Scale of the Day: E Flat Mixolydian no 4 1% wide

The E Flat Mixolydian no 4 1% wide Scale. This one poses an amusing cognitive test as it is deliberately and systematically "out of tune" (those 12 cent sharp octaves never get old for my ears - that extreme consonance knocked just off of that easy 2/1 harmonic ratio). Yet the ears can make out harmonic functions and identities through the "out of tune" haze.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Mixolydian no 4 mapped to the Triative

The E Flat Mixolydian no 4 mapped to the Triative Scale. The wide intervals of this triative-based scale open a little wider with the gap where the equal-tempered-perfect-fourth-mapped-to-the-triative would have been. This scale takes on a unique sound with the complete absence of octaves.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Mixolydian no 4, diminished 5 mapped to the Square-root-of-2

The E Flat Mixolydian no 4, diminished 5 mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale. With 6 notes spread out over 600 cents - with just one quarter-tone - this scale poses an interesting cognitive challenge. Square-root-of-2 based scales already pose the challenge of treating the 600-cent so-called "tritone" as a pitch class equivalent. Which is difficult to convey sonically since the "double tritone" is the familiar 1200-cent octave that is hard-wired in the human auditory system as strongly equivalent. In practice, the 1200-cent interval will always seem more "equivalent" than the 600-cent or even 1800-cent interval. So this particular scale will sound like a standard chromatic scale with two quarter-tones as this 6-tone sequence repeats at each tritone. The conceptual challenge is to compositionally treat 600-cent intervals as pitch class equivalents and allow the subtle contour of the single quarter-tone to emerge from within the harmonic fabric.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Pythagorean Mixolydian no 4

The E Flat Pythagorean Mixolydian no 4 Scale. This is the 3-limit (Pythagorean) just intonation version of this subtractive scale. The 32/27 minor third appears between the 81/64 and 3/2 where the missing 4/3 perfect fourth would have been. Without that fourth degree the 16/9 becomes the only utonal member of this particular set - a property normally associated with Ionian scales. But the 1024/729 diminished fifth between the 81/64 and the 16/9 give this scale its unmistakable Mixolydian flavor.