[Smt-talk] Double harmonic Major and minor

[David Meredith]

Dear SMT list,

In relation to recent posts on "double harmonic major and minor" scales,
the following paper

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21590-2_13

may be of interest. It presents a theoretical perspective on the western
tonal scales that casts some doubt on the wisdom of considering the
non-diatonic tonal scales (i.e., melodic minor, harmonic major and minor)
as being only "altered versions of natural major and natural minor". As
the paper shows, the set of pitch class sets consisting only of those sets
corresponding to major scales, minor melodic and harmonic scales and the
major harmonic scales form a highly symmetrical class of sets that is very
simply definable in various different ways.

Kind regards,
David Meredith

Associate Professor, M.A. (Cantab.), D.Phil. (Oxon)
Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology
Aalborg University
Denmark
dave at create.aau.dk
www.titanmusic.com