Fractal Structure of Persian Music

Part I

Ali Pasha Abdollahi

Introduction

What is a fractal?

To find out what is a fractal, we can start by describe what is not a fractal. We all learnt the names
of basic geometric shapes as children: triangle, square, rectangle, cube etc. These shapes are mostly
made of straight lines and angles between them. We see these shapes everyday: the computer
screen, on which I am writing, and you are reading, this paper, is a rectangle, the door of the room
and the plan of the flat are also made of rectangles and squares. However, there is something very
striking about these basic geometric shape: They are entirely made by humans. A long time ago,
the Greek geometrician Euclid, thought that these shape make the basis of all patterns and for
centuries, even millennia humans accepted this, despite the fact that there are no straight lines in
nature! There are no squares, triangles, or cubes in the natural world.

Nature has an entirely different geometric structure, which remained hidden in the plain sight for
more than two millennia. It was only in the twentieth century that mathematicians and scientists
discovered the type of geometry that nature favours: Fractal Geometry. A fractal shape has a
kaleidoscopic pattern: the more closely you look into it, the smaller pieces have the same shape as
the whole picture, and it never ends. This feature is called self-similarity.
The beautiful Romanesco broccoli is a perfect fractal. It is self-similar, and the smaller parts look like
the whole.

Snowflakes under a microscope show beautiful fractal patterns.

Deltas of the rivers generally have a fractal structure. This self-similar structure can be clearly seen
in satellite images of the Nile delta shown below. The first image show the Nile in scale of 2000
meters. If we zoom in and look at the image in scales of 500 metres and 100 metres, we still see the
same patterns. It is therefore a fractal.

2000 metres
Zooming in to see details of the picture in the scale of 500 meters. Notice the same pattern of
branching into smaller rivulets with wavy paths.

Zooming in to see details in the scale of 50 metres. Small rivulets only a few metres long have the
same pattern of branches as river Nile has in scale of a few kilometres. (Photo Courtesy of
http://paulbourke.net/fractals/googleearth/)

The mathematical pattern named the Mandelbrot Set in tribute to mathematician Benoit
Mandelbrot (1924-2010) who made great contribution to our understanding of fractals, clearly
shows the idea of self-similarity. The video below displays the patterns of Mandelbrot Set after
zooming in billions of billions of times. It is a stunning visual experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD2XgQOyCCk
Fractal Structures in Music

In the previous section, we studied fractal patterns visually, in pictures. Can we find them aurally in
sounds? Yes, we can. We can look into combination of frequencies in music and try to the patterns
display self-similarity which is characteristic of a fractal. Let us start by looking at the frequency
combinations of a note played on a piano.

The picture below shows the frequencies that make a G3 note (that is a G note in the third octave).
The vertical axis is frequency, the horizontal axis is time and a brighter line means a louder sound.
We see that the brightest line is at the main or fundamental frequency of G3 note (392 Hz), but
there are frequencies 2,3,4 and 5 times higher than this frequency, which are quieter- less bright in
the picture. These frequencies are called harmonics or overtones and they are present whenever
sound is created.

Frequencies created by G3 note on a piano.

Let us now display the same frequency combinations in a different diagram. In the diagram below,
the horizontal axis is frequency and the vertical axis is loudness. The peaks in this diagram show
louder frequencies. We see that there are six clear peaks, so we hear six frequencies.
The combination of these six frequencies create the colour or timbre of the instrument. For piano,
we saw six bright lines for frequencies that made a note. Let us now look at the frequencies in a solo
performance of ney, the reed flute:

We find something very interesting in the frequency combinations of ney, which is different from
the piano. Instead of a few bright line, a whole region is bright. This means there are millions and
millions of lines that make a whole region bright. Let us think of the river branching into smaller
rivulets which branch into smaller rivulets and cover a whole part of the earth. Same thing is
happening here. The pattern of frequencies are self-similar of fractal.

Let us compare this with the fractal shape of a tree. The trunk is like the main frequency, it branches
into other frequencies, which in turn branch into other frequencies and fill the picture. In the same
way, millions of small bright lines have filled the frequency picture of the reed pipe, ney.
If we wish, we can see the same pattern by looking at the frequencies of ney in the second diagram.
It is very different to the frequency profile of piano, where there were six peaks and the falling trend
as we move to the right. Here we see similar peaks which make the main note, but as we move to
the right, combination of many frequencies create another peak.

Let us now look at the frequency profile of the frame drum daf. When daf is played by strokes on the
surface, the sound which is created consists only of a few frequencies (a few bright lines), however,
when ringlets are used to play the ornamental notes, known as halgheh, the frequency profile again
fills the page:
Let us look at the frequency profile in the second diagram which shows a unique and unusual
pattern. The diagram is almost horizontal, which means all frequencies have almost the same
loudness. This is a perfectly fractal pattern. It is similar to frequency profile seen in waves on the sea.

The fractal shape of the sea waves is beautifully illustrated in the classical painting The Great Wave
by Japanese painter Hokusai.

A large wave breaks into smaller waves and these in turn into smaller waves creating a self-similar
pattern. The same pattern is found the sound of the sea, one of the most beautiful natural sounds.
The diagram below shows the frequency profile of waves on the sea. The frequencies fill the area
which shows the fractal nature of the sound.

To conclude the section on frequency profiles of the instruments, let us compare the profiles of
violin and Persian string bow kamanche. The profile of violin, shown below, displays a few bright
lines, similar to the profile of piano.
The profile of kamanche, depicted below, to some extent the space between the lines is filled
between the lines, meaning that there are many frequencies with a self-similar pattern.

We conclude the section on self-similar patterns in timbre of instruments and will discuss self-
similarity in melodies and polyphonic music.