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Re: [ARSCLIST] Temperament--was: Are we at the end of the road musically??
On 09/10/06, Steven Barr wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Don Cox" <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Each of the 12 steps is 1.059 times the one below, in equal
>> temperament. Any seven of the steps can be used to make a 7-note
>> scale (or key), but some sets of seven are commonly used and others
>> are rare.
>>
> Were these sets of "7 out of 12" what the ancient Greeks called
> "modes?" (at least some of the sets, anyway...I used to know how to
> calculate the different ways that one could take seven items out of a
> full set of twelve, where the values had to be in ascending order...)
A mode is a set of scales which share the same pattern of
tone-and-semitone steps, while starting on different notes.
Major, minor, Lydian, etc.
So there should be 12 scales in each mode. Hence the sets of 24 Preludes
- 12 in a major scale and 12 in a minor. Major and minor being the only
modes now in common use.
The paperback "Introducing Music" by Otto Karolyi is good on this stuff.
Regards
--
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx