Scale name meanings


Hootayah
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Hootayah
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08/31/2001 8:23 am
This has probably been asked & answered before but, what do the names of the scales mean?
Aolian, Dorian, Phrygian etc....
Are they latin or something and who made them up in the first place?
Hey you kids! Get outta that Jello tree!! :mad:
# 1
Christoph
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Christoph
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08/31/2001 4:52 pm

I think they were named after cities in ancient Greece and Asia Minor.

I have no idea why though.
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chris mood
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chris mood
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09/02/2001 4:29 am
the modes where named by the greeks who established the diatonic system (major scale) by emulating the sounds of nature. I don't know exactly what they mean but do know that some of the same names are used in architexture. I also would be interested in knowing the true meanings behind the names.
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Christoph
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09/04/2001 9:44 pm

I'm pretty sure they're named after cities and provinces, by the way. Look at an old map, like in a Bible or a history book, and you'll see places like Phrygia, Lydia, Ionia, and etc. The names were probably also used in architecture because back then each city or area would have its own style of building. Like Ionian pillars . . . or something like that.

Mr. Mood, you said the major scale was devised from studying the sounds in nature. This interests me. Can you explain further?


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chris mood
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chris mood
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09/05/2001 4:06 am
Unfortunately I don't remember as much as I should from my music history class (college daze) But there was a group of greek philosophers who studied music, almost to the point of a religious cult. They where way before their time and where responsible for catorgorizing and naming the diatonic system and modes, the harmonic structure, the overtone series, and many tunings still used today. I believe they gained most of there inspiration from birdsongs.
Don't qoute me on any of this, I would strongly suggest researching it if your really interested. I can't remember the name of the philosophical group but believe it had the word phrygian in it. I know they had a book that was translated with all there beliefs and findings in it.
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09/05/2001 6:04 pm

Thanks for the info. I think I'll do some digging.

It's interesting why some chords immediately sound dissonant while others sound pleasing. Is that just because we've all heard the same sounds in nature, and if a chord deviates from those tonalities it becomes dissonant?
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chris mood
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chris mood
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09/05/2001 7:24 pm
Interesting thought
I remember listening to some real dissonant avante-garde classical music (Kronos Quartet)and really having to train my ear to appreciate it. In fact I remember hearing Nirvanas teen spirit for the first time and thinking "what is this", and now it just sounds so common place. Its an interesting thought why sounds outside of the diatonic system require a learned appreciation.Anybody else have any thoughts on this?
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chris mood
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09/05/2001 7:30 pm
ohh I forgot to tell you;
Leonard Bernstien did a video taped lecture on the overtone series where he talks about some of the learned process of hearing. They did a study on small children and found that almost all of them used the same intervals in there voice when taunting one another.
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Christoph
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09/05/2001 10:15 pm

That's probably because they had heard their mothers singing to them when they were babies. And, of course, anything that they would sing would be major scale and happy.


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chris mood
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chris mood
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09/07/2001 4:05 pm
Unless the mom was real pissed off that she got knocked up.

Hey Christoph - just kidding, there's not much happening on this forum and I just felt like typing something.
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Christoph
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09/07/2001 5:00 pm

Lol.

I suppose . . .

Maybe that's what happened to Yngwie.
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09/07/2001 7:21 pm
It's because ever since we were babies, like mentioned earlier, we've been saturated by the sound of the major scale. Radio, video games, and the biggest one: TV. Think of all the comercial jingles and whatnot. But really it extends to everything. Think of a doorbell. Ding Dong!

Consider this... those who have been brought up in western culture find Indian music almost excruitiating (those 22 note chromatic scales aren't for the faint western'er heart), but to them, it would sound as perfectly normal as the western chromatic scale.

I read something interesting lately about whether or not babies are born with a sense of music, like if it's inherent or not. They tried testing babies by playing a major scale and then playing a wrong note and seeing if the babies reacted. The results were that the babies overwhelmingly responded and could identify the off notes. Is this something inherent to them? Maybe they've already been conditioned to recognize the scale ever since the womb... who knows. Any thoughts on this?
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BluesShredder
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BluesShredder
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09/08/2001 10:30 am
Each city in ancient Greece had its own scale and that scale took the name of that city, the very first scale is the Dorian, all the others came from the Dorian.
Dorians were the "ancestors" of the Spartans.
I am from Sparta and i had read a book about the music in ancient Greece, i dont remember much about the theory but what i found interesting is that the notes in a scale were moving from high to low!

the Spartans were using 2 tones in a row and a semitone at the end and if that pattern is repeated we have the Dorian
(E-D-C-B)-(A-G-F-E), if you think it as mathematics the Dorian is very balanced, pretty amazing,
by the way E Dorian was the basic scale like C Major is today

[Edited by BluesShredder on 09-08-2001 at 06:36 AM]
Peter
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