A NEW HYPOTHESIS FOR THE ELABORATION OF HEPTATONIC SCALES AND CONSEQUENCES IN UNDERSTANDING THEIR ORIGINS

Amine Beyhom (1)

1 CERMAA - Centre de Recherche sur les Musiques Arabes et Apparentées

The reason for having eight notes in one octave is an arbitrary concept. There are diverging explanations but none is satisfactory. The first part of this paper offers another view based on the author’s theory of Modal Systematics, where basic principles are explained. The second part is a statistical analysis on the combination of intervals within the span of the just fourth, fifth and of the octave. The conclusion proposes two hypotheses, the first on the elaboration of the heptatonic scale and the second on the origins of heptatonism.

Mots clés: Scales; scale systems; heptatonism; music; Arabian music; Maqām; Origins of heptatonism; Modal systematics; scale modeling; scale generation; statistics; Interval generation

Domaines: Musique, musicologie et arts de la scène

Amine Beyhom. A NEW HYPOTHESIS FOR THE ELABORATION OF HEPTATONIC SCALES AND CONSEQUENCES IN UNDERSTANDING THEIR ORIGINS. International Conference of Near Easten Archaeomusicolog y ICONEA 2008, Richard Dumbrill, Irving Finkel, Dec 2008, London, United Kingdom. pp.151-209. ⟨hal-01446826⟩