TY - JOUR
T1 - Convergent evolution in a large cross-cultural database of musical scales
AU - McBride, John M.
AU - Passmore, Sam
AU - Tlusty, Tsvi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2023 McBride et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2023/12/13
Y1 - 2023/12/13
N2 - Scales, sets of discrete pitches that form the basis of melodies, are thought to be one of the most universal hallmarks of music. But we know relatively little about cross-cultural diversity of scales or how they evolved. To remedy this, we assemble a cross-cultural database (Database of Musical Scales: DaMuSc) of scale data, collected over the past century by various ethnomusicologists. Statistical analyses of the data highlight that certain intervals (e.g., the octave, fifth, second) are used frequently across cultures. Despite some diversity among scales, it is the similarities across societies which are most striking: step intervals are restricted to 100-400 cents; most scales are found close to equidistant 5- and 7-note scales. We discuss potential mechanisms of variation and selection in the evolution of scales, and how the assembled data may be used to examine the root causes of convergent evolution.
AB - Scales, sets of discrete pitches that form the basis of melodies, are thought to be one of the most universal hallmarks of music. But we know relatively little about cross-cultural diversity of scales or how they evolved. To remedy this, we assemble a cross-cultural database (Database of Musical Scales: DaMuSc) of scale data, collected over the past century by various ethnomusicologists. Statistical analyses of the data highlight that certain intervals (e.g., the octave, fifth, second) are used frequently across cultures. Despite some diversity among scales, it is the similarities across societies which are most striking: step intervals are restricted to 100-400 cents; most scales are found close to equidistant 5- and 7-note scales. We discuss potential mechanisms of variation and selection in the evolution of scales, and how the assembled data may be used to examine the root causes of convergent evolution.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85179650646&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0284851
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0284851
M3 - Article
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 18
SP - 1
EP - 25
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 12 December
M1 - e0284851
ER -