|
|
| (7 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) |
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| Owing in part to the large number of tones in the Zzean language, how Zzeans perform and view music radically differs from mainstream Western culture.
| |
|
| |
|
| For Zzeans, non-"tonal" elements such as rhythm, ornamentation, and scale choice are vital for distinguishing monophonic singing from normal speech. Choral vocal music that uses big block chords is wordless; polyphonic word-ful singing is used in specialized contexts.
| |
|
| |
| The boundary between vocal and instrumental music in Zzean culture is somewhat ill-defined, as pitched instruments can "speak" by imitating the tones of speech. One can also choose to play instruments in a more "relaxed" or "conversational" manner by playing in speech-like contours rather than song-like ones, an option also available for voice.
| |
|
| |
| == Forms and styles ==
| |
| Zzean singing traditions include:
| |
| * an intoned singing tradition
| |
| * hiphop/rap (speech with stylized rhythm and sometimes autotune)
| |
| * a religious chanting tradition with much ornamentation
| |
| * musical theater that seamlessly alternates between song and speech
| |
| * formal speeches may be delivered as songs accompanied by instruments
| |
| * something really weird and independent from [[Cuam]] music's weirdness
| |
| ** Begins from Ancient Zzean secret societies?
| |
|
| |
| == Instruments ==
| |
| * a shruti box that plays 5-note drones for guiding singing
| |
| * "talking" pitched instruments: drums, flutes, fretless bowed and plucked strings
| |
| * a monochord/bass drone to reinforce the tonic of a scale (because the melody might not tonicize it)
| |
|
| |
| == Scales ==
| |
| Zzean music is abstractly based on a pentatonic framework, onto which the five tone levels of Zzean are mapped. The tonic of a scale can be any of the 5 level tones. Seven-note scales are viewed as ways to ornament 5-note scales. However, not all Zzean pentatonic scales are octave-equivalent.
| |
|
| |
| Traditional Zzean scales are not based on an equal tuning or the overtone series, but from 12 equal string length divisions of the octave or 6 equal string length divisions of the Pythagorean fifth. These scales are:
| |
|
| |
| * 12eldo: 24/24, 24/23, ..., 24/12
| |
| * 6eld3/2: 18/18, 18/17, ..., 18/12
| |
|
| |
| "Avant-garde" versions of Zzean instruments are tuned in 24eldo or 12eld3/2.
| |
|
| |
| As scales are viewed as colorings of the tones of speech, a form of chord-scale theory is fundamental to the Zzean tradition.
| |
| === 2/1-equivalent ===
| |
| === 3/2-equivalent ===
| |
| === Other ===
| |