While it was unusual in 1956 for a jazzman to begin a solo by playing "outside" of the prevailing harmony, Gonsalves did return to the
diatonic scale of D-flat major in the last four bars of his first chorus.
Western music is based on the
diatonic scale (do re mi fa so la ti).
The traditional gamelan notation is similarly based on a numeric system, but the seven numbers representing the notes of the pelog scale do not usually indicate the same pitches as those of the
diatonic scale. During rehearsal, these two systems of notation, and two realms of experience, have to be adjusted and translated between gamelan players and choir singers.
Boppers such as Hawkins, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk did not feel compelled to obey such ear-pleasing, smoothly-resolving conventions as the
diatonic scale; where they heard "altered tones," as today's jazz phraseology has it, Armstrong heard "notes that don't mean nothin'."
One can only contemplate the difficulties in presenting a piece such as the "All-Night Vigil." It requires learning not only the music, which uses many different modes, rather than the familiar
diatonic scale, but also learning the Russian pronunciation of the text.
For what it's worth the two outer rows are tuned to the
diatonic scale and the semitones are in the middle row.
Musical works consist of only seven notes on a
diatonic scale and a limited number of rhythms.
The 14 great bells of Winchester Cathedral loom impressively accompanied by a vast circle of bell-ringers tolling complex variations on the
diatonic scale.
Wood thrushes can conform to the familiar Western
diatonic scale; canyon wrens come close to the more complex chromatic scale, and hermit thrushes sing with the pentatonic scale of traditional Asian music.
The author of ME does, it is true, use capital letters reduplicated after the first seven to indicate octave equivalence, but these are in inverse order and are not related to the Boethian
diatonic scale; and when that scale is shown in chapter 16 it is not related to the finales of the chant.
it is safe to presume that this was not casual, but the result of reflections which directly or indirectly depend on the Pythagoreo-Platonic division of the musical scale'.(4) These numbers are extrapolated through further octaves, each replicating the proportions of the initial 6:8:9:12 and with further degrees of the
diatonic scale (and therefore intervening numbers and proportions) entering as they become whole numbers.
Parallel to metres, think about the
diatonic scale. That is, think about when we hear the pitch changes as subsumed by the
diatonic scale step names, doh-re-me-fah-so-la-te.
Hearing the pentatonic scales played by Chinese musicians in London in 1855, Fetis conducted an experiment to discover--in support of his belief that the
diatonic scale was not a universal phenomenon--if those visitors could recognize the notes they had not employed.
It was often used in the music of oriental cultures, the history of which is perhaps longer than that of the
diatonic scale system in the West.
