The kind of pitch organisation a scale belongs to.
'common-practice': the scale functional harmony is defined on — a tonic,
a dominant carrying a leading tone, and a triad available on every degree.
'modal': a seven-note rotation or alteration of that material. Degrees
and Roman numerals still describe it, but a dominant-to-tonic cadence is
not what holds the music together.
'non-functional': the collection carries no chord function of its own. A
gapped or symmetric set takes its harmony from whatever key it is used
over, and a scale from a tradition organised melodically rather than by
chords has no functional reading at all.
The kind of pitch organisation a scale belongs to.
'common-practice': the scale functional harmony is defined on — a tonic, a dominant carrying a leading tone, and a triad available on every degree.'modal': a seven-note rotation or alteration of that material. Degrees and Roman numerals still describe it, but a dominant-to-tonic cadence is not what holds the music together.'non-functional': the collection carries no chord function of its own. A gapped or symmetric set takes its harmony from whatever key it is used over, and a scale from a tradition organised melodically rather than by chords has no functional reading at all.