reported
by: Mr. Jibby Jacob
Chairman (Term
1998/99)
"Sonic Orders are systems which
describe the qualities and structural elements that make music recognisable
"explained Mr Joe Peters addressing 10 AES members and 7 guests at the
Subordinate courts Auditorium, Singapore on Friday 27 November 1998. Musical
pieces can represent the various sonic orders continued Peters who is both
an AES member and an ethnomuscologist.
The main elements of music that
are describable includes Pitch, Rhythm, Dynamics, Timbre, Form and
Aesthetics. The Sonic environment or "Soundscape" under observation are
those in the ASEAN region and includes all genres of music found in the
countries of ASEAN (Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar). This is important because information
about the elements in the "musics" of ASEAN is meagre and lies dispersed in
various publications. Much of the existing material is also interpreted by
western musicologists according to western precepts. Thus existing
documentation especially on these pitch interval values (frequency ratios)
that do not follow the tempered 100 cent intervals of Western music are
grossly misrepresented.
Peters then went on to explain
that in the ancient cultures including those in the Asian continent, the
scales used were based on the natural "cycle of fifths". Thus the smallest
interval in this "Just intonation" system was the syntonan or 22 cents (i.e
a cent is 1/1200 of an Octave). This explained the pentatonic scales (5 note
scales) of the East. However Western Music evolved along the concepts of
harmony (different simultaneously sounding notes) and multiple key changes
or modulations, the Just intonation system was compromised to the system of
Equal Temperament which allows for the performance of the music without
sounding "out of tune" or "bad" in different keys.
| This tuning has
been adopted universally on all keyboard (fixed pitch) based music i.e.
most Western music. Thus when performing ethnic music using western
intruments, a number of compromises are made in terms of pitch which in
turn upsets the accuracy of the notation and the translation of the
music. However alarming is the fact that in the ASEAN region, with a
rich cultural diversity in terms of music, conventional method of
dissemination of musical knowledge through generations of people has
been by oral tradition which often tends to be inaccurate or gets lost
over time. |
Dr Chew Chye
Heng conferring with Mr Joe Peters before the presentation -
photograph by Stephen Low. |
In a formal project launched in
Singapore on 7th May 98, ethnomusicologists in the ASEAN region agreed to
undertake rigorous field and laboratory research into selected sonic orders
in the ASEAN region; to publish in print form the methodology and results of
the research, including the pitch intervals of the selected sonic orders,
and to produce compact disc recordings of repertoire and immersion tracks of
suitable songs which would facilitate interactive music learning and singing
of songs in their representative sonic orders.
Peters hoped that out of this
project the possibility of using the pitch interval studies to enable the
MIDI standard to expand. Further the use of digital audio and computer
technology to ensure a greater accuracy in the codification of the musical
elements mentioned above would become a reality in this region.
In this methodology, Peters
explained that portable DAT (Digital Audio Tape) recorders were used to
capture the music (sounds) from the field i.e. performers in their own
natural environment singing or playing ethnic or indigenous musical
instruments with their own peculiar pitching and timbre. These samples were
then passed through a Digital Audio workstation ( DAW) and analysed. 3D
plots of these samples in terms of frequency, level and dynamics were then
tabulated.
In this methodology, Peters
explained that portable DAT (Digital Audio Tape) recorders were used to
capture the music (sounds) from the field i.e. performers in their own
natural environment singing or playing ethnic or indigenous musical
instruments with their own peculiar pitching and timbre. These samples were
then passed through a Digital Audio workstation ( DAW) and analysed. 3D
plots of these samples in terms of frequency, level and dynamics were then
tabulated. However complex the tone it could be visualised and compared with
other 3 D plots.
|
Jibby Jacob
presenting plaque of appreciation to Dr Chew Chye Heng (right). |
Jibby Jacob, Chairman
AES Singapore Section presenting plaque of appreciation to the speaker
to Joe Peters (right).
In the aspect of pitch
measurement and interpretation, Dr Chew Chye Heng, a colleague of Peters
and a member of the Singapore National team on Sonic Orders then spoke
of using the Wavelab software on a PC. Dr Chew has set up a special
audio laboratory to research and collate the original samples of music
sent in by the respective national teams of the various ASEAN countries. |
Extensive listening and analysis
is required. Here the difficulty as explained by Dr Chew was not the display
of the accuracy of the pitch intervals but to pin point the exact frequency
for defining the Sonic Orders. Dr Chew mentioned that this required a lot of
work in man-hours to sift through the samples and he could do with some
volunteers.
At the conclusion, Peters then
invited the audience to an interesting exercise to determine the Sonic
Orders in some of the local music analysing them in terms of their pitch,
rhythm, timbre etc. Each of these elements was then to be categorised into
one of the following systems. Western Equal tempered System, Malay Modal
system, Chinese Pentatonic System, Indian Raga System or Other World Music
Systems. If each of these elements showed characteristics of more than one
system, then each individual category were given a number of value less than
1 but in total making up to unity. Playing back some examples of various
types of music, the audience could then analyse these individual components
and then compare them with the results obtained by the National Team.
Interestingly the descriptive labels normally associated with music e.g.
pop, classical, ethnic, Western, Eastern etc.. suddenly felt inadequate when
seen in the light of the classification described in Sonic Orders.
Questions were then raised from
the audience who wanted to know the specifics of the hardware used and if
alternate methods were considered in the processes involved. When the
meeting ended the musically inclined persons in the audience stayed back to
get more information on the project from the speakers.
AES Singapore Section would also
like to thank Mr Richard Lau of the Subordinate Courts for permission to use
their venue to hold this AES meeting
|
Group photo of
17 guests & members of the AES Singapore Section attending the talk on
"Monitoring and Measuring Sonic Orders in the Sonic Environment" at the
Subordinate courts Auditorium, Singapore on Friday 27 Nov 1998 -
photograph by Dr. Roland K C Tan. |
|
