it only takes three generations of forgetfulness for something to totally disappear from people's consciousness.
Around the 10th century, almost 3/4 of the European tonal material disappeared.
That would be the musical equivalent of saying that all your tools except a hammer and saw disappeared.
What happened?
There's so much music in the world, and it's an absolutely amazing thing. We're still discovering all the things that music does, including building the emotional body, which is one of the things that makes the difference between a sociopath and and a well-adjusted member of society.
Lately, I've been thinking of vibration, and especially of binary systems, which is what vibration is; it's basically an on-off system, with extremely slow frequencies such as the rotation of the galaxy, which takes about 26,000 years; faster ones, such as the turning of the earth around the sun, which takes what we call a year, the turning of the earth which takes 24 hours; and then we get even faster, with the frequency of waves in the ocean and the speed of breaths in a human; then there's the heartbeat, which is around 90 per minute.
As vibration gets faster, we get into the audio spectrum, which is what we hear. this is measured in hertz, usually shortened to HZ. Humans can hear all the way from around 20 hz, which is a very low note, to around 20,000 Hz, a very high note. Above that, there are sounds which most humans can't hear, but which can be heard by other animals such as birds. Right now we're most concerned with the human audible spectrum. This is where most music happens.
Within this sound spectrum, there are innumerable kinds of music in the world. Most of these types of music operate on notes taken from a basic 12 note scale, with many variations in different countries. In classical Turkish music, each note can be divided into 10 steps. In so-called Western music we do not use these microtones, except as embellishments. The piano, which is one of the most basic instruments of Western music, divides the octave into 12 steps. When you look at a keyboard, you will see white and black keys, with the black keys divided into groups of three and two. One unit of seven white keys and five Black Keys is called an octave. if we play the white keys of the piano, starting from the white key below, or to the left of the group of two black keys, we get a scale that is called the major scale.
European music focuses mainly on two scales, the major and minor scales. But at one time, there were many more. the Greek system of modes used at least seven scales, and and there were many more in folk music.
Then something happened in European music about 1000 years ago; first of all, "it was decided" (what this means is that certain people, not necessarily musicians, in the Catholic Church decided) that the tri-tone, the interval between C and F sharp, which is the interval between the white key below the two black Keys and the first of the group of three black keys, was labeled "the devil in music", and banned. I suspect that other scales were banned especially because they sounded "too oriental" and also "too lascivious". This process went on until Europe was left with basically two scales; major and minor. There were some slight variations in the minor scale, but the results of this "purification" was a loss of an enormous amount "tonal material", which means the basic building blocks of music.
I don't want you to get the idea that Europeans were the only ones to "purify" their music and art; many other people and civilizations did the same thing, either in the name of religion or orthodoxy. Middle Eastern music underwent the same process, as did the music of South India, and they weren't the only ones. So a lot was lost, with people saying "we've always done it this way", and in reality establishing totally new standards, usually reduced from earlier times, although the "pundits" of the time were convinced that they were raising the bar.
There was, however, another group of people who had a different outlook; one of the best examples of this was the Mogul emperor Akbar the great, who was a very great freethinker. In his time, the Mogul court was filled with many intellectuals, artists from every part of the world, and many musicians, among whom were many from foreign courts such as the Persian court and others. The brilliance of that court cannot be overestimated; the art and music of that time was outstanding. And one of the things that informed the outlook of the court was the state of mind of Akbar himself, who was such a free-thinker that he attempted (unsuccessfully) to start a new religion that incorporated Muslim, Christian, and Hindu ways. In his court, "foreign" music was not only accepted, but incorporated into the lexicon of Indian music.
This openness to "foreign" influences brought to the world some of the most brilliant art and music of that time. It also contributed to the richness of present day North Indian classical music, and made possible the appearance, in the 19th century, of one of the most powerful musical theorists in existence; his name was Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, and his contributions not only to the music of India but also to a modern outlook on music in the West cannot be overstated. In a future diary I will explain what I believe to be the most relevant part of his teaching for us as Western musicians, the theory of the "10 Thhats", which is a very simple way to expand our understanding of music and bring back some of the tonal material that was taken away from European music during the dark ages. I welcome comments, although I may not be around this morning to answer all of them. Have a wonderful day, and if you can, listen to some very uplifting music. I myself intend to play music this morning, and when I leave my computer I will feel very lucky to be able to play my instrument and to partake in that vibration which sets mankind free.