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Compiling global examples of music in the Lydian #2 Scale

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1-#2-3-#4-5-6-7

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

o • • o o • o o • o • o o

• Lydian #2: Sounds •

Real-world examples of the scale in action:

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• General: 

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• India: The sole Hindustani occurrence of the scale I can identify is sitarist Ravi Shankar’s aforementioned DoGa Kalyan (‘Lydian with double-3rd’) – seemingly only recorded in orchestral format, with no ‘pure classical’ renditions publicly available as yet. The scale does however turn up with a little more regularity in South Indian Carnatic music, titled Kosalam (melakarta scale #71: the penultimate position on the wheel).

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—Symphony: III. Scherzo (North India)—

Ravi Shankar (sitar/composer)

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“Multi-rhythmic variation is very much to the fore in the third movement, which uses the rhythmic cycle known as jhaptal [10 beats as ‘2-3-2-3’]. The melodic base is a creation of Ravi Shankar known as ‘DoGa Kalyan’, which omits the 2nd, but has both 3rds and a #4. From the outset, rhythmic cycles moving in multiple metres are piled one upon the other, producing a hypnotic effect…” (album liner notes)

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• Lydian #2: More •

Features, classifiers, quirks, etc…

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[analysis: coming soon]

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—Classifiers & Quirks—

• Modes: Harmonic Minor set (Harmonic Minor; Locrian ♮6; Ionian Augmented; Dorian #4; Phrygian Dominant; Lydian #2; Superlocrian Diminished)
• Quirks: Hemitonic (imperfect: b3, #4, ♮5; detached: b3)
• Names: Lydian #2, ‘Aeolian Harmonic‘ (Western); DoGa Kalyan (Hindustani); Kosalam (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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