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arXiv · 2408.12633

Evolutionary modelling reveals melodic and harmonic constraints on global scale structure

John M McBride·Steven Brown·Elizabeth Phillips·Patrick E Savage·Tsvi Tlusty
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Abstract

Since antiquity, musical scales have been explained by harmony rather than melody. This view relies on the mathematically designed scales of a few traditions, and was never directly tested. Testing it requires cross-cultural data and a method that judges theories by what they get wrong as well as right. We provide both, modelling scale evolution across 1,314 scales from 96 countries. A Melody model explains the near-universal preference for step-sizes of 1-3 semitones, and matches independent data from melodies, singing, and psychoacoustics. Harmony does far less: it explains the music-theoretic scales, but in those measured from performance it adds only a weak bias towards fourths, fifths, and octaves. Harmony's importance has been overstated, likely due to the historical focus on music-theoretic rather than measured scales. Melody is the primary driver of global scale structure; harmonic constraints are less impactful and mainly reflect musicological theory over musical performance.

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John M McBride, Steven Brown, Elizabeth Phillips, Patrick E Savage, Tsvi Tlusty. 2026-09-16. Evolutionary modelling reveals melodic and harmonic constraints on global scale structure. https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.12633

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