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Compiling global examples of music in the Lydian Scale

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

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

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• Lydian Scale: Sounds •

Real-world examples of the scale in action:

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• General: 

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• India: Famous in North India as Kalyan thaat (one of Bhatkhande’s 10 ‘foundational scales’): with corresponding ragas including the wildly popular Yaman (which frequently omits the root and 5th in ascending melodies), as well as Shuddha Kalyan (‘Major Pentatonic in ascent, Lydian in descent’). Also widely used in South Indian classical music, with the similar title of Kalyani/Mechakalyani (melakarta scale #65) – as well as in a corresponding plethora of Indo-fusions (e.g. John McLaughlin/Shakti’s The Wish).

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• Africa: Widely used on West African kora harps, which are often tuned diatonically to the Lydian-congruent ‘Sauta’ sequence – best exemplified by late Malian master Toumani Diabaté (e.g. Kaouding Cissoko, Bi Lamban, Djorou Kara Nany: although kora pieces can be somewhat ambiguous in root, often oscillating between Lydian and Ionian flavours).

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—Kaouding Cissoko (Mali)—

Toumani Diabaté (kora)

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“The kora – popular in Mali’s Western regions, as well as in nearby Guinea, Senegal, and the Gambia – is played with a hypnotic two-handed fingerstyle. Listen to Toumani Diabaté, the instrument’s greatest master, perform Kaouding Cissoko: named for a revolutionary Senegalese kora player who died far too young in 2003. Diabaté’s heartfelt tribute features rapid solo lines, but also leaves plenty of space for the notes to blend into one another. A kora’s strings continue to vibrate unless deliberately muted, giving a calming, ethereal quality even in dense passages. These resonances effectively creating a ‘moving harmonic average’ of the melody, smoothing its colours like light refracting through water…” (from my West African Grooves article)

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• Lydian Scale: More •

Features, classifiers, quirks, etc…

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[analysis: coming soon]

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—Classifiers & Quirks—

• Modes: Major set (Major; Dorian; Phrygian; Lydian; Mixolydian; Aeolian; Locrian)
• Quirks: Hemitonic; Maximal; Reflectional sym. (imperfect: #4; detached: none)
• Names: Lydian (Western); Kalyan thaat (Hindustani); Mechakalyani (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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