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Notes on Eastern Tone System II

Second of the article series started in https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=1779
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II – FROM PENTATONIC TO HEPTATONIC:

My intention in this article series is following a program from general explanation of Eastern tone system to the traditional composition concept in Turkish classical music, that is a flow from objective facts to more subjective, specific ideas and views. That’s why I don’t see anything wrong with interrupting the succession of common methods and inserting a custom hypothesis;

When we go two steps upwards and downwards by fifths, we get the degrees of anhemitonic pentatonic scale. Taking the tonic D, again:

D (1), E (1.125), G (1.33), A (1.5), C (1.78),

There are two large steps, namely minor thirds in this scale: E-G and A-C. If we go on one more step at both directions, we come up with B and F and can form a Dorian scale but what if we stop and fill the ‘gap’ with our neutral third instead?

D (1), E (1.125), Gb (1.2), G (1.33), A (1.5), Cb (1.67), C (1.78),

What we obtain is the heptatonic skeleton of fundamental Eastern scale; two Rast tetrachords with a major second between them.

This circumstance reminds the probability of a common pentatonic infrastructure that has ‘given birth’ to both Eastern and Western systems.

Ertugrul iNANC,
http://ertugrulinanc.8m.com