Society for Music Theory

A Musical and Mathematical Context for CBS 1766

Author(s): Leon Crickmore
Source: Music Theory Spectrum , Vol. 30, No. 2 (Fall 2008), pp. 327-338
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Music Theory
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/mts.2008.30.2.327

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research notes
Research Notes:
A Musical and Mathematical Context for CBS 1766
leon crickmore
Keywords: CBS 1766, cuneiform tablet, Babylonian musical
scales, Babylonian heptachordal scales, sexagesimal arith-
metic reciprocals, Just tuning
introduction
CBS 1766 was published by Horowitz (2006). This
cuneiform tablet, dating from about 1500 BC, shows a seven-
pointed star within two concentric circles, below which are
columns of seven integers between one and seven. Horowitz
reads the figures horizontally, in pairs, and suggests a mathe-
matical explanation. Waerzeggers and Siebes (2007) propose
an alternative musical interpretation, reading the figures in
pairs, by column. Thereby, they relate the numbers to the
seven-pointed star, which they understand as a visual tuning
chart for seven heptachords on a seven-stringed instrument,
supplementing the numerical and verbal instructions con-
tained in CBS 10996. Finkel and Dumbrill at the British
Museum support their view from both a philological and mu-
sical standpoint. Dumbrill cites CBS 1766 as evidence that
the Babylonian scales were heptachords.
commentary
If the musical interpretation is correct—and as a musicol-
ogist I believe it to be so—then Example 1 indicates how the
original tablet might have been intended to be understood,
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327
and names the heptachords resulting from such a tuning pro-
cedure. In the original, columns (E)–(H) are empty, except
for the first row. The numbers in these columns are extrapo-
lations from Waerzeggers and Siebes’s reading of line one.
In CBS 10996, the numbers in Example 1 appear in
pairs, as seven of fourteen dichords given in Example 2.
Kilmer (1997) interprets these seven dichords as signifying
the basic tuning of the musical intervals of the perfect fifth
and fourth (including the tritone, or “unclear” interval).
Thus—this example is mine—if, using modern letter-nota-
tion, we assign D to 1, and use the diatonic scale of the white
keys only, column (A) of Example 1 would produce the
pitches: E, B, F, C, G, D, A.1 Re-arranged in string and scale
order, the series becomes: E, F, G, A, B, C, D, which is
Kilmer’s heptachord išartum (“normal”). Assuming that the
numbered points of the star correspond to the strings on the
instrument, then the sequence of chords indicated by the lines
2-6, 3-7, 4-1, and 1-5, represent the tuning of the išartum
heptachord visually. Similarly, column (B) produces the hep-
tachord kitmum; (C) tunes nı̄s GABA.RI; (D) pı̄tum; (E)
qablı̄tum; (F) nı̄d qablim; (G) embūbum; and (H) išartum again.
The complete tuning procedure is implicit in Example 3. To
generate any of the scales associated with columns (A)–(H) in
Example 1, the first string (qudmū) is tuned to the notional
pitch of the first number in the relevant column. This could be
done by pitch pipe (embūbum) or from aural memory. The re-
maining strings are then tuned through the resonance of fifths
and fourths, according to the dichordal pattern of the appro-
priate column, as illustrated in the seven pointed star. The
Appendix provides a more practical method of tuning.
But CBS 10996 also includes a second series of seven di-
chords, making fourteen in all (see Example 2). Smith and
Kilmer (2000) interpret this second series of dichords as
“fine-tuning” of the thirds and sixths in the scales, usually
through the adjustment of the common string, underlined in
1 These pitches are, of course, approximate, since a modern keyboard
will be tuned to equal temperament.
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328 music theory spectrum 30 (2008)

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F) (G) (H) Basic Tuning Fine-Tuning Heptachordal Name
2 6 1 7 5 4 3 2 1-5 7-5 (nı̄s GABA.RI)
6 3 5 4 2 1 7 6 2-6 1-6 išartum
3 7 2 1 6 5 4 3 3-7 2-7 embūbum
7 4 6 5 3 2 1 7 4-1 1-3 (nı̄d qablim)
4 1 3 2 7 6 5 4 5-2 2-4 (qablı̄tum)
1 5 7 6 4 3 2 1 6-3 3-5 (kitmum)
5 2 4 3 1 7 6 5 7-4 4-6 (pı̄tum)

Key example 2. The dichordal tuning numbers in CBS 10996

(A) išartum (6 emended to 5)
(B) kitmum
a problem
(C) nı̄s GABA.RI (5 emended to 4)
(D) pı̄tum However, Kilmer’s interpretation of the heptachords as
(E) qablı̄tum rising scales has been challenged. In 1982, the musicologist
(F) nı̄d qablim Vitale concluded that the textual descriptions “thin” and
(G) embūbum (7 emended to 3) “small” in UET VII 126 must refer to higher pitched
(H) Return to išartum
strings and in consequence that the Babylonian scales, like
those of ancient Greece, must be descending. Then in 1990,
the Assyriologist Krispijn proposed an improved reading of
example 1. A reconstruction of CBS 1766 the damaged twelfth line of UET VII 74. The relevant
Example 2. They see the most likely function of this process portion of the line originally read NU SU, “no more,” that
as making the interval sound ‘sweeter’. In terms of acoustics, is “end of sequence.” Krispijn considered that the damaged
this would mean that the “rough” tuning of the thirds and sign was compatible with the infinitive of the verb
sixths, arising from the tuning of the fifths and fourths by nasahum, “to tighten,” a reading which supported Vitale’s
resonance to the harmonic series—3:2 and 4:3—would be musical interpretation. Gurney (1994) therefore revised his
refined to approximate more closely to pure thirds—5:4 and original transliteration (1968), and the new version has
6:5—and pure sixths—3:5 and 5:8. Thus the intonation now become the accepted view of both textual scholars and
would tend to be Just rather than Pythagorean. Such a musicologists. UET VII 74 describes a cyclic method of
process of fine-tuning can also be represented visually by the tuning and re-tuning and a nine-stringed instrument
seven-pointed star. Example 4 shows a seven-pointed star, through all seven heptachords, by tightening or loosening
with the basic tuning for the seven Babylonian heptachords one of the strings forming the tritone present in each of the
indicated in bold, and the corresponding fine-tuning.2 scales, that is, by sharpening or flattening the pitch of the
note to be sounded. Dumbrill (2000, 40–43) has elucidated
2 The modal names above the dotted lines in Example 4 have other the text succinctly. A detailed diagram of the process ap-
descriptions in CBS 10996, (e.g. 7-5 = Šěru) pears as Figure 7 in my article “A New Hypothesis for the

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research notes 329

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 String Numbers
D E F G A B C Hypothetical pitches, based on the heptachord embu- bum (reed pipe).

example 3. The process of basic tuning

m
tu
I
BA.R
šar
6i
1-
7 2-7 embūbum 2

īs GA
A.RI
tum
išar

1-5 n
7- 2-6
GAB

4p
itu
s

m
7-5 nī

1-
3-7

3
emb

nīd
ūbu
m

qa
bli
6-3 kitmum

m
6 3
4-6

4-1 nī
pītu
m
5-

d qabl
qa 2

2-4 qa
blī

im
um t

m
ki tmu blītum
3-5

5 4

Bold Initial tuning CBS 1766 and CBS 10996

Fine tuning CBS 10996
Seven-pointed star CBS 1766

example 4. A seven-pointed star as a visual aid to tuning

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330 music theory spectrum 30 (2008)

Vitale Kilmer
išartum nı̄d qablim
embūbum embūbum
nı̄d qablim išartum
qablı̄tum nı̄s GABA.RI
kitmum pı̄tum
pı̄tum kitmum
nı̄s GABA.RI qablı̄tum
example 5. Apparent discrepancies in the nomenclature
of the heptachords
Construction and Tuning of Babylonian Musical Scales.”
The consensus that the heptachords described in UET VII
74 represent falling scales, however, leaves us with a prob-
lem, or, in the words of Smith and Kilmer (2000, 138): “on
the horns of a dilemma.” For although the tuning procedures
derived from CBS 10996 can be applied in either an upward
or a downward direction, the change of direction results in
different names for the scales. The only scale which has the
same name rising and falling is the heptachord embūbum.
Example 5 shows the apparent anomalies in nomenclature.
a likely solution
In the paper already mentioned I have suggested a possible
way out of this dilemma. The musicologists who pioneered
the recovery of the Mesopotamian tuning system were eager
to relate its scales to the ancient Greek octave species. But as
Kilmer (2000) has noted, no-one has yet identified a
Sumerian or Akkadian word for “octave” (114). Plutarch
(Inst.Lac.238c) records that as late as the seventh century
BCE, Terpander was condemned by the ephors of Sparta for
adding an eighth string to his lyre. Nicomachus devotes
Chapter 5 of his Manual of Harmonics to the thesis that
“Pythagoras, by adding the eighth string to the seven-stringed
lyre, instituted the attunement of the octave.”3 The pioneering
musicologists were not comparing like with like, but rather
seven-note scales (heptachords) with eight-note scales (octa-
chords). Expressed as tones (t) and semitones (s), the hepta-
chord išartum rising would be: stttst, corresponding to the
first seven tones of the rising Dorian octave species. A seven-
note falling Dorian scale, however, starting from the same
note or its octave above, would display a different pattern:
ttsttt—the pattern, in fact, of the heptachord with the alter-
native name in Example 5, namely nı̄d qablim, correspond-
ing to the Lydian octave species and our modern major scale,
when rising. Each of the heptachords forming a pair in
Example 5 is the mirror-image of the other. The reason why
embūbum is the only scale with the same name in both
columns of Example 5 is that the pattern of tones and semi-
tones of the octachord to which it belongs (the Phrygian) is
palindromic: tstttst. So if one were to quantify these scales
mathematically by tone-numbers representing ratios of
string-length, then the scales with the same name in both
columns would be the inverse or reciprocal scales of each
other. In other words, each of the Babylonian scale-names
may be taken to stand for a specific modal pattern of tones
and semitones, identical whether the heptachord is rising or
falling. This is illustrated in Example 6.
In contrast, the Greek octave species and our modern
scales consist of ladders of musical pitches. It is these
pitches, rather than the pattern of tones and semitones,
which remain unchanged when the direction of the scale is
reversed. If such a solution to the problem of nomenclature
is correct, it seems likely that a remnant of the Mesopotamian
system still survives in our modern melodic minor scales.
The upper tetrachord of melodic minor scales rises and falls
in an identical pattern of tones and semitones: tts. But while
the pitches of the notes change when the direction of the
scale is reversed, the name by which the scale is known re-
mains the same.
3 Levin (1994) provides the full text along with commentary (73–79).

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research notes 331

String Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Name Modal Pattern (string intervals)
išartum s t t t s t
embūbum t s t t t s
nı̄d qablim t t s t t t
qabl ı̄tum s t t s t t
kitmum t s t t s t
pı̄tum t t s t t s
nı̄s GABA.RI t t t s t t

example 6. Modal patterns of the heptachords by name

quantification mathematics—for instance, Friberg (2007)—are sufficient

Is there any evidence that the theoretical musicians of the
temples of ancient Mesopotamia quantified their musical
scales? Crocker (1997, 197) suggested that the “Babylonians
could have determined quantification; they certainly had the
mathematical capacity—indeed the needed numbers are
there in the mathematical texts.” But Gurney and West
(1998, 225) retorted: “Since there is no evidence that the
Babylonians had any notion of this, there is little point in
speculating that they might have done, or that such evidence
might yet turn up.” Nevertheless, there are hints in the
evidence-bases of several disparate disciplines which suggest
that each of the four ancient literate civilizations (South
Asia, Middle East, East Asia and Europe) developed, and
possibly shared, systems of mathematical and music theory
with extra-musical associations. If we seriously wish to pur-
sue this developing area of research, we may need to coin
some new term, such as “Harmonic Mythology” to describe
it. Elsewhere (Crickmore 2003), I have revaluated the cul-
tural significance of this ancient science of harmonics.
Although the significance of the evidence I am about to pre-
sent remains largely circumstantial and dependent on inter-
pretation, I would claim that its mathematical consistency
and compatibility with what we now know about Babylonian
grounds for treating it as credible.4
There exist numerous examples of Mesopotamian
mathematical cuneiform tablets from the scribal schools of
nineteenth and eighteenth century Larsa, Ur and Nippur
which contain thirty standard pairs of numbers with their
reciprocals, encompassing all the sexagesimally regular in-
tegers from 2 to 81. These numbers, all in the form 2p3q5r,
4 The concept of “reciprocals” is central to the arithmetic of harmonics.
Any musical interval (up or down) defined by a ratio can be defined in
the opposite direction by its reciprocal. Friberg (28) notes that l/n =
igi.n.gal (28), and that the Old Babylonian term igi pu-tù-ur means to
“compute the reciprocal” (442). He also provides examples of “igi-
igi.bi” problems, involving pairs of reciprocals (MS 3971, 3; Plimpton
322 and A0 6484). Commenting on Exercise 7a in the Seleucid text
AO 6484, he writes: “In this exercise, the terms ‘igi’ and ‘igi.bi’ denote
a ‘reciprocal pair’ of sexagesimal numbers, by which is meant any pair
of (positive) sexagesimal numbers such that their product is equal to ‘1’
(any power of 60)” (67). Ancient mathematicians knew no zero. From
unity (1 = 60ο), they had an arithmetical progression upwards (1, 2, 3,
4 . . .) and a corresponding harmonic progression downwards (1, 1/2,
1/3, 1/4 . . . ), with unity functioning as the geometrical mean between
the respective pairs (for instance, 3/1 × 1/3 = 1 = 12 = 600). In this con-
nection, notice that the tone-numbers in Example 7, 40 × 90 and 45 ×
80 are igi–igi.bi reciprocal pairs, whose product is 3600 (602).

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332 music theory spectrum 30 (2008)
are ideally suited for defining musical scales in what we now
call Just tuning. For example, the numbers 30, 32, 36, 40, 45,
48, 54, which appear in all the standard lists (for instance,
MLC 1670 [Robson 2002, 114]), if interpreted as tone-
numbers, would define Kilmer’s rising išartum heptachord in
ratios of inferred vibration—or, as we would now describe it
“frequency.” Again, interpreted as tone-numbers, the corre-
sponding reciprocals from the tables would sound the inverse
or reciprocal scale: the išartum of UET VII 74, as interpreted
by Vitale and emended by Krispijn. To express its tone-num-
bers as integers, however, the reciprocals, in the octave-
double 1/30 to 1/60, have first to be expressed as sexagesimal
fractions (60/30 to 60/60), and then have to be proportionally
increased by multiplication by 72. The falling scale of išar-
tum is then defined in the octave 144–72 by the following
tone-numbers: 144, 135, 120, 108, 96, 90, 80. Of course, we
now know that frequency varies in inverse proportion to
string-length, so the tone numbers of the rising scale, when
interpreted as ratios of frequency, can also define the falling
scale when they are interpreted as ratios of string-length. It
remains unclear how early this was realised. To notate by
modern letter-names in dynamic notation, and to quantify in
regular numbers from the Babylonian tables of reciprocals all
seven heptachords requires at least a thirteen-stringed in-
strument. 5 Following the hint about palindromic number-
ing in UET VII 126, I have numbered these strings: 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I appreciate that this numbering
Friberg provides the solutions to this exercise (68): igi = 81/80 and
igi.bi = 80:81. Musically, these are the values of the syntonic comma, in
an upward and a downward direction, respectively—that is, the differ-
ence between the diatonic third of Pythagorean tuning (9:8)2 and a
pure Just-tuned third (5:4).
5 Nicomachus (Levin 1994, 154) and the Byzantine theorist, Pachymeres
(Harm.11), make a curious reference to a thirteen-stringed system.
Could they have had in mind a Babylonian rather than a Greek system?
The Queen’s Harp (ca. 2600 BCE) in the British Museum clearly has
13 strings.
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differs from that indicated on the seven-pointed star, the first
string of which, representing D, with a tone-number of 27, is
the starting note for the embūbum heptachord. The range
27–48 is of particular interest because Plato uses it, multi-
plied by one hundred, to define his “two harmonies”
(Republic, 545a–546d). In my commentary on this passage of
Plato (Crickmore 2006, Figure 10), I demonstrated how the
range 2700–4800 can also accommodate all seven Babylonian
heptachords. Since CBS1766 belongs to the late Babylonian
period, it would arguably be preferable to notate the modes
represented by the seven pointed star as falling scales.
However, the present state of debate about the Mesopotamian
tonal system calls for a different priority: to escape the
dilemma about nomenclature into which Kilmer’s pioneering
work has taken us. The starting point of my model in
Example 7, therefore, is the heptachord išartum (“normal”),
with pitches derived from Kilmer’s transcription of that scale
on the evidence of CBS 10996. In this context, the D (string
1 on the star) may be considered an “added note,” analogous
to the proslambanomenos of the ancient Greek Perfect System.
And like that system, it would require a fifteen-stringed in-
strument for realization in the dynamic form of Example 7.
Example 7 suggests a probable quantification of the hepta-
chords in their rising and falling forms, and expressed in the
smallest possible integers. Two of the tone-numbers (90 and
96) fall outside the limits of the standard tables, but both are
doubles (that is, an octave above) numbers in the table.
Notice that from the central seventh string (D4 = 54), the
embūbum heptachord (tsttts) rises to the right, and falls to the
left, in a manner which matches a clockwise and anticlock-
wise rotation of the seven pointed star in CBS 1766. Thus
Example 7 summarizes my hypothetical reconstruction of the
entire Babylonian tonal system.
For their reconstruction, Smith and Kilmer use thetic
notation—that is they place all seven heptachords within a
single octave. To quantify such a transcription of the hepta-
chords requires even larger tone numbers in the octave 360–720.
The higher tone-numbers are needed to accommodate as
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research notes 333

String number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Pitch E3 F3 G3 A3 B3 C4 D4 E4 F4 G4 A4 B4 C4
Tone number 30 32 36 40 45 48 54 60 64 72 80 90 96
Ratios 16:15 9:8 10:9 9:8 16:15 9:8 10:9 16:15 9:8 10:9 9:8 16:15
Ratios 15:16 8:9 9:10 8:9 15:16 8:9 9:10 15:16 8:9 9:10 8:9 15:16
Interval s t t t s t t s t t t s
išartum (A)
(A)
nīs GABA.RI (C)
(C)
pītum (D)
(D)
kitmum (B)
(B)
qablītum (E)
(E)
nīd quablim (F)
(F)
embūbum (G)
(G)

example 7. Hypothetical reconstruction of the Babylonian tonal system

integers the chromatic notes which occur when the scales are
transcribed within a single octave. The operation of the cyclic
tuning system described in UET VII 74 can also best be
demonstrated using falling scales in thetic notation.
In practice, however, it seems likely that a seven-stringed
instrument would have been tuned to the scale išartum (“nor-
mal”), as in column A of CBS 1766, and then re-tuned cycli-
cally as indicated in UET VII 74. I demonstrate this procedure
in the Appendix, in a manner which matches Example 7.
Starting with the falling (dotted line) išartum heptachord in
Example 7 (C5-D4: 96–54), and following the instructions in
the first chapter of the text, F4 of the tritone (strings 5-2) is
sharpened to produce the heptachord qablı̄tum. Subsequently,
C5, G4, D4, A4 and E4 are similarly sharpened. A series of hep-
tachords then emerge in the following sequence: išartum;
qablı̄tum; nı̄s GABA.RI; nı̄d qablim; pı̄tum; embūbum; kitmum;
and finally, if the remaining B4 is sharpened, išartum again, a
semitone higher. In chapter two of the text, it is the B4 of the
išartum tritone that is to be flattened, followed in turn by the
E4, A4, D4 G4, C5 returning, if the F4 is also included, to išar-
tum, this time a semitone lower. When the strings are thus
loosened, the heptachords appear in the reverse order: išartum,
kitmum embūbum, pı̄tum, nı̄d qablim, nı̄s GABA.RI, qablı̄tum.
The tuning procedures of UET VII 74 (but not the text) can
also be applied to the rising (solid line) išartum heptachord in
Example 7, by reversing the direction of the instruction to
sharpen or flatten.
The overall point that I am seeking to make by including
so many technical details, is that the hypothetical model of
the Babylonian tonal system presented in Example 7 is con-
sistent with the evidence of CBS 1766, CBS 10996, UET
VII 126 and UET VII 74.
just tuning
A remarkable piece of archaeological evidence has
emerged from China, where, in ancient times, there were
also seven heptachords similar to those in Mesopotamia

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334 music theory spectrum 30 (2008)
(Nakaseko 1957). A well-tuned carillon of sixty-five bronze
bells has been recovered from a tomb in the Hubei Province
dated from about 433BC. McClain (1985) has concluded
from their tuning that “the tonal cosmology of ancient
China now appears to have been based on a ‘Just’ tuning sys-
tem in the theoretical octave 720–360.”
Further indirect evidence for the arithmetic of Just tuning
occurs in the cuneiform tablet BM K170 and RM520
(Livingstone 1986, 30–33). The tablets list numbers associ-
ated with the names of Babylonian gods: Anu (60), Enlil
(50), Ea (40),6 and Sin (30), numbers which can also gener-
ate not only the octave (60:30), the perfect fifth (60:40), and
the perfect fourth (40:30), but also the major and minor
thirds (50:40 and 60:50), the major sixth (50:30) and. allow-
ing for octave equivalence, the minor sixth (80:50). These
latter ratios are the acoustical foundation for the “fine tun-
ing” described in CBS 10996.
Dumbrill has drawn attention to a cylinder seal in the
British Museum (BM 308035) which depicts a female mu-
sician with a lute. The seal has been identified as belonging
to the Uruk period—that is, some eight hundred years ear-
lier than any previously known representation of the instru-
ment. Dumbrill hypothesizes that the fretting of lutes
might have been the origin of the use by musicians of ratios
and proportional arithmetic to define musical tuning. Since
fretting involves the proportional shortening of the acti-
vated length of string, we may take it that the earliest calcu-
lations of the ratios between tone-numbers would have
represented “inferred vibration.” Scales defined in ratios of
inferred vibration would be rising scales, as Kilmer sup-
posed. But by the time of UET VII 74, both mathematics
and the theory and practice of musical tuning would have
become more sophisticated. It seems possible, therefore,
6 In UET VII 126, a string listed as “fourth, small string” in Sumerian, is
called “Ea-created” in Akkadian. In Figure 7, the tone number of the
fourth string is 40.
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that calculations of tone-numbers in ratios of string-length
could have become the norm during the Old Babylonian
period, and remained so at least until the age of Classical
Greece. As I suggested earlier, a tradition of seven-note
scales for seven-stringed instruments, tuned to Just rather
than Pythagorean tuning, might have persisted until
Pythagoras “instituted the attunement of the octave.”
discussion
One final point remains to be discussed: the two concen-
tric circles surrounding the seven-pointed star. It is possible
that these carry some geometrical and associative meaning.
But until precise measurements are available, it would be un-
wise to comment further. Nevertheless, the circles do raise
an important question for musicologists. Traditionally, the
right angled triangle and its theorem have been attributed to
Pythagoras. We now know, however, that exercises involv-
ing “Pythagorean” triangles and triples were common in the
scribal schools of Mesopotamia. Traditionally, the earliest
reference to Just tuning of the diatonic scale is to be found in
the Harmonics of Ptolemy (Solomon 2000, 102). But we now
have evidence that the arithmetic of Just tuning was known
and presumably used earlier, in China and Mesopotamia.
The Harmonics also contains the earliest known reference to
a “tone-circle” (Solomon 2000, 153–54), when Ptolemy
bends round the two-octave scale of the Greek Greater
Perfect System into a circle to match the ecliptic. Could
CBS 1766, then, with its circled star, the seven points of
which may be construed as the musical pitches D, E, F, G,
A, B, C, be about to substantiate a claim to be the earliest
known musical tone-circle?
Example 8 shows CBS 1766 interpreted as a tone-circle.
In this diagram I present the heptachords as falling, since
this has now been established by UET VII 74.
Mathematicians, however, tend to be sceptical about the va-
lidity of ancient tone circles because the ancients did not
know logarithms. In Ptolemy’s tone-zodiac, the circle is
MTS3002_05 10/15/08 11:01 AM Page 335

research notes 335

les in Fa
g sca s 1 or r lling sca
Risin ocal ratio atios les i
r
recip ng length 7, 7, leng of string n
ri t h -
of st (d3) d4

embūbum
embūbum
1, 6,
10:9 t
6, 1, e3 9:8 27
t 9:10 m
nīd 8:9 (or 54) rtu m c
išar qablim 1 iša abli 4
q
tum nīd (Vitale)

30
7 16:15 s

48
(Kilmer) 2
16:15s 15:16
15:16 nīs GABA.RI 2, 5,

32
qablītum 6 qablītum
f3 3 b3

45
5, 2, B A .R I
nīs G A
9:8 t
9:8 t 8:9
8:9 5 4
36
40

10:9 t

pīt m
pītu um

9:10

kit
m

um
mu
kitm

g3 a3
3, 4,
4, 3,

Notes and Key

The tritonic tuning procedures of UET 74 can be applied to the falling scales.

t tone
s semitone
initial tuning (4ths and 5ths)
fine tuning (thirds and sixths)
dichords in CBS 10996

Figures in underline indicate reciprocal (inverse) scales.

example 8. CBS 1766 as a “tone circle”

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336 music theory spectrum 30 (2008)

divided into twelve equal parts, as can be done with com-
passes. Solomon (2000, 74n7) points out that geometrically
at least this correlates with the whole-tone scale in equal
temperament. Nevertheless, from its author’s point of view,
the image is intended to match the ancient Greek two-octave
Greater Perfect System.
In CBS 1766, the circle is divided into seven approxi-
mately equal segments, which do not represent equal mea-
sures of distance: heptachordal scales comprise two sizes of
tones and one of a semitone. I contend, therefore, that
many of the diagrams of symbolic geometry may not have
been meant to be construed as precisely accurate with re-
gard to particular measurements, but rather as approxima-
tions of the kind later known as Diophantine. These are
quite adequate for the purposes of analogical philosophy
and primitive cosmological thinking. Indeed, it is worth re-
flecting that although modern science achieves greater ac-
curacy by measuring musical intervals in cents and the
geometry of ancient temples and mediaeval cathedrals in
metres, the proportional integer ratios essential to the
structures of both musical scales and sacred buildings are
thereby concealed.

appendix

Application of the tuning procedures of UET VII 74 to Example 7 (the text applies to falling sales only).
I. Tightening
String Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tritone Re-tuning
Heptachord
išartum C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 5–2 Sharpen String 5 for qablı̄tum
s t t t s t
qablı̄tum C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 1–5 Sharpen String1 (and 8) for nı̄s GABA.RI
s t t s t t
nı̄s GABA.RI C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 4–1 Sharpen String 4 for nı̄d qablim
t t t s t t
nı̄d qablim C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 7–4 Sharpen String 7 for pı̄tum
t t s t t t
pı̄tum C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 3–7 Sharpen String 3 for embūbum
t t s t t s
embū¯ bum C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 6–3 Sharpen String 6 for kitmum
t s t t t s
kitmum C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 2–6 Sharpen String 2 (and 9) for išartum (raised by a semitone)
t s t t s t

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MTS3002_05 10/15/08 11:01 AM Page 337

reviews 337

II. Loosening
String Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tritone Re-tuning
Heptachord
išartum C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 5-2 flatten string 2 (and 9) for kitmum
s t t t s t
kitmum C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 2-6 flatten string 6 for embūbum
t s t t s t
embı̄bum C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 6-3 flatten string 3 for pı̄tum
t s t t t s
pı̄tum C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 3-7 flatten string 7 for nı̄d qablim
t t s t t s
nı̄d qablim C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 7-4 flatten string 4 for nı̄s GABA.RI
t t s t t t
nı̄s GABA.RI C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 4-1 flatten string 1 (and 8) for qablı̄tum
t t t s t t
qablūtum C5 B4 A4 G4 F4 E4 D4 1-5 flatten string 5 for išartum (lowered by a semitone)
s t t s t t

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