Middle-Eastern Violin - What, How, and Why?
The Middle-Eastern Violin is normally tuned G-D-G-D, as opposed to the G-D-A-E tuning in Western music. The said way of tuning allows for playing Middle-Eastern modes (i.e., Rast, Biat, Hozam, and Sabah) with a much smoother finger positioning and movement over strings. However, some Middle-Eastern Violinists (particularly those who play Western repertoire in orchestras) tune their instruments G-D-A-E and, still, are able to play Middle-Eastern modes, albeit with a bit of effort and discomfort. One reason for this is that some Violinists find themselves having to play a portion or a whole musical phrase on the same string (e.g., Sul D), rather than toggle to the next one (e.g., swapping between D and A). The key point here is that fingers placement becomes quite uncomfortable, specially when it comes to applying the quarter tone, which requires a considerable degree of both high precision and sound intonation.
Replies (4)
And we get a lovely "sympathetic" resonance from the open strings. I once had a viola d'amore tuned (from the bottom up) A-D-A-D-F/F# A-D, plus 7 sympathetic wire strings. Lots of eery resonance.
But the tuning varies a lot.
Angga, not necessarily repeat in an octave. For example, Maqam Saba doesn't have an octave, and many Maqamat extend beyond the octave using a different structure than on the lower octave. Also, you can find players in the Arabic and Turkish traditions that also play using the alla franca tuning.
Turkish traditional tuning is GDAD, for example. While it is much easier to play the music scordatura, standard is possible (but counterintuitive, since the music is traditionally improvised and played by ear).
It of interest to note that folk playing involving traditional quartertones or smaller fits with the above points, since tbe many more notes increase tonality and make notation rather difficult and unneeded (since folk music is simple anyway). :)
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September 13, 2014 at 02:03 PM · The Arabic Violin is tuned to G-D-G-D to ease playing Arabic Maqams.
An Arabic Maqam is an Arabic musical mode that contains 7 notes that repeat in an octave.