April 6, 2007
Understanding the Western Tempered Scale
(Part 13 of 15): A Perspective on African Music

We've been talking about European music up until this point. The European concepts give us a reference by which to measure and understand African scales but, hopefully, we can also go beyond our western understanding to get something about African music.

Consider the tuning of the African-tuned Karimba:

The letters are the western name for the notes, and the numbers are the number of "cents" sharp (i.e., +10) or cents flat (i.e., -20) a note is. There are 100 cents in a half step, or as there are 12 half steps in an octave, there are 1200 cents in an octave. Or, a B that is 50 cents sharp is the same as a C that is 50 cents flat. A note that is 10 cents sharp is pretty close.

Now that we understand, look again at the tuning diagram. Note that the A and E have a "0" under them - they are right in tune, and they make a perfect 5th between them. Also, B and F# are both 20 cents flat, so they still make a perfect 5th. And the C# and G# are 40 cents flat, and make a perfect 5th. Our luck runs out when they go from D to A, which is also a 5th: as the A is "right on" and the D is 20 cents sharp, this interval on the karimba is not a perfect 5th.

You will notice that when a certain note exists more than once (i.e., an octave up or at the same pitch) that note is always tuned the same way. So, on the karimba's tuning, 5ths and octaves are understood similarly to western music, but the 4th, the 3rd, the 2nd, the 6th and 7th are tuned differently.

Why?

I think Hugh Tracey spent a lot of his adult life trying to understand why. But from where I sit, this tuning JUST IS - this is what the ancestors - perhaps our biological ancestors, perhaps our cultural ancestors, perhaps our spiritual ancestors - have given to us.

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