Intro
Possibly my favourite speaker from the visiting practitioner series, Khyam Allami offers a very different perspective on the relationship between the western musical system and other more marginalised musical cultures. Specifically honing in on tuning systems and microtonality, his opinions on the subconscious western bias we are all subject to has definitely made an impact on the way I now view western confines of music.
Khyam Allami – Background
Born in Damascus, Syria, Khyam Allami migrated to London at the age of 9. His renewed interest in cultural history and ethnography was born from the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Spurred by a need to reconnect with his roots he started playing the Oud as his primary instrument in his twenties, achieving much renown as a performer of the ancient instrument. Alongside this he studied ethnomusicology at the university of SOAS, specialising in Arabic and Iraqi music. He is currently in the process of finishing a PhD in composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, giving him the platform to further his research into the application of ‘contemporary acoustic, electro-acoustic and electronic compositional techniques and processes to Arabic music through the use of technology and various instrumentation.’
Pythagoras and Historical Misconceptions
Khyam’s research into microtonality and tuning systems lead him to the ancient Ionian Greek philosopher Pythagoras. Not only credited with ‘many mathematical and scientific discoveries’ he is widely seen to be the discoverer of the relations between music and mathematics. Upon deeper introspection however, the reality of it is that many of the ideas that Pythagoras, and the pythagoreans that followed him, developed were already being practiced across the east. Some examples include a clay tablet in Mesopotamia, dated to 2500 B.C. that talks about a specific tuning system that was used to tune the Mesopotamian lyre. There is also documentation of a Chinese technique for creating tuning systems using bamboo panpipes, dated at around 1700 B.C. Cross referencing this to Echo Ho’s work, it brings to mind the Guqin instrument that can be traced back to the Zhu dynasty in China (1046 BC – 771 BC) and is ‘one of a few instruments which changes the pitch tunings in order to change the key.’ Paradoxically, Pythagoras and his theories are only dated back to around 500 B.C. and according to Greek theorists, documentation of divisions of strings originated from the revered mathematician Euclid at around 300 A.D., revealing a very worrying discrepancy between the actual origins of tuning systems and the western view on the matter.
Origins of Western Bias On Music Theory
Khyam Allami claims that Pythagoras is the first point in the musical bias that society has developed. The misplaced reverence of Greek history and philosophy and the historical view of ancient Greece as a hub of western civilisation unwittingly ostracises many important practices within other ancient cultures that have made transformative contributions to contemporary western society. This is controversial as the representation of the Greeks being the centre of these ideas nestles into the heart of discussions about music theory. These inherent biases are then inherited by following generations creating a mass confusion and misinterpretation of musical history.
Equal temperament and the Limitations of Digital Software
The majority of digital tools today use equal temperament which is the western system for dividing the octave into 12 equal steps. This default tuning system thats available in the majority of sound based softwares and hardware we use today is representative of western music theory, yet is used by countries all over the world, a lot of whom use tuning systems that don’t rely on equal divisions of the octave.
Khyam opened up about his experiences with digital softwares, expanding on how the encoded equal temperament led him in a different direction to his Arabic foundations. The tools intrinsically went against the way he had learnt the Oud and music in general. The difficulty he met from using such softwares and the resulting frustration drove him to work on a creative solution for applying more marginalised tuning systems to digital music making. His work in max for live saw him create a device called ‘Comma’ that enabled one to tune any synthesiser by ear using specific values.
Whilst studying for a PhD on composition, focusing specifically on contemporary and experimental Arabic music, he again found himself developing pastiche ideas based on his predecessors in composition. Dissatisfied in his approach to his work he realised that, whilst his previous imperative had always been to find some sort of end result in which he could apply his accumulated knowledge, his underlying aim had always been to liberate himself creatively as opposed to having a means to an end. In a more understandable sense, the ability to discover a creative spark through the process of making music, instead of trying to execute a preconceived idea within the confines of western technology. This ultimately lead him to his work with the browser based applications Apotome and Leimma.
The Apotome Project
The Apotome project is a transcultural musical venture based on two browser based software applications, Leimma and Apotome, that provides a formula for the creation and exploration of tuning systems. While Leimma solely focuses on the creating of individual tuning systems, its sister application Apotome is a generative music making environment focused on making tuning a fundamental element of it.
A4 = 440Hz is a well known figure in western music and has become ‘the tuning and manufacturing standard for instruments.’ In reality tuning is a far more complex matter than simply ‘A being 440hz.’ This very idea contains an exclusion of other musical cultures that uses scales with more notes than the traditional ones used in the west.
Remnants of colonial perspectives of what music is supposed to be is inherited in the tools and softwares we use. Apotome and Leimma are so crucial to unpacking these biases as they deconstruct scale systems and de-colonialise musical preconceptions. These tools treat musical culture as equally as possible, but also encourage not only cultural, but individual identity.
After having tried Leimma myself, I found it to be a very user friendly and intuitive application. Through creating my own tuning system, mapping chosen frequencies to my midi keyboard, I was able to hear things I normally wouldn’t, exposing myself to a whole world of compositional ideas and concepts. Moreover, one can send their personal tuning system by simply copying and pasting its URL link making collaboration and feedback very accessible. I was disappointed to find however that I was limited by the amount of keys on my keyboard, unable to create a tuning system with more than 12 notes in one octave. Liberated in a sense by this application, yet once again confined by the amount of piano keys in one octave. I wonder whether seeking out a midi enharmonic keyboard, if one even exists, would alleviate this problem.
Another interesting thing to note is that ‘Comma, Leimma, and Apotome, all take their names from ancient Greek terms used to describe specific microtonal intervals that result from various mathematical nuances associated with creating tuning systems.’ The re-appropriation of these terms are fitting as they subtly expose misconstrued histories but also ‘advocate for celebration of difference across cultures’
Eggs – A Metaphor for Societal Crutches
At one point in the lecture Khyam tells of the unexpected dissatisfaction he experienced with the culmination of his initial Max For Live project (Comma). Despite having a tool he had yearned for so long at his disposal, he was unmotivated as the difficulty in developing the idea was the main drive in the first place. He likened this realisation to, what I found to be, a very intelligent anecdote describing a group of housewives asked to bake a cake.
Instructed only to add water to a provided cake mix, most of these housewives felt like they were not able to creatively represent themselves in the process. Consequently, the egg was removed from the mix and a new line was added to the packets instruction, asking its users to add a single egg themselves, whilst following the rest as required. As soon as this update was undertaken the cake mix soared in popularity.
He compares the idea of this ‘egg’ to the way in which people approach composition, but also life in general. I agree with his observations of people and the sense of agency that is generally needed to feel good about what we do. This agency has fused with instant gratification in todays world and causes society to rest on the crutches of technology in order to complete a task. “Most music technology that we deal with today revolves around this idea of the egg – all these defaults and settings are in place and all we are asked to do is break an egg and feel like we have some sort of agency or ownership to what we are doing – the ingredients are all laid out for us and they’re framed in a way that harbours a specific way of thinking about music”
So eloquently put, I feel this comparison really puts form to the pitfalls of western modern man in a spectacular way. It asks us to be self critical and to make sure the choices we make are not just ‘eggs.’
Cultural/ Social Ramifications
A final point to make is that the western dominance of the musical software and hardware market is another issue, in that it imposes its ideologies through its software onto people of other cultures. People, who may have differing notions of music to the ones coded into a certain device’s framework, have no choice but to use the western softwares they are limited to. Another interesting point, in the form of a question asked in the Q n A session, shone a light on the price of Ableton and its inaccessibility for those of a certain class. The very fact that people seem to be drawn to Ableton for its notoriety as the most (or rather coming closest to) creatively freeing music software brings social ramifications with it when considering the class based disenfranchisement that can occur for people from a poorer background.
Conclusion
I feel Khyam Allami is a prime example of someone who engages in consistent self reflection, constantly recreating himself in line with his changing theories on music and life. It can be hard to dig deep into our self conscious in a self critical way and unpack the biasses that we’ve inherited. Yet Khyam demonstrates the huge advantages that come with it. I feel as if his work resonates with me on a strong level as I often times feel disconnected from my heritage. His work has spurred me to get in touch with my roots more so then I have currently done. As someone who has a deep appreciation of many musical cultures outside the western sphere, whether that be the Malian blues of Boubacar Traoré, the ancient sounds of the Persian Ney or the Brazilian funk of Azymuth, Khyam has taught me the dangers of western centric, surface level exotification of said genres, and that personally delving deeper into these marginalised forms of music will only aid me in my outlook on music.
References
“Apotome: Khyam Allami X Counterpoint — Khyam Allami.” Khyamallami.com, khyamallami.com/Apotome-Khyam-Allami-x-Counterpoint. Accessed 19 May 2021.
Festival, C. T. M. “Microtonality and the Struggle for Fretlessness in the Digital Age.” Microtonality and the Struggle for Fretlessness in the Digital Age, www.ctm-festival.de/magazine/microtonality-and-the-struggle-for-fretlessness-in-the-digital-age.
“Guqin Tunings.” Wikipedia, 1 Aug. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guqin_tunings#Method_of_tuning. Accessed 19 May 2021.
“Roel’s World – Blog» How Did A4=440Hz Became the Standard?” Roel’s World, 19 Oct. 2013, roelhollander.eu/en/tuning-frequency/standardization/. Accessed 18 May 2021.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Pythagoras.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras.