A new circle of modes. Revisiting the concept of diatonicism

Abstract

Introduction - It is no accident that, amid the multitude of scales that can be extracted from the 12- tone equal temperament (2048, according to Keith;1 1490, according to Zeitler),2 one in particular has dictated the pitch material of such a large number of leading Western composers.3 The diatonic scale – because that is what this is all about – has been subject in the last 40 years of increasing scholar inquiry, in part thanks to the work of mathematicians such as John Clough and David Rothenberg. Inspired equally by Milton Babbitt and Allen Forte’s mathematically-based approach to serial music and by the music of the Common Practice Period, these and other mathematicians, computer scientists and music theorists paved the way for the assertion in music set theory of a new field of inquiry, that of diatonic set theory. --- Although this thesis is best encapsulated as an enquiry on the field of diatonic set theory, I still reserve its epilogue to address what a composer should expect when approaching the previously mentioned scales not so much as cold bricks belonging to the rigidly beautiful, lofty architecture of a modal system, but as raw material to be crafted into concrete pieces of music.