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| American flag in colors of Islam |
I don't propose bowing heads to a caliphate, or treating anyone unfairly. I don't know the teachings of Muhammad except for one– that kalonji cures "everything but death." I probably will never have the time to read the Koran. From my experience as instrument maker, however, I feel that we need more Islamic music.
In this flag the blue party has been excised and replaced by a "black lives matter" party. These four colors of Islam– black, white, green, and red– have so much to do with America! Think of our winter customs around Christmas– the green and red of holly wreaths, and twinkling candles in a fir tree. What would a black party look like?
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| Holly Wreath by Kirito |
I know that in Islamic art, representation of the face is forbidden, because man should not imitate God's work. This injunction has brought about the most sophisticated sense of geometric and calligraphic design in those with faith. What is non-representational music?
The neutral third distinguishes Arab and Islamic music from Western twelve tone music. Sitting somewhere between the
minor (sad) and major (happy) third, I would like to speculate that it evokes warm and memories to those who grew up
in Islam, and a fear to those who fear, including those who believe in only "sad" and "happy." It reflects a deep subtlety
of emotion to map a pitch in the unknown, irrational place between the strong poles of major and minor. Ancient Arab
theorists searched for a representative integer ratio, and only came up with subtler variations. The numbers in the "Wosta
of Zalzal" ratio–27/22–pop up in the most common resistor values of electronics design. Exploring the musical
dynamics of resistor ratios, I have found many neutral thirds. I can also hear them in train sounds, because the industry
has tacitly found efficiency in this temperament.
The Wosta of Zalzal, in inhabiting a vague space between the poles of minor and major, mocks not the peace and passion of God. All the ratios for tones in this area are geometrically sophisticated, employing elevens; no wonder Zalzal the faithful found ecstasy here.
In Islam, green symbolizes peace, and red means passion. Santa Claus with his red velvet suit as passionate individual? The green fir tree is a quiet peaceful spot.
In the common integers of the industrial capacitor series, I have found Zalzal's de-representation of geometric complexity. I used the E6 set in the green boards of Tocante instruments.
10,15,22,33,47,68
12,18,27,39,56,82
Now for this 2016 season of peace and harmony, I have recently manufactured the alternate numbers of the E12 series in a series of red boards!
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| Give the gift of Islamic music for the holidays. |
Look at the numbers and enjoy them. You can see many relationships of 27/22 and 11/9, bringing an eleven harmony into each instrument and also the relationship between instruments. Music is an expression that can not bomb or murder. Give Islamic music a fair representation in your life.
The AT3 by casio is a keyboard designed specifically for "Arab tuned" music. Also, note that Hormoz Farhat's work shall explain neutral intervals and the following "Westernized" notation:
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| Notation of observed intervals between green and red Tocante scales. |
From: Daniel Fishkin
To: Peter Blasser
over turkish coffee, you suggested a blog post about the different/similarities of color theory of different cultures, based around red/green. christians see these colors as christmas, family togetherness, and muslims see these colors as religious devotion, religious love.
i was saying that could see the value of this post from a "copy" perspective—building layers of meaning, and creating compelling incentive for your market to purchase the red series.
But my critique was to imagine a more nuanced, academic tone that you might also flex. Essentially, "color theory" as you suggested it is only interpretive—because you're looking at the meaning of colors through subjective experience (christmas). i think this is the crux and failing of all color theory—it's just about what do these colors mean emotionally to the viewer. you have a lot more layers of analysis, you could go deeper in that territory—i think you displayed this in the eContact essay of ovalsynth, where the blog post was more gonzo crazy. or, your thesis. for example, the wosta of zazal—from whence does it come? which culture, exactly? are there more?
what are these neutral thirds, and how do we base music on them? tocante is suggesting an answer, but the history of music has suggested other answers...what are they?
here's my engineer spiel which i think is more "academic" if less "juicy" than the colors
you derive 27/22 from the preferred number series e12, right? (e6 over e6) so my question is a little more broadly cultural, what are engineers and what is their contribution? it could be technopositive or it could be dystopian. depends on the analyzer. So perhaps — is it Amoral? Perhaps the engineers
And perhaps that's the ideal of the wosta, occupying that in between space between essentialized emotions, between polarities ("major" and "minor", "sad" and "happy", "green" and "red") and by occupying that neutral space, reveals how fruitless those polarities are as sole signifiers of any particular meaning. (of course, a song in a minor key can become "happy", and the love of christmas can become "war")
From: Peter Blasser
To: Daniel Fishkin
The whole red/green problem arose because I needed a new color for tocante to symbolize its second tuning. I had always used green soldermasks, partially for the tradition of circuit design, and partially because I like green. Now I had to drop the menu and pick the next color: red. Thinking in cliches, I worried about getting the boards ready for Christmas, and then I thought about the rest of the world. Thus the red/green problem asks the internet if these colors are appropriate to Islam. The oracle read back in assurance that black, white, red and green are in fact sacred. An optimistic boon that we shall get along!
