[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon musical scale

[Brad Wilson]

Prompted by the recent KWOD {'egh}, I started writing a note about the Klingon "nonatonic" scale, but it quickly turned into a long treatise on the application of multi-centered musical tunings and applications to musical production. So, I decided to not post it ... but anyone that has an interest in a rather technical examination of the Klingon musical scale, please let me know, and I'll send you a copy.


The gist of the note was a comment on the fact that the "nonatonic" scale has only 8 intervals. We number the tones in our Terran scales without counting the last tone, which is a repeat of the starting tone, only one octave higher or lower. The 9 tones of the Klingon scale are named in similar fashion - yu / bIm / 'egh / loS / vagh / jav / Soch / chorgh / yu - which leads me to conclude that MO didn't understand the details of musical notation when he named this a "nonatonic" scale, or perhaps there is a "hidden" note that has not been revealed to us yet. Of course, the Klingon fashion may be to count the ending tone, and what a Klingon would call a nonatonic scale, a Terran musician would call an octatonic scale.


At any rate, this thing I've written is pretty technical, going into the various frequency & string lengths required to obtain a possible 9-note scale.
If you'd like a copy, let me know.
Brad Wilson, aka gheyIl
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