Musical Techniques by Paret Dominique; Sibony Serge; & Serge Sibony

Author:Paret, Dominique; Sibony, Serge; & Serge Sibony [Paret, Dominique & Sibony, Serge]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated
Published: 2017-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

6.9.2.1. Pycnons (quarter-steps)

Let us take the example of a pentatonic scale starting at so (so - la - ti - ré - mi – see Figure 6.14).

Figure 6.14. Example of pycnons

The so-la-ti part of the scale is of particular importance:

– it is separated from the rest, on both sides, by the largest interval in the scale (mi-so = ti-ré = 1½ tones);

– it is the only series of intervals which appears only once (whereas ré-mi-so = la-ti-ré; mi-so-la = ti-ré-mi, etc.). Thus, for a listener, it is the main point of reference within that scale.

A Romanian ethno-musicologist, Constantin Brăiloiu, proposed calling this so-la-ti section of the scale a pycnon (from the Greek, pucnos, meaning tight; strong).

Thus, it is with the pycnon that we begin the numbering of the degrees of this scale, as indicated in the figure. This means that we can describe a melody by says that it is in mode 1, 2, etc., which essentially means that its lowest note is 1, 2, etc.

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