Gypsy scale

Gypsy scale is the colloquial term for folk music scales that are characterized by two excessive Sekundschritte. Analogous to the Tongeschlechtern major and minor, a distinction Gypsy Gypsy Major and Minor.

The term derives from the fact that these scales are used, inter alia, in the music of the Roma and Sinti. In Western music they were made famous especially for Franz Liszt ( Hungarian Rhapsodies ). They can also be found in the Spanish flamenco. The problem of naming is that the gypsy scales on the one hand are not an exclusive feature of the music of the Roma and Sinti, on the other hand they do not constitute a binding element of the music of this ethnic group whose culture is always influenced by the regional traditions of the living environment.

Gypsy Minor

The gypsy minor scale, also called Hungarian scale, is a variant of the minor scale and corresponds to the harmonic minor with increased fourth order. This creates a second hiatus ( augmented second ) between the third and fourth stage, which - similar to the harmonic minor - creates a special oriental appeal.

Georges Bizet used the gypsy minor for the "fate motive " in his opera Carmen, which describes the fate of a gypsy.

Gypsy Major

The Gypsies major scale, also called Arabic scale, is a scale heptatonic which inspired by oriental sound characteristics. Like the gypsy minor is typical of the music of the Eastern European Sinti and Roma.

The Gypsy Major can be seen as plagal form of the gypsy Molls (starting on the 5th level).

It is symmetrical and has a major third.

The scale can be formed by increasing the seventh stage of the Phrygian dominant scale by a semitone. This arises as the classical major scale a leading tone.

Another way for the formation of Gypsy Major, the second and the sixth degree of the major scale to reduce by one half.

Clips

• Scale in C minor gypsy? / I
• Scale in C Major Gypsy? / I