The ''ritsu'' and ''ryo'' scales are anhemitonic pentatonic

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

-- five-note scales without semitones -- used in a type of Japanese

Buddhist chant A Buddhist chant is a form of musical verse or incantation, in some ways analogous to religious recitations of other faiths. Traditional chanting In Buddhism, chanting is the traditional means of preparing the mind for meditation, especially as ...

called

shōmyō is a style of Japanese Buddhist chant, used mainly in the Tendai and Shingon sects. There are two styles: ''ryokyoku'' and ''rikkyoku'', described as difficult and easy to remember, respectively. Shōmyō, like gagaku, employs the Yo scale, a pe ...

. The ''ritsu'' scale is built up by intervals of major second, minor third, major second, major second, minor third, while the ''ryo'' scale is major second, major second, minor third, major second, minor third. A third scale called ''Hanryo hanritsu'' is created by combining the ''ritsu'' and ''ryo'' scales however there is no agreed way to combine the two. The ritsu scales do not fit exactly into the

equal temperament An equal temperament is a musical temperament or tuning system, which approximates just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into equal steps. This means the ratio of the frequencies of any adjacent pair of notes is the same, wh ...

prominent in Western classical music but ''ritsu'' is

transposable A transposable element (TE, transposon, or jumping gene) is a nucleic acid sequence in DNA that can change its position within a genome, sometimes creating or reversing mutations and altering the cell's genetic identity and genome size. Transp ...

to E and B, ''Ryo'' is transposable to D and G, and ''Hanryo hanritsu'' to A. The Ritsu scale is one of the six scales (along with the major and minor scales, the common pentatonic scale, and the common "blues" scale) that provide more consonant harmonic intervals than any other possible scales that can be drawn from the 12 semitones of equally tempered pitch.

Esoteric significance

The ''ritsu'' scale is the voice of the male phoenix,

yang Yang may refer to: * Yang, in yin and yang, one half of the two symbolic polarities in Chinese philosophy * Korean yang, former unit of currency of Korea from 1892 to 1902 * YANG, a data modeling language for the NETCONF network configuration pr ...

, being, the voice that ascends from above and is inhaled breath, emerging from the '' ki'' while the ''ryo'' scale is the voice of the female phoenix, yin, nothingness, the voice that ascends from below and is exhaled breath, emerging from the breath; probably indicating that ''ritsu'' is vertical and ''ryo'' is horizontal.Zeami, Motoyiko (2011). ''Zeami'', p.121. .

Sources

Pentatonic scales Anhemitonic scales {{japan-music-stub