Reach Computing Ltd

Heptatonics: A Structured Catalogue of Musical Scales

Nicholas Stylianou

Heptatonics

The scale is one of the basic elements of music. From the very first "A-B-C" or "do-re-mi", the concept of the scale shapes how we fundamentally think about musical notes and how we name and organise them. Even music that radically departs from these foundations remains framed by patterns such as the black-and-white keys of the piano or the lines and spaces of musical stave notation.

Individual musical scales can also be considered in the wider context of theoretical questions such as:

This catalogue presents all of the 462 distinct heptatonic octave scales that are representable in conventional Western music notation. These scales have been carefully organised into a structured and fully cross-referenced framework, making it easy to navigate between related scales while always retaining a sense of where each scale fits within the bigger picture.

The catalogue's organisation maps out how the scales progressively stretch conventional music notation beyond its diatonic foundations. This provides a broader heptatonic perspective on chromaticism and its role in the transitional music between tonality and atonality.

Appendices provide links to the pitch-class sets of atonal theory, as well as ethnomusicological frameworks such as the Indian 'mela' and 'thāt' scale classifications, and the modes of the Arab 'maqām', Turkish 'makām' and Greek 'dromos' systems.

Paperback, 662 pages. ISBN: 978-1-9998210-0-5.

Published 30th April 2019.

A preview of a selection of pages from the book is available from http://www.reachcomputing.co.uk/publications/HeptatonicsPreview.pdf

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