A ditonic scale is a musical scale or

mode Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...

with two

notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versio ...

per octave. This is in contrast to a

heptatonic A heptatonic scale is a musical scale that has seven pitches, or tones, per octave. Examples include the major scale or minor scale; e.g., in C major: C D E F G A B C—and in the relative minor, A minor, natural minor: A B C D E F G A; the m ...

(seven-note) scale such as the

major scale The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at double ...

and

minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which ...

, or a dodecatonic (chromatic 12-note ) scale, both common in modern Western music. Ethnomusicologist

Bruno Nettl Bruno Nettl (14 March 1930 – 15 January 2020) was an ethnomusicologist who was central in defining ethnomusicology as a discipline. His research focused on folk and traditional music, specifically Native American music the music of Iran an ...

noted that ditonic scales were common in many parts of the world but often limited to specific music types, such as

children's songs A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studied ...

, with the exception of some tribal societies.

Distribution

Russia

The Cheremis (

Mari people The Mari ( chm, мари; russian: марийцы, mariytsy) are a Finnic people, who have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia. Almost half of Maris today live in the Mari El republic, with significant populations in ...

) of Russia employ ditonic scales in children's songs, generally with the two notes a

minor third In music theory, a minor third is a musical interval that encompasses three half steps, or semitones. Staff notation represents the minor third as encompassing three staff positions (see: interval number). The minor third is one of two com ...

apart. Nettl theorised that these ditonic songs may be a remnant of a more archaic form of music.

Peru

The

Shipibo The Shipibo-Conibo are an indigenous people along the Ucayali River in the Amazon rainforest in Peru. Formerly two groups, the Shipibo and the Conibo, they eventually became one distinct tribe through intermarriage and communal ritual and are c ...

people of Amazonian Peru used ditonic scales in approximately 2.5% of their music. The ditonic was found "almost exclusively in the complex ostinato songs."

Vietnam

The '' ca dao'' folk poetry of Vietnam is sometimes sung in ditonic scales.

North America

Several ditonic scales were noted about the Modoc and

Klamath tribes The Klamath Tribes, formerly the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon, are a federally recognized Native American Nation consisting of three Native American tribes who traditionally inhabited Southern Oregon and Northern California in the United St ...

of the North American West Coast, and are also found in the Great Plains in the rituals of the 1800s Ghost Dance religion. The scale was also used in the music of the

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

India

The ditonic scale type is recognised in Indian music, and termed the ''Dvisvara'' ("two tone"), but ditonic scales are not recognised as raga scales.

Nigeria

The ditonic is among the scale types employed in traditional

Nigerian music The music of Nigeria includes many kinds of folk and popular music, styles of folk music are related to the multitudes of ethnic groups in the country, each with their own techniques, instruments, and songs. Little is known about the country's ...

Maori

In a study carried out in 1969,

Mervyn McLean Mervyn is a masculine given name and occasionally a surname which is of Old Welsh origin, with elements ''mer'', probably meaning "marrow", and ''myn'', meaning "eminent". Despite the misconception of the letter 'V' being an English spelling, thr ...

noted that among the Maori tribes he surveyed, ditonic scales comprised 17% of the scales used.

References

{{Scales Musical scales