Returning to musical universals - Question of equidistant scale

2009

It is widely accepted that asymmetries in intervals of the musical scale (i.e., inequalities of the interval steps) serve as “orientation points so that we can know ‘where’ we are in the scale” (Krumhansl, Snyder). This feature is often treated as universal (Dowling, Harwood, Trehub, etc.). At the same time, there is evidence of equitonics (equidistant scales) in various world musics. Examples of equitonics can be found in European folk music (Grainger, Sachs, Sevåg, etc.), as well as in “exotic” music cultures. Often such scales are anchored on a framework of a fourth or fifth (i.e. the strongest consonances) and filled in with “loosely-knit” (Grainger) intermediate tones. The result is "a…