John Garzoli Challenges the 7-tet Myth of Thai Music
Xiaolong Wang
5
7-16Sarah: You know, it's fascinating how certain ideas can become accepted as fact for decades, only for someone to come along and show that the entire foundation is, well, a myth.
Mars: It happens more than you'd think, especially when one culture tries to analyze another using its own tools. It seems that's exactly what happened with our understanding of Thai classical music.
Sarah: Right, which brings us to John Garzoli's article, The Myth of Equidistance in Thai Tuning. It challenges this long-held theory that Thai music uses a seven-tone equidistant system, with a very specific interval of 171.429 cents. But Garzoli's research shows that Thai instruments just aren't tuned this way, and this Western mathematical framework completely ignores core cultural concepts like *thang* and *samnieng*.
Mars: That's a huge claim. It suggests the entire theoretical basis for understanding the sound of Thai music was built on a misunderstanding. It's like someone tried to describe French cuisine using only the chemical formula for salt. They're missing the entire picture.
Sarah: And this flawed theory gained serious traction. It was heavily influenced by early musicologists like David Morton, even though Garzoli points out his methods were shaky, using averaged data that smoothed over all the unique characteristics of individual instruments. This Western-centric view got a boost because of the historical prestige given to Western thought in that era, and an early focus on just one type of ensemble, the *piphat*.
Mars: Well, that sounds like a classic case of an academic echo chamber. Once an influential paper is published, it gets cited over and over, and the original flaws just get cemented as fact. It's incredibly difficult to dislodge a narrative once it becomes the established wisdom, especially when it fits a neat, tidy box.
Sarah: But what's most interesting is that many Thai musicians themselves flat-out reject the theory. They see this diversity in tuning not as an error, but as a core, valued part of their music. It's shaped by style, accent, and skill. Recent studies even show musicians actively using microtonal shifts and pitch bending for expression—things a rigid scale could never account for.
Mars: This is so critical. It really underscores the importance of ethnomusicology—of understanding music from the perspective of the people who actually make it. Instead of standing on the outside with a frequency counter and saying, You're off, you have to ask, Why do you play it that way? The answer is where the real music is.
Sarah: So, the idea that Thai music is supposed to be perfectly equidistant isn't just a misinterpretation of the math, but it actively erases the very nuances and expressive tools that Thai musicians have cultivated for centuries. It's like describing a beautiful painting by only listing the hex codes of the colors used.
Mars: Exactly. The myth isn't just about a wrong number; it's about a wrong philosophy. It's valuing a clean, mathematical concept over living, breathing human expression. The parts the theory calls deviations are actually the most important features, not bugs.
Sarah: Ultimately, John Garzoli argues that this whole 7-tet theory, with its specific numbers and assumptions, should just be discarded. It's not found in the actual instruments, it's not used by the tuners, and it completely misses the point for singers and players of instruments like flutes or lutes. Its persistence is just due to uncritical acceptance of old, flawed work.
Mars: The takeaway is pretty clear then. To truly understand Thai music, or any art form really, we need to move beyond imposing these external, rigid mathematical models. We have to embrace the rich, context-dependent diversity that the practitioners themselves value.
Sarah: So, if our listeners were to walk away with just a few key points from this, what should they be?
Mars: I'd say first, the popular theory of a 7-tone equidistant tuning system for Thai music is essentially a myth. Second, the empirical evidence from actual instruments and tuners directly contradicts this theory. Third, this Western-centric idea completely overlooks vital cultural concepts and the fluid, expressive tuning that is central to the music's soul. And finally, this intonational diversity isn't an error to be fixed; it's a fundamental and celebrated part of the Thai musical aesthetic.