Re: More questions on scales

Pete wrote:
> Why is the tonic of the "all white notes" major scale "C" and not "A"?
> As far as I understand it, the diatonic scale derives (probably both)
> from the logic of harmonics, and the circle of fifths, so that pattern
> is fairly basic to our Western music. So, given that it exists, and it
> has a tonic, why didn't we label the scale ABCDEFG(A), with C-D and G-A
> being the semitones?  How did a minor scale come to be ABCDEFG?  (A
minor
> third desn't fit into the circle of fifths, does it?)

I think that at the time the system was created, the minor scale was 
more im****tant in Western music, later it ****fted to making major more 
im****tant. So the letters for the minor scale remains as well as the 
habit of tuning to the A. When speaking about octaves, like "middle 
octave", Westerners mean the major scale C to B range, but at Maqam 
World <http://www.maqamworld.com/>,
the octave numbers go from A to G.

   Hans Aberg