Indian Scales
In Indian music, the just diatonic scale described above is used, though there are different possibilities, for instance for the 6th pitch (Dha), and further modifications may be made to all pitches excepting Sa and Pa.
| Note | Sa | Re | Ga | Ma | Pa | Dha | Ni | Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ratio | 1/1 | 9/8 | 5/4 | 4/3 | 3/2 | 5/3 or 27/16 | 15/8 | 2/1 |
| Cents | 0 | 204 | 386 | 498 | 702 | 884 or 906 | 1088 | 1200 |
Some accounts of Indian intonation system cite a given 22 Śrutis . According to some musicians, you have a scale of a given 12 pitches and ten in addition (the tonic, Shadja (Sa), and the pure fifth, Pancham (Pa), are inviolate):
| Note | C | D♭ | D♭ | D | D | E♭ | E♭ | E | E | F | F | F♯ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ratio | ||||||||||||
| Cents | 0 | 90 | 112 | 182 | 204 | 294 | 316 | 386 | 408 | 498 | 520 | 590 |
| Note | F♯ | G | A♭ | A♭ | A | A | B♭ | B♭ | B | B | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ratio | |||||||||||
| Cents | 610 | 702 | 792 | 814 | 884 | 906 | 996 | 1018 | 1088 | 1110 | 1200 |
Where we have two ratios for a given letter name, we have a difference of 81:80 (or 22 cents), which is known as the syntonic comma. You can see the symmetry, looking at it from the tonic, then the octave.
(This is just one example of "explaining" a 22-Śruti scale of tones. There are many different explanations.)
Read more about this topic: Just Intonation
Famous quotes containing the words indian and/or scales:
“The Indian said a particularly long prayer this Sunday evening, as if to atone for working in the morning.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)