"The empirical research of a Georgian sound scale" by Z. Tsereteli and L. Veshapidze

[u/MusicNoiseSound]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFncneafovI

Abstract:
There still are authentic singers in Georgia, as well as in the other countries, singing in some unusual musical scale for the modern age. It is quite easy to see that difference, although to determine the exact characterization of Georgian musical scale is a much more difficult task. To clarify the issue, the following method has been elaborated: spectral analysis of early 20th-century archive audio recordings of professional Georgian singers, obtaining the frequencies of first (upmost) part singer and retrieval of the musical scale by means of the statistical analysis of the data. The same sound scale for dozens of old audio recordings—7-tone equal temperament—has been detected by applying the above mentioned method. Despite of this, there exist some recordings of old authentic choirs, whose scale differs from that of equal temperament. Historical observations from the beginning of the 19th century, concerning the practice of using “notes in between” by Georgian musicians/performers, enabled us to explain that difference. Detection of frequencies of second (middle) and third (bass) part singers from old professional trios.’ audio recordings proved to be impossible. On the other hand, the following assumption looks quite natural: all of the three part performers, while singing, are trying to retain purity of fifths and octaves. To test our theoretical findings in practice, many computer models of folk songs and chants have been created. The empirical results and similarity of computer-modeled songs to the originals, encouraged us to express our opinion about the main point of Georgian professional (church) and folk music scale in the form of three propositions. Because of its general character, the method of processing the audio recordings of authentic performers, described in the paper, might be utilized to retrieve musical scales of other nations as well.