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Encyclopedia of Microtonal Music Theory

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7-nominal "8ve"-equivalent staff

[Joe Monzo]

A form of manuscript paper invented by Joe Monzo, in which each staff represents one octave, beginning with "C" on the bottom line. Each degree of the ordinary diatonic scale is represented alternately by a line and a space. The line for "A" is omitted so that staves can be stacked with a space between each one, with "A" represented by a ledger-line where it occurs -- this is a visual representation of the octave periodicity which is a feature of the vast majority of the world's music.

Below is an illustration of the 7-nominal notation:

here i bow to convention and number the degrees 1...7
instead of 0...6 , which i would otherwise prefer.


steps

-1-                        --A--
 7 -----------------------G--------
 6                     F
 5 -----------------E--------------
 4               D
 3 -----------C--------------------
 2        B
-1- --A--                  --A--

 7 -----------------------G--------
 6                     F
 5 -----------------E--------------
 4               D
 3 -----------C--------------------
 2        B
-1- --A--                  --A--

 7 -----------------------G--------
 6                     F
 5 -----------------E--------------
 4               D
 3 -----------C--------------------
 2        B
-1- --A--

Of course, because this scale has an odd-number of nominals, the replication of the 8ve becomes awkward, having the line for 7-steps directly under the line for 0-steps without any room (or necessity) for an intervening space.

if the bottom --A-- is just below "middle-C", then the set of diatonic triads in "root"-position in C-major is:

 7 ----------------------------------------------
 6                                          F
 5 -----------------------------------E----------
 4                              D           D
 3 -----------------------C-----------C----------
 2                  B           B           B
-1-         --A--       --A--       --A--

 7 -----G-----------G-----------G----------------
 6            F           F
 5 -----E-----------E----------------------------
 4            D
 3 -----C----------------------------------------
 2
-1-

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