Are there music systems with more than 12 notes?

[PigWings_v2.0]

Like an alternate music theory. Are there types of music that breaks up octaves into more than 12 intervals?

 

I wonder what the harmonies would be like.

[rxbanditos]

Well there is Middle Eastern music (I'm of middle eastern descent), but I don't know much about it.

[Leo Plumtree]

There are equal temperaments other than twelve that are compatible with conventional music theory (and plenty of non-equal ones as well). I'm throwing together an experimental instrument that uses a subset of 50 divisions to an octave.

 

And there are the alternate systems too, some using 24 divisions to an octave and whatnot. The Bohlen-Pierce scale isn't even based on the octave at all.

[rxbanditos]

Leo, so lets say one wanted to learn music theory of Asian/Middle Eastern music, how would one start?

 

Or how could one apply western/european music theory to asian/middle eastern music?

[3shiftgtr]

Quarter tone music takes the normal 12 tones used in Western music and divides each 1/2 step, in half. A regular semitone (1/2 step) gets divided in 2 equal quartertones. So you have 24 tones between octaves.

 

This is considered "new" and "experimental" in Western music, but these intervals have been used in Arabic music for centuries. The Arabic stuff is easier to listen to as there is not as much harmonic movement.

 

Some "popular" composers like Bartok and Ives have written quarter tone pieces. And some film composers like Danny Elfman and Jerry Goldsmith (used alot in "Alien") use quarter tone stuff.

 

The first stuff I heard were a few pieces by Julian Carrillo (sp?) and it was quartertone classical guitar and it just blew my mind. Took a couple of listens to just be able to accept the tonalities in my brain. Deep stuff.

 

Do some research and listen, and give yourself time to absorbb the tonalities that at first, just sound wrong. But after a while, the music just has so much to GIVE...there is so much TONALITY...just so much MORE. Plus, recordings of this stuff is HARD to find. Anything I have heard came from a friend of mine who is a principal bassist in a major symphony orchestra. He knows where to get this stuff.....

[girevik]

 

Or how could one apply western/european music theory to asian/middle eastern music?

 

 

A good way is to study the music of Asian/Middle Eastern musicians who have incorporated Western music theory into their compositions. An even better way is to study from such a musician in person.

 

Somebody once asked David Torn how he worked all those cool Middle Eastern/Indian ideas into his music, including course his improvised solos. It turned out that Torn took Arabic music lessons from at least one real Arabic musician and spent at least part of his childhood in India.