Delta scale

Minor second  Play 

The δ (delta) scale is a non-octave repeating musical scale. It may be regarded as the beta scale's reciprocal since it is, "as far 'down' the (0 3 6 9) circle from α as β is 'up.'"^[1] As such it would split the minor second into eight equal parts of approximately 14 cents each  Play . This would total approximately 85.7 steps per octave.

The Bohlen–Pierce delta scale is based on the tritave and the 7:5:3 "wide" triad ( Play ) and the 9:7:5 "narrow" triad ( Play ) (rather than the conventional 4:5:6 triad). Notes include:^[2]

1:1  Play 

25:21  Play 

9:7  Play 

75:49  Play 

5:3  Play 

9:5  Play 

15:7  Play 

7:3  Play 

25:9  Play 

3:1  Play 

See also

• Alpha scale
• Beta scale
• Gamma scale

Further reading

• Bohlen, Heinz: "13 Tonstufen in der Duodezime", Acustica, vol. 39 no. 2, S. Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart, 1978, pp. 76 – 86. (German)

Sources

Microtonal music People Easley Blackwood, Jr. Heinz Bohlen Wendy Carlos Julián Carrillo Mildred Couper Ivor Darreg John Eaton Adriaan Fokker Alois Hába Lou Harrison Christiaan Huygens Ben Johnston Joel Mandelbaum Joe Maneri Harry Partch Ezra Sims Nicola Vicentino Elaine Walker Ivan Wyschnegradsky Tunings & scales Non-octave- repeating scales Alpha scale Beta scale Gamma scale Delta scale Lambda scale (Bohlen–Pierce scale) Equal temperament 15 17 19 22 24 31 34 41 53 72 Just intonation Harry Partch's 43-tone scale Concepts & techniques Limit Otonality and Utonality Semitone Sonido 13 Xenharmonic music Groups & publications Boston Microtonal Society Genesis of a Music Huygens-Fokker Foundation Tonalsoft Xenharmonic Bulletin Compositions Beauty in the Beast quarter tone pieces just pieces Mother Sonata for Microtonal Piano Suite for Microtonal Piano Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media Other Enharmonic keyboard Generalized keyboard Modernism (music)

Musical tunings Measurement Pitch Cent Millioctave Savart Interval Interval ratio Pitch class Consonance and dissonance List of musical intervals List of intervals in 5-limit just intonation List of meantone intervals Microtone Just intonation Euler–Fokker genus Harmonic Scale Harry Partch's 43-tone scale Hexany Limit 5-limit 7-limit List of compositions Numerary nexus Otonality Ptolemy's intense diatonic scale Pythagorean tuning Scale of harmonics Tonality diamond Tonality flux Temperaments Equal 6-tone 12-tone 15-tone 17-tone 19-tone 22-tone 24-tone (pieces) 31-tone 34-tone 41-tone 53-tone 72-tone Linear Meantone (quarter-comma, septimal) Schismatic Miracle Magic Syntonic Irregular Well temperament/Temperament ordinaire (Kirnberger, Werckmeister, Young) Traditional non-Western Chinese musicology Shí-èr-lǜ Dastgah Maqam Arabian maqam Makam Mugham Muqam Octoechos Pelog Raga (Carnatic rāga) Slendro Tetrachord Non-octave 833 cents scale A12 scale Alpha scale Beta scale Gamma scale Delta scale Lambda scale (Bohlen-Pierce)