so i took the violin again and then i played an improvisation, using all these ornaments and quartertonesinished, of course, everybody was astonished, and he asked me one question. he said, "young man, this is fascinating. "how could you play all these intricate notes? "but one thing i don't understand-- why did you play so many notes out of tune?" [violin music continues] (narrator) melodic expression also plays a fundamental role in other musical systems found around the world. in irish dance music, for example, it is the tune that is of particular importance-- a fixed melody that is repeated over and over again in performance, but varied and ornamented differently each time it is played. (man) with irish music, the most important thing is the melody. and when people are playing together in ensemble, they basically play the same melody. what makes a difference are the variations. you can't change the melody too much, not to the same degree as you would in jazz. you can only change it slightly. but in any type of celtic art, if you look at the book of kells, for example, all of the real

string, and it has a fingerboard here that is fretless-- open fingerboard, and this is how the quartertonelity is being produced, because you can slide and produce all the sounds. [plays example] usually the oud is being played in the context of the small ensemble or a larger one as accompaniment to a vocalist or as a solo instrument. it's a very old instrument. it comes from the guitar family in persia. it's the ancestor of the lute and the guitar family. the oud is actually the most prominent instrument in arabic music, and it's as valuable as the piano for the western composer or performer. as far as i'm concerned, this is one of the greatest instruments in the world. it's very dear to me. ♪ her cheeks were like the lily white ♪ ♪ that bloom in yonder valley, oh. ♪ (narrator) the human voice is perhaps the most flexible of all instruments. [singing traditional japanese music] [choir singing] the great variety of vocal timbres found around the world are reflected both in how singers render individual pitches and how they place their voices. ♪ i know i've been changed. (lausevic) there ar