source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 20 Oct 1996 10:08:54 -0700 Subject: Re: Similarity of scales. From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@CompuServe.COM> > to my ear, Blackwood's > comment that a diatonic scale will sound "recognizable" if it follows the > standard pattern of 2 large intervals, one small, three large, and one small > seems correct. Certainly that's more true in a melodic perspective than harmonic. Diatonic melodies, even rhythmically simple ones, are very easily recognizable on shrunken or stretched interval sizes. Try for example tuning up a synthesizer to 12 steps per 3:2 and play some familiar melodies. You'll definitely recognize them. They're even recognizable if the "coefficient" is negative as well as fractional or mixed. In other words, melodic inversion works! But it's also very easy to see that diatonic harmony is instantly destroyed by doing this. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 20 Oct 1996 19:07 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA04285; Sun, 20 Oct 1996 19:09:44 +0200 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA04290 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id KAA05425; Sun, 20 Oct 1996 10:09:41 -0700 Date: Sun, 20 Oct 1996 10:09:41 -0700 Message-Id: <961020170429_71670.2576_HHB70-5@CompuServe.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu