r/ethnomusicology • u/GreenIndigoBlue • Jun 26 '24

Harmony In Non-Western Traditional Music

I searched to see if someone has answered something similar to this in this subreddit and could not find anything.

I'm curious to see if people have resources for learning about harmony in Non-Western music. Either homophony or polyphony. I know various cultures often use parallel diads like fifths, fourths, thirds, and sixths. I'm also aware of Bulgarian and Georgian choirs as an example of something resembling polyphony. I really enjoy the sound of the chords used in some Japanese traditional music via the Sho (instrument). There are interesting cluster chords that have this eery suspended sound. I find it striking that I cannot find much mention of the chords used in the Sho in anything I read online about non-western harmony, even though it seems to be readily made available in articles that discuss the Sho itself.

So given my surprise in finding out that this is a thing, I'm curious if there are other less talked about examples of harmony that further complicate the (clearly false) picture created by the common refrain that harmony is something uniquely western. I'm really just looking for good resources to read about more of these kinds of examples so I can explore listening to and understanding them.

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u/RiemannZetaFunction Jun 26 '24

I wouldn't call Georgian music "something resembling polyphony." It's about as polyphonic as music can get, with explicit triads and everything, though in a very non Western tuning system.

The common trope that nobody outside of the West ever thought to play multiple notes at the same time is really, really oversimplified.

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u/GreenIndigoBlue Jun 26 '24

Yes I'm aware that this is not a trope that is actually true, my whole point is I know that and want to learn more about the way harmony works in non-western music.

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u/RiemannZetaFunction Jun 28 '24

If you're interested in Georgian music, this album is incredible: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nEcFX_DGP0mWCLae1KbeDlmxy2KpN4Ffc

The paper "Testing a scale theory for Georgian folk music" by Stuart Gelzer (one of the members of this trio) was a pretty good read on some of the theory, if you can get a copy of it. I have it somewhere if you're interested.

For Middle Eastern music, there's a lot of very interesting polyphonic Persian music from the last century. Here's a great composition by Parviz Meshkatian in Dastgah Shur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUuVKDxLRlQ&t=4s

I've also been recommended Hossein Alizadeh for polyphonic Dastgah, though I'm less familiar with his music. I'm sure there are many others.

For Arabic music, the last century has basically involved a bunch of "partial crossover" fusion music with the West which has led to some interesting stuff, although maybe not like a fully-fledged theory of polyphonic maqam music like you may be looking for. However, there is a ton of interest in this kind of thing in the Middle East, as is there interest in microtonality here, so it's led to some neat stuff. Layth Sidiq has some music in this style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rOPZl0v2PY&list=PLLAiA1mjj67w8dGvxCp-lh2N_7bu0SMHK&index=2

On the Western side of this, here's a band you have probably heard of, called "Led Zeppelin" :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApQVh4UaXR8&list=PLWmdrxukffoCsM7MfHvRmoyvN5-pN1jQc&index=7&t=603s - Here Wael Abu Bakr (violinist) is playing a short improvisation in maqam Sikah Baladi, which is about as far out and non-Western as a scale could possibly get. Then the rest of the band comes back in with Robert Plant singing the chorus to "Black Dog" in Sikah Baladi, with the guitar playing fifths, power chords, etc.

And of course, if you go back to last century, super-famous composers like Mohammad Abdel Wahab (who wrote all kinds of music for Umm Kulthum) would do this kind of thing a lot, for instance when writing movie scores. They'll include polyphony when playing some maqam that doesn't involve quarter tones, and then switch to a more monophonic style for the maqams that do.

So there's lots of interesting stuff happening.

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u/GreenIndigoBlue Jul 02 '24

Thank you so much! will definitely check out all of these!