alpha

First letter of the Greek alphabet, with the following current musical uses:

1.

A scale devised by Wendy Carlos which does not have "octaves", because of its equal "step size" of 78.0 cents, or 15.385 steps per "octave". It is "defined strictly as a local minimum of the root-mean-square error function that Wendy set up with 3/2, 5/4, 6/5, 7/4, and 11/8 as target intervals." [Paul Hahn, Onelist Tuning Digest 116] Examples of its use can be found on her album Beauty In The Beast.

2.

An additional letter-name used in Erv Wilson's notations, signifying a note near "A", but with a musical function separate from "A", in whatever particular scale the notation is describing. see The Wilson Archives for examples and explanations of his notation.




(see also beta and gamma)

[from Joe Monzo, JustMusic: A New Harmony]

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