Carnatic - Chitra Veena Ravikiran - Cleveland ( V - 01 )

these guys amaze me how they are able to create such creative music at heart, out of instruments that seem like it would be hard to make music with

Unfortunately, I'm stuck in vagueness. I have no music theory knowledge, and I know virtually nothing factual about this "Turkish" music I'm referring to. All I can do is point you to specific artists and instrumentation. Beyond that? Nada! I'm struck dumb!

Sorry about all the posts. YouTube's yelling at me about excessive "word counts per post," so I've had to chop my single message into multiple posts.

I can't really help you as to whether Aribic Music had an influence on Carnatic Music or vice versa, however there is one kid I know who is actually doing a Phd as to how Carnatic Music was heavily influenced by Portuguese music, which I found very interesting. If you know at all if this the music your talking about is related to Portuguese music in anyway, perhaps your onto something. It should be very interesting to hear reasearch actually.

Since I don't know the language of scales, all I can tell you is that I hear some odd intervals within what sounds like a minor scale that I associate with the "middle-eastern" or "arabic" flavors I hear in Turkish folk music, particularly the music that's influenced or directly related to the Mevlevi Sufi order in Turkey, and expressed using instruments like the ney and the baglama.

In my unschooled lingo, there's a certain minor key tonality in this particular video - one that I associate with Turkish "folk" music - but it's more than that; there's something going on with intervals that's quite different from the minor "scales" or "tonalities" that I hear in flamenco (for example). The gaps between notes are odder, and larger, in places.

Yes, those "shades of sounds that I associate with music from Turkey" are directly related to specific scales being used, although I have absolutely no vocabulary to articulate what I mean.

I have no formal training in music, and can't be specific in any discussion on scales, heptatonic or otherwise.

I'm hearing shades of sounds that I associate with music from Turkey... Is it possible that there is some Arabic influence on Carnatic music?

What are you referring to? The scales used? Carnatic music exploits the heptatonic system with extreme thoroughness, and nothing sounds out of the ordinary to me about the melodic material here. As for West Asian influence, it's supposed to be substantial in Hindustani music (though don't ask me to pin down exactly where it lies), but trivial or nonexistent this far south.