counterpoint up to college level courses, and I have studied non-linear dynamics (which specifically relates to mathematical applications of the concept of self- referentiality) up to introductory graduate level mathematics. xi Acknowledgements I would like to sincerely thank my dissertation committee members, Professors Miller Puckette, Nancy Guy, F. Richard Moore, Masao Miyoshi, and Adriene Jenik for their support and guidance in preparation of this dissertation.