Re: Melodies move by step in any form of music?

>> I was referring to musicians of an earlier time, and why they wouldn't
>> settle on the whole-tone scale as a scale which meets the requirements
of
>> something that is felt not to contain any leaps. The problem with the
WTS
>> is that it does not contain all the tonal degrees - it only has ^1,
while
>> the ^4 and ^5 are sharp. So they wouldn't want to use that in practical
>> music-making.
> In some places similar scales *were* used.  The slendro scale of
> south-east Asia is pentatonic with five *equally spaced* notes

And another one: I looked this up in the Africa volume of the Garland
Encyclopaedia of World Music, and they mention some cultures in southern
Africa that use heptatonic equitonic scales.  Their music is vocals with
xylophone accompaniment.  The writer says that the equitonic system is
used in practice to let the singer start on any pitch they like; and
given the way they play the xylophone, you can see another reason why it
might be preferred - most African xylophone music has two or more players
facing across the instrument and playing alternate notes by hocketing,
each having a different set of pitches of their own in an interlaced
pattern.  It's an im****tant value in that music that the players should
be absolutely equal in status, with no part being more prominent than
another, and having no tonal centre (which would have to be assigned to
one or other player) is one way to ensure that.

Unfortunately there are no recordings or transcriptions included - the
Africa volume is thinner in that level of detail than some of the others
in the series.

I seem to remember some other African culture uses a four-tone equitonic
scale as Alain was suggesting; can't remember which.  It's not unusual
for African scales to omit the fifth or alter it by a semitone.

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