Dasian Scale

[stevel]

Who knows about the Dasian Scale?

Can anyone shed any light on its historical use, it's current relevance, etc.

TIA
Steve

[Student]

(Confession: I double-checked Grove to make sure I remembered from history and some of this is stuff is from Grove and not my memory.)

The Dasian scale and notation are found in a very few early Latin treatises from the second half of the 11th century (best known being Musica enchiriadis, Scolica enchiriadis); exclusively theory treatises. The entire "scale" is made up of sixteen pitches from four tetrachords (graves, finales, superiores, excelantes) and two others on top for a total of eighteen. The pitches are assumed to be:

What makes this different from other tetrachordal scales are the intervals of the fourth and eighth notes and the fact that the scale lends has octave doublings and that this scale was also the first clear evidence of a fully chromatic scale.

That help at all?

Edit:
The scale: GABbC DEFG abcd ef#ga' bc#'

[stevel]

Originally Posted by Student

(Confession: I double-checked Grove to make sure I remembered from history and some of this is stuff is from Grove and not my memory.)

The Dasian scale and notation are found in a very few early Latin treatises from the second half of the 11th century (best known being Musica enchiriadis, Scolica enchiriadis); exclusively theory treatises. The entire "scale" is made up of sixteen pitches from four tetrachords (graves, finales, superiores, excelantes) and two others on top for a total of eighteen. The pitches are assumed to be:

What makes this different from other tetrachordal scales are the intervals of the fourth and eighth notes and the fact that the scale lends has octave doublings and that this scale was also the first clear evidence of a fully chromatic scale.

That help at all?

Edit:
The scale: GABbC DEFG abcd ef#ga' bc#'

That much I've got. I'm wondering if there's any more to it than that???

Steve