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Compiling global examples of music in the Harmonic Major Scale

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1-2-3-4-5-b6-7

(C-D-E-F-G-A^b-B-C)

o • o • o o • o o • • o o

• Harmonic Major: Sounds •

Real-world examples of the scale in action:

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• General: 

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• India: Introduced to North Indian classical music by sitar icon Ravi Shankar, who titled his creation Nat Bhairav (due to its tetrachordal combination of the Major-congruent Nat and the Double Harmonic-congruent Bhairav) – although the same scale was already present in South Indian Carnatic music as Sarasangi (melakarta scale #27).

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—Nat Bhairav/Sarasangi (India)—

Purbayan Chatterjee & Shashank Subramanyan (sitar/venu)

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“The shining rays in dazzling silver on the snow-tops, the vast slopes covered with trees in colourful bloom, the huge trees that pulsate with the fresh cooling breeze, the lovebirds chirping and chasing one another from branch to branch, the gentle ripples of the brook as pure water glides down in a steady, graceful movement, the humming of the bees as they jump from flower to flower stealing honey, the sheep and the cattle winding their way on the slopes of the mountain for grazing…All these are presented in Raag Nat Bhairav” (from musicologist G.N. Joshi’s Call of the Valley liner notes)

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• Harmonic Major: More •

Features, classifiers, quirks, etc…

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[analysis: coming soon]

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—Classifiers & Quirks—

• Modes: (none in index)
• Quirks: Hemitonic (imperfect: ♮2, b6, ♮7; detached: b6)
• Names: Harmonic Major, Ionian b6 (Western); Nat Bhairav (Hindustani); Sarasangi (Carnatic)

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n.b. For more detailed geometric and mathematical analysis, refer to this scale’s entry in Ian Ring’s fantastic Exciting Universe of Music Theory project (for which I am an occasional ‘raga consultant’)

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