back to list

MOS scales, correction

🔗John Chalmers <JHCHALMERS@UCSD.EDU>

3/11/2000 9:55:33 AM

Carl: I made an error in my early XH paper on MOS when I said that the
ratios of the two sucessive (step) interval sizes of proper MOS must lie
between 1/2 and 2. This is true for scales such as the major scale 2 2 1
2 2 2 1, but not for the type consisting of N large intervals and 1
small. For example, the scale 9 9 9 1 is (strictly) proper even though
the step interval size ratio is 9:1. Mea culpa. The inverse type such as
1 1 1 9 is improper, but 1 1 1 2 is proper, though very ambiguous.

--John