1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,000 This is your public radio station WHQR Wilmington. 2 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:05,000 We're pleased to have a day sponsor for today. 3 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:11,000 Today's programming on WHQR being made possible in part by a gift from Teak on Water Street, 4 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:14,000 sellers of the finest Teak furniture in North Carolina. 5 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,000 We thank them for their support. 6 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:18,000 Peter Shigley, are you ready for your radio show? 7 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,000 Professor, are you ready? 8 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,000 Okay, let's do a countdown. 9 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:26,000 Ten, nine, eight, seven, six... 10 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,000 Wait a minute, I have to use the other hand. 11 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,000 Five, four, three, two, one. 12 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:33,000 Here's the theme. 13 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:46,000 Music 14 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:50,000 Hello there, I'm Peter Shigley, and this is Shigley Mix, 15 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,000 a program dedicated to the proposition that all musics are created equal. 16 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,000 Or as Duke Ellington put it, if it sounds good, it is good. 17 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:03,000 And it's always a good idea to acknowledge one's benefactors. 18 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:08,000 Our bills, that is to say, are paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 19 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:10,000 by the National Endowment for the Arts, 20 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,000 and by this fine Nissimo radio station right here, 21 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:20,000 within whose two, two solid walls I concoct these morsels of musical melangerie, 22 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,000 whereupon they are distributed via the wide blue yonder to the far reaches 23 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:31,000 of this fair and far-flung country by PRI, Public Radio International. 24 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:35,000 The word scale can mean several different things. 25 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:38,000 Scale means one thing to a mountaineer, 26 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,000 it means something quite different to a weight watcher, 27 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,000 it means something else again to a model builder, 28 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,000 and it means nothing whatsoever to a gerbil. 29 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:50,000 To a musician, however, the notes of a scale 30 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:54,000 are the basic building blocks of melody and harmony. 31 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,000 A scale is a way of dividing the octave, 32 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,000 and it's usually presented as a succession of adjacent tones 33 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,000 in ascending or descending order. 34 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:07,000 Most of the music we hear is based on a seven-note scale. 35 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:11,000 Half a millennium ago, it was referred to as the Ionian mode, 36 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,000 now it's called the major scale. 37 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,000 Do Re Mi Fa So La Si Do 38 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,000 The eighth tone I sang there has the same name as the first 39 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:24,000 because it's not regarded as a completely new note, 40 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:28,000 but rather as the first note transposed up an octave. 41 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,000 We talk about the octave phenomenon on another edition of Shickly Mix, 42 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,000 and we don't have the time to do it now, but just take my word for it. 43 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,000 You could go on forever. 44 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:41,000 Do Re Mi Fa So La Si Do 45 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:44,000 Re Mi Fa So La Si Do 46 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:47,000 Re Mi Fa So La Si 47 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:51,000 You could go right on up to the highest limit of human hearing, 48 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:54,000 or even farther if you're into conceptual art. 49 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,000 But you'd still be dealing with a seven-note scale. 50 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:00,000 By the way, I guess I should mention that tones that lie between 51 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,000 adjacent scale tones are sometimes used for color, 52 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:08,000 but they're not regarded as basic scale steps. 53 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,000 So you can tune those scale steps any way you want. 54 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:15,000 If you play the white notes on a piano from C to C, 55 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,000 or should I say from C to shining C, 56 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:20,000 that's the major scale. 57 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:23,000 Here, let me turn the authentic instrument on. 58 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,000 I'll pick one of the good piano settings here. 59 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:31,000 Let's see. Let's choose the Black & Decker 9-foot Concert Grand. 60 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,000 Okay, here's a major scale. 61 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:37,000 Now remember, in our culture, when you're playing a scale, 62 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:41,000 it's very special to include the octave transposition of the first note. 63 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:44,000 In other words, when you demonstrate a seven-note scale, 64 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:46,000 you're going to play eight notes. 65 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:57,000 The major scale. White notes of the piano starting on C. 66 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:00,000 If you play the white notes starting on A... 67 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:04,000 That's one kind of minor scale. 68 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,000 But a scale doesn't have to have seven steps. 69 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:12,000 If you play all the piano keys, white and black, within an octave... 70 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,000 That's a 12-note scale called the chromatic scale. 71 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,000 By the way, chromatic. 72 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,000 Remember how I said that those in-between notes 73 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:30,000 were often used for color? 74 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,000 It's no accident that the scale that includes all the color notes 75 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:35,000 is called the chromatic scale. 76 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:39,000 I'm telling you, it helps to have a good background in entomology. 77 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:44,000 Anyway, one of the most common scales in the world has five notes. 78 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:55,000 Now many people, if you just play the notes of a pentatonic scale, 79 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:59,000 as I just did, many people think of Chinese music. 80 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:26,000 And it's true that a lot of Chinese music is based on pentatonic scales. 81 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:14,000 That's the beginning of Fishing Boats Singing in the Night, 82 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:20,000 composed by M Lim and performed by the Chinese Blossom Orchestra. 83 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:24,000 That's a very characteristic sound of that area of Asia. 84 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,000 And it has often been imitated by European composers 85 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,000 for exotic effect and parodied as well, 86 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,000 as in the overture to Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. 87 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:40,000 But I'll bet that everyone listening to this program 88 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,000 knows at least several melodies that are pentatonic, 89 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:46,000 but they don't sound Chinese at all. 90 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:58,000 Like this one, for instance. 91 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:24,000 Like me 92 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:33,000 I once was lost 93 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:42,000 But now I'm found 94 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:46,000 Was blind 95 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:58,000 But now I see 96 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:02,000 Pamela Warwick Smith singing the first verse of Amazing Grace, 97 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:05,000 which is a completely pentatonic melody. 98 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,000 Speaking of entomology, by the way, 99 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:12,000 quinine water, of course, is the same prefix as the beginning of the word pentagon. 100 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:18,000 So pentatonic literally means quinine water used by the military. 101 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:26,000 Did I get you there for just a minute or a second or two, huh? 102 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:30,000 Well, of course, I was just pulling your leg there ever so gently. 103 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:35,000 In this context, of course, tonic means having to do with tones. 104 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:39,000 So pentatonic actually means military music. 105 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:42,000 Now it's easy to tell if a tune is pentatonic 106 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:46,000 because of the way the intervals in pentatonic scales are arranged. 107 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:50,000 If you can play it on the black keys of the piano, it's pentatonic. 108 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,000 Let me swing around to the authentic instrument here. 109 00:08:53,000 --> 00:09:07,000 Amazing Grace, for instance. 110 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:20,000 We just heard it, but I just want to show you. 111 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:24,000 It's all black keys. 112 00:09:50,000 --> 00:10:03,000 Okay, and let's see. 113 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:22,000 There's... 114 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:26,000 I don't remember how the rest of that goes, but anyway, it's all black keys. 115 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:28,000 Take my word for it. 116 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:31,000 Okay, now here's one that's almost all pentatonic. 117 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:47,000 Those of you who are my age or older, do you remember Buttons and Bows? 118 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:51,000 Now that note right there, that is not a pentatonic note. 119 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:53,000 That's a white key, that F there. 120 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:59,000 And so that's an example of a tune that is almost pentatonic, but not quite. 121 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,000 I think Buttons and Bows was from a Bob Hope movie, wasn't it? 122 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:04,000 Was it from Pale Face? 123 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:09,000 Maybe the pentatonic quality was supposed to make the tune sound a bit like American Indian music, 124 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:12,000 which is sometimes pentatonic. 125 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:17,000 Be that as it may or may not be, it's tidbit time here at the old black key ranch, 126 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:24,000 and today's tidbit is an anthropological field recording of some natives performing their indigenous music. 127 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:27,000 They did not know that they were being recorded, by the way, 128 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:31,000 so this performance is completely spontaneous. 129 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:26,000 Okay. 130 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:48,000 So I'm like, well, if you do meet me after school, I'll puke in your face. 131 00:12:48,000 --> 00:13:10,000 Two American folk songs, one of them completely pentatonic and the other mostly so, 132 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:16,000 played except for the two non-scale tones on the black keys of the piano in the cafeteria 133 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:18,000 at the high school in my neighborhood. 134 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:23,000 I wanted to record them surreptitiously to avoid any self-consciousness, 135 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:29,000 and well, fortunately, the principal of the school is married to my college roommate's older sister, 136 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:34,000 so what could have been an ugly situation was resolved before it made the papers. 137 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:39,000 But you know, that may have been how the pentatonic scale started, you know? 138 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:44,000 I mean, four or five thousand years ago, a bunch of Sumerian teenagers 139 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:48,000 fooling around on the cafeteria piano at Ur High. 140 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:53,000 You know, that might explain why the pentatonic scale is so widely disseminated around the... 141 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:57,000 Rats. I hate it when this happens. 142 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:02,000 Hello? 143 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:08,000 Well, well, sir, I think that everybody knew that I was kidding. 144 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:12,000 Oh, yes, I was kidding. 145 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:14,000 Okay, I'll make that very clear. 146 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:17,000 Okay, thank you, sir. 147 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:22,000 Well, there's a feeling in certain quarters that it might not have been obvious that I was just joking 148 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:26,000 when I said that pentatonic meant military music. 149 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:30,000 Of course, the prefix penta is the same as in the word pentagon, 150 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:33,000 but that doesn't mean that it signifies anything military. 151 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:37,000 It is, in fact, the same prefix as in pentameter, 152 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:42,000 which, as some of you may know, is a device for measuring the amount of emotion 153 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:45,000 that people have pent up inside them. 154 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:50,000 The well-known iambic pentameter is a special version of this device 155 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:55,000 for use on people who think that they are ballpoint pens. 156 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,000 Fortunately, this disorder is rare. 157 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:03,000 So, the actual literal meaning of the word pentatonic, this is on the level, folks, 158 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:09,000 is musical tones used to express bottled-up emotions. 159 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:15,000 Now, people with bottled-up emotions exist all over the world, and so do pentatonic scales. 160 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:22,000 In fact, until the communications explosion of the last century rendered isolation almost obsolete, 161 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:27,000 the pentatonic scale was probably the most widespread musical scale in the world. 162 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:30,000 I feel a sweet coming on. 163 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:39,000 And I ought to know. I'm Peter Shickely, the host of Shickely Mix from PRI, Public Radio International. 164 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:45,000 The show today is called Five Finger Exercises, and we're talking about the pentatonic scale. 165 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:50,000 We're about to hear five pieces from all over the world using five-note scales. 166 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:57,000 Now, I should mention that the exact tuning of these notes is not necessarily the same in different cultures, 167 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:03,000 but they're all close enough so that if you were to play these melodies on the black keys of our high school cafeteria piano, 168 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:07,000 everyone from all over the world would recognize them. 169 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:28,000 I call this suite Around the World in Five Tones. The trip lasts about 12 minutes. 170 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:44,000 Oh, 171 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:49,000 oh, 172 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:56,000 oh, 173 00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:02,000 oh, 174 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:09,000 oh, 175 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:14,000 oh, 176 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:19,000 oh, 177 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:26,000 oh, 178 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:33,000 oh, 179 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:38,000 oh, 180 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:43,000 oh, 181 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:48,000 oh, 182 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:53,000 oh, 183 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:59,000 oh, 184 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:05,000 oh, 185 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:09,000 oh, 186 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:14,000 my parents raised me tenderly. 187 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:20,000 They had no child but me. 188 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:31,000 But my mind was set on rambling around and with them I couldn't agree. 189 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:36,000 There was a girl in this same town. 190 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:42,000 She was so wondrous fair. 191 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:47,000 There was no other girl in the country round. 192 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:55,000 That with her I could compare. 193 00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:04,000 I asked her if she would agree for me to cross over the main. 194 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:15,000 She said she would prove true to me till I return again. 195 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:26,000 I got my things, went to the dock. Her tears shone down like wine. 196 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:32,000 We kissed, shook hands and partied. 197 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:41,000 I left my girl behind. 198 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:52,000 As I walked out one morning to view old Georges Square, 199 00:19:52,000 --> 00:20:04,000 the mail post boat had just arose and the post boy met me there. 200 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:14,000 He handed me a letter which gave me to understand 201 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:27,000 that the girl I left behind me had married another man. 202 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:38,000 I turned myself all around and about. I knew not what to do. 203 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:50,000 I read on a few lines further and I found the news were true. 204 00:20:50,000 --> 00:21:00,000 I'll follow the old train. Bad company I'll resign. 205 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:18,000 I'll ramble around from town to town for the girl I left behind. 206 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:25,000 The old train. 207 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:33,000 The old train. 208 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:49,000 The old train. 209 00:21:49,000 --> 00:22:05,000 The old train. 210 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:29,000 The old train. 211 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:39,000 The old train. 212 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:49,000 The old train. 213 00:22:49,000 --> 00:23:09,000 The old train. 214 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:19,000 The old train. 215 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:29,000 The old train. 216 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:39,000 The old train. 217 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:49,000 The old train. 218 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:59,000 The old train. 219 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:09,000 The old train. 220 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:19,000 The old train. 221 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:29,000 The old train. 222 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:39,000 The old train. 223 00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:59,000 The old train. 224 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:09,000 The old train. 225 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:29,000 The old train. 226 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:49,000 The old train. 227 00:25:49,000 --> 00:26:09,000 The old train. 228 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:19,000 The old train. 229 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:39,000 The old train. 230 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:59,000 The old train. 231 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:09,000 The old train. 232 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:19,000 The old train. 233 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:29,000 The old train. 234 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:39,000 The old train. 235 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:59,000 The old train. 236 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:15,000 The old train. 237 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:31,000 The amazing throat singing of the people of Tuva. 238 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:47,000 The song from central Mongolia about the Mongolian celebration of white moon. 239 00:28:47,000 --> 00:29:01,000 Then we heard Jean Ritchie singing old George's square. 240 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:11,000 And then from Africa, songs and dances from the land of Ngali. 241 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:21,000 And then from Hawaii, a chant called. 242 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,000 By the way, that only had four notes, not five. 243 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:28,000 But it sounds a lot like pentatonic stuff. 244 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:32,000 And then finally, this music from Tuva, this amazing throat singing. 245 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:36,000 It's important that you realize that that was only one person. 246 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:43,000 According to the notes on the album here, these singers by precise movements of the lips. 247 00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:48,000 They sing a very low, or actually there are different ways of doing it, but a low fundamental note. 248 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:59,000 And then by precise movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, soft palate, and larynx, the singers can selectively intensify vocally produced harmonics. 249 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,000 So you're hearing the harmonics above. 250 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,000 These are natural notes according to the overtone series. 251 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,000 The notes that a bugle could play without any keys. 252 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:14,000 Or the notes that you get when you just lightly touch a string on a violin and bow it, rather than pushing the string all the way down. 253 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:18,000 It's absolutely a beautiful and haunting effect. 254 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:22,000 So now let's move on to yet another possibility. 255 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:24,000 Oh man, here we go again. Excuse me. 256 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:28,000 Hello? Oh hello, sir. 257 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:30,000 Well, yes, let's see. 258 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:36,000 Ordinarily there is a dictionary here in the studio, but actually I was looking for it earlier. 259 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:39,000 And I think somebody must have borrowed it and not brought it back. 260 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:40,000 I can't... 261 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:42,000 That's right, penta. 262 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:44,000 Penta is the prefix. 263 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:47,000 Oh, you looked it up? 264 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,000 Five? 265 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:51,000 Are you sure? 266 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:53,000 Oh, I'm sorry. No, excuse me, sir. 267 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,000 Of course, if you looked it up, you know what it says. 268 00:30:55,000 --> 00:31:02,000 I don't know, it's just that, well, you know, in the modern Romance languages, the low numbers are all related to the old Latin. 269 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,000 Like in Italian, you know, uno, duo, tre, quattro, and then five. 270 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:10,000 Cinque, or French cinque, from quintus, quinque. 271 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:14,000 It doesn't seem to have much to do with penta. 272 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,000 Oh, Greek? 273 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:23,000 So you're saying that pentatonic means five tones? 274 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:32,000 Well, that does make a certain amount of sense, because, in fact, there are five tones in a penta. 275 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,000 Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. 276 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:39,000 Well, you live and learn, and so do I. 277 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:45,000 I still think it's weird. I mean, when you have five kids at once, they're called quintuplets, not pentuplets. 278 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,000 Well, anyway. 279 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:54,000 There's one thing I do know, and that's that the word pentatonic, which has given us so much trouble today, 280 00:31:54,000 --> 00:32:00,000 is pretty much always used to describe five-note scales that can be played on the black keys of the piano. 281 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:05,000 That is, it's that order of intervals, major seconds and minor thirds. 282 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:12,000 But it is possible to construct other five-note scales that cannot be played on the black keys. 283 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:17,000 Let's hear some more of that truly awesome throat singing from Tuva. 284 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:49,000 Tuva, Tuva. 285 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:19,000 Tuva, Tuva. 286 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:49,000 Tuva, Tuva. 287 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:19,000 Tuva, Tuva. 288 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:49,000 Tuva, Tuva. 289 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:56,000 Tuva, Tuva. 290 00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:03,000 Tuva, Tuva. 291 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:10,000 Tuva, Tuva. 292 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:19,000 Throat singing from Tuva in Central Asia, with a plucked instrument and a Jews harp accompanying. 293 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:26,000 Now, if you combine the lower sung notes with the overtone notes, you get this scale. 294 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:39,000 This scale has exactly the same intervals as the usual pentatonic scale, 295 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:43,000 three major seconds and two minor thirds, but in a different order. 296 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:51,000 Instead of major second, major second, minor third, major second, minor third, 297 00:35:51,000 --> 00:36:00,000 this scale is major second, major second, minor third, minor third, and major second. 298 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:06,000 That one little change of order renders the scale unplayable on the black keys. 299 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:14,000 This note is a white key, and no matter how you transpose the scale, you cannot stay on the black keys and play it. 300 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:21,000 A more significant difference, the placement of black and white keys is, after all, more or less arbitrary, 301 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:33,000 between this and the regular pentatonic scale is that the Tuvan scale has a tritone in it. 302 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:39,000 This very striking interval, often regarded in western music as unstable, but therefore powerful, 303 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:45,000 cannot be obtained playing only the black keys, in other words, in a regular pentatonic scale. 304 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:49,000 Listen to this beautiful, unaccompanied Tuvan song. 305 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:57,000 The first time I heard it, I experienced a delicious feeling of shock and surprise when the singer skips up a tritone, 306 00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:01,000 partly because I didn't know yet what the notes of the scale were. 307 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:06,000 I'm going to let Mr. Mangush sing two verses unaccompanied, 308 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:13,000 and then I'm going to add a little bit of drone using notes that the Tuvans use themselves when they accompany their songs, 309 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:19,000 and I think that you'll find that the high note, which sounds rather eerie when it's unaccompanied, 310 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:28,000 sounds no less beautiful, but perhaps less surprising when placed in the context of this deeply physically rooted, 311 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:32,000 natural, overtone-based scale of the Tuvans. 312 00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:08,000 Oi, darugana, vatang ejigle, 313 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:13,000 jire, 314 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:19,000 andhagaro, 315 00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:26,000 uma tovangar, 316 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:38,000 alakshatang erdine, 317 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:44,000 andhagaro, 318 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:50,000 uga yivosvangar, 319 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:58,000 oi, ala vatang ejigle, 320 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:02,000 jire, 321 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:09,000 andhagaro, 322 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:16,000 uma tovangar. 323 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:24,000 Sundukai Mangush singing a so-called long song with beautiful words, 324 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:30,000 don't frighten the crane, jewel of the steppe, my heart is warming, don't rouse my dear one, 325 00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:39,000 don't scare the bird swan, jewel of the forest glades, penetrating my burning heart, my dear one, don't rouse him. 326 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:45,000 I am the culprit, if you're wondering about that uncharacteristic piano drone in there, 327 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:56,000 and my name is Peter Schickele. The program is Schickele Mix from PRI, Public Radio International. 328 00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:06,000 Five finger exercises, pentatonic or five note scales. Let's get back to the usual black key scale with an unusually beautiful song. 329 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:13,000 By the way, when I say that these melodies can be played on the black keys of the piano, I don't necessarily mean that they are played in that key, 330 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:22,000 I just mean that they could be. It's a quick and easy way for anybody with a piano to play or define a pentatonic scale. 331 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:46,000 The opening of this next cut sounds almost Japanese, but in fact, the tune is Gaelic. 332 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:53,000 Oh, 333 00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:55,000 me. 334 00:40:55,000 --> 00:41:24,000 Is 335 00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:27,000 me. 336 00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:56,000 Oh, 337 00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:26,000 me. 338 00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:56,000 Me. 339 00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:26,000 Me. 340 00:43:54,000 --> 00:44:17,000 Me. 341 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:23,000 Christine Primrose singing a lament called 342 00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:30,000 All right, I ought to give up even before I start, but I won't. 343 00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:40,000 Wrong, but I 344 00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:46,000 I have to admit that my Gaelic isn't what it used to never be in the first place. 345 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:51,000 Okay, now it's hard to get out of the mood of that. It's so serene. 346 00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:57,000 By perhaps overstressing the ubiquity and antiquity of pentatonic songs. 347 00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:02,000 I don't want to give the impression that the pentatonic stream has dried up. 348 00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:25,000 No way, Jose. 349 00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:35,000 Okay, now there are two teeny weeny little passing notes in that riff that aren't in the scale, but otherwise it's pure black key pentatonic. 350 00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:45,000 Don't bother to call. Put that phone down. I know that to play just 20 seconds of Stevie Wonder's Sir Duke and leave it at that would be cruel and unusual punishment. 351 00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:56,000 So here's all of it. And let me say that the intro and the song melody are not pentatonic. It's just that recurring refrain. If it were Monteverdi, we'd call it a ritornello. 352 00:45:56,000 --> 00:46:25,000 Then we'll segue into another kind of hybrid. A purely pentatonic melody with a non-pentatonic accompaniment. Mr. Wonder? 353 00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:35,000 Music is a world within itself with a language we all understand. 354 00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:43,000 With an equal opportunity for artists to sing, dance and clap their hands. 355 00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:47,000 Just because the record has a groove don't make it in the groove. 356 00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:53,000 But you can tell right away, Dr. A, when the people start to move. 357 00:46:53,000 --> 00:47:11,000 They can feel it all over. 358 00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:37,000 Music knows it is and always will be one of the things that life just won't quit. 359 00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:46,000 But here's some of music's pioneers that time will not allow us to forget now. 360 00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:50,000 Let's face it Miller, Timo and the King are Sir Duke. 361 00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:55,000 And with a voice like Kelly ringing out, there's no way the band could lose. 362 00:47:55,000 --> 00:48:18,000 You can feel it all over. You can feel it all over people. 363 00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:30,000 You can feel it all over people. 364 00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:49,000 Here we go. 365 00:48:49,000 --> 00:49:07,000 You can feel it all over. 366 00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:29,000 You can feel it all over people. 367 00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:39,000 Come on, let's feel it all over people. You can feel it all over everybody. 368 00:49:39,000 --> 00:50:02,000 Come on, let's feel it all over people. 369 00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:17,000 When I was single, when dressed all so fine, now I am married, Lord, go ragged all the time. 370 00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:27,000 Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again. 371 00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:34,000 Dishes to wash and spring to go to. 372 00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:42,000 When you are married Lord, you've got it all to do. 373 00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:50,000 Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again. 374 00:50:50,000 --> 00:51:05,000 When I was single, my shoes they did squeak, now I am married, Lord, my shoes they do leak. 375 00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:14,000 Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again. 376 00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:29,000 Three little children all lying in the bed, all of them so hungry, Lord, they can't raise up their head. 377 00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:39,000 Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again. 378 00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:47,000 I wash their little feet and send them to school. 379 00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:55,000 Then comes the drunkard and calls them a fool. 380 00:51:55,000 --> 00:52:03,000 Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again. 381 00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:18,000 When I was single, I eat biscuit and pie, now I am married, Lord, it's eat cornbread or die. 382 00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:26,000 Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again. 383 00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:53,000 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. 384 00:52:53,000 --> 00:53:00,000 Stevie Wonder, Sir Duke, followed by Peggy Seger with When I Was Single. 385 00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:04,000 I have just funny feelings about When I Was Single. 386 00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:08,000 I absolutely love that song and I love the arrangement, the guitar arrangement, 387 00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:14,000 which she says is based on a piano arrangement that her mother used to sing it to. 388 00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:19,000 But it's sort of funny, I mean, and I first knew this record when I was a student at Swarthmore College 389 00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:23,000 and had a friend who knew her and everything. 390 00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:28,000 I got to say I had a crush on Peggy Seger, never having met her, just from the warmth of her voice, 391 00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:30,000 and I still don't know her. 392 00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:33,000 But here's this song which is really a put-down of marriage 393 00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:40,000 and therefore sort of implicitly of men and how women get treated in marriage, 394 00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:46,000 and yet this just beautiful warmth as I feel it in the singing. 395 00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:52,000 A somewhat strange experience, but not too strange. I love this song. 396 00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:58,000 Well, I learned today that penta means five and it's Greek. 397 00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:02,000 A secure man is not afraid to admit his mistakes. 398 00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:10,000 As far as word origins go, there were obviously some bugs in my entomology there earlier in the program. 399 00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:16,000 So I've been thinking about it. I guess that pentagon must be a combination of penta, meaning five, 400 00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:22,000 and agon, the Greek word for contest, which makes sense because everybody knows 401 00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:29,000 that what goes on in the pentagon is a continuous struggle among the five branches of the military. 402 00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:36,000 That is the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, and school crossing guards. 403 00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:40,000 There's an absolutely terrific fiddle player named Bonnie Rideout, 404 00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:45,000 and with a name like Rideout, she has to be our final performer. 405 00:54:45,000 --> 00:55:07,000 The first tune in this set is called Bog on Lochin, and it's mostly pentatonic, and it's all great. 406 00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:34,000 And that's Sickly Mix for this week. 407 00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:39,000 Our program is made possible with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 408 00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:44,000 by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by this radio station and its members. 409 00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:52,000 Thank you, members. And not only that, our program is distributed by PRI, Public Radio International. 410 00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:57,000 We'll tell you in a moment how you can get an official playlist of all the music on today's program 411 00:55:57,000 --> 00:56:04,000 with album numbers and everything. Just refer to the program number. This is program number 116. 412 00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:09,000 And this is Peter Sickly saying goodbye and reminding you that it don't mean a thing 413 00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:14,000 if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi. You're looking good. See you next week. 414 00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:49,000 This is Peter Sickly saying goodbye and reminding you that it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi. You're looking good. 415 00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:16,000 You're looking good. 416 00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:55,000 If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Sickly Mix. 417 00:57:55,000 --> 00:58:02,000 That's S-C-H-I-C-K-E-L-E, Sickly Mix. Care of Public Radio International. 418 00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:10,000 100 North 6th Street, Suite 900A, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403.