[Smt-talk] Scale degrees

[nick at baragwanath.com]

Dear List,


does anyone know who was the first theorist to number the scale (especially in the bass) from 1 to 7? 



This is a mainstay of partimento rules, as in ‘add a 3rd and a 5th to the FIRST of the scale, add a 3rd and a 6th to the SECOND of the scale, etc.’  It remains fundamental to modern approaches to tonality. 


Although a seven-note scale is implicit in the modal system, in counting intervals in counterpoint, and in the French seven-note solfa system, I have not been able to find any occurrences earlier than about 1750. Numbered scales are commonly found in late 18th-century sources, such as Fenaroli (1775), Paisiello (1782), Azopardi (1786), and of course Vogler. But neither A. Scarlatti nor Durante numbered the notes of the scale. They used a Guidonian system which is incompatible with the notion of seven scale degrees. 



Could scale degrees be a late 18th-century invention? 

Private responses are welcome. 



Nick Baragwanath

Associate Professor in Music

University of Nottingham

University Park,

Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

nicholas.baragwanath at nottingham.ac.uk
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