Expert: Pat G - 2/12/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi,
I'd be very grateful if someone could identify this piece. I've spent quite some time searching (thinking along the lines of Dvorak), but no dice.

http://mysite.verizon.net/ddoggerel/identify.mp3

Many thanks for your help!

ANSWER: Hi, Kitto,

It's a gorgeous piece of music! But not Dvorak. It's too dark for Dvorak.

Can you tell me where you got it?

Let me point out some technical aspects of the piece, because this may help one or both of us. Bear with me. It's in a minor key, sort of. It uses the descending scale of the harmonic minor. The harmonic minor has a sharper 6th and 7th tone, ascending, and these two are lowered a half step on the way down. It's the scale on the way down that this piece is using. But it's not just a harmonic minor scale. It's modal. Modal music is neither major nor minor. It changes the pitch of one or more notes out of these scales. In this case, it is the 2nd tone that is lowered a half step.

It also seems to consist of a string bass and a violin or viola, quite possibly the latter, because the timbre of the sound is mellow, like a viola. There is a droning tone in the center which I can't quite identify.

All of this suggests to me the following: that the piece was possibly not composed either by a European or an American composer unless the piece is contemporary, in which case, we have no way of knowing. A lot of contemporary composers have been influenced by the music of other nations, such as in Asia.

One possibility is that it is a threnody, or was composed by Henryk Goretski.

So here is what I am going to do. I know a group of Carnatic musicians in India. I will pass the clip along to them and ask their opinion. Carnatic music is characterized by either singing or a string instrument that simulates singing. If they can't identify it, or tell me it's in Carnatic style, I'll put on my thinking cap again. I'll let you know what I find out. (I am not yet familiar with Carnatic music per se, but the droning suggests one of the instruments commonly used in Indian music.)

And thanks for the VERY intriguing question!


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi,

Thank you very much for your help with this. Actually, I don't know what I was thinking when I said Dvorak: it's Arvo Pärt whom I had been thinking of the last time I tried investigating this. I'll look at Goretski now.

After reading your note, I see that the playing field is much larger than I had thought (or perhaps hoped). Sigh.

I extracted the piece from a video clip that I found online a year or two ago; at this point, I have no memory of the video.

I would be very grateful if you do turn up anything further. Thank you again for your help so far!

Answer
Hi, Kitto,

You're right; it does resemble Arvo Pärt more than Dvorak.

That said, I got an answer back from one of the Carnatic musicians, and he said:

This sounds like an AlApana (free form improvisation) in the Carnatic ragam Sindhu Bhairavi or the Hindustani Rag Bhairavi.

So it looks like perhaps we have nailed it!

Again, thanks for a very intriguing question!