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Thedouble harmonic major scale[1] is amusical scale with a flattened second and sixthdegree. This scale isenharmonic to theMayamalavagowla raga,Bhairav raga,Byzantine scale,Arabic scale (Hijaz Kar),[1][2] andGypsy major scale.[3] It can be likened to agypsy scale because of the diminished step between the 1st and 2nd degrees.Arabic scale may also refer to any Arabic mode, the simplest of which, however, to Westerners, resembles the double harmonic major scale.[4]
The sequence ofsteps comprising the double harmonic scale is :
Or, in relation to thetonic note
However, this scale is commonly represented with the first and last half step each being represented withquarter tones:[citation needed]
The non-quarter tone form is identical, in terms of notes, to the North IndianThaat namedBhairav and the South Indian (Carnatic)Melakarta namedMayamalavagowla.
The double harmonic scale is arrived at by either:
It is referred to as the "double harmonic" scale because it contains twoharmonic tetrads featuring augmented seconds. By contrast, both the harmonic major and harmonic minor scales contain only one augmented second, located between their sixth and seventh degrees.
There is a variation of the double harmonic major scale called Double Harmonic Majorb7, which is also the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale. This variation is sometimes confused with the double harmonic major scale because many sources refer to it simply as "double harmonic major" without indicating the "b7" sign. The primary difference between these two scales is the seventh degree, with the double harmonic majorb7 scale having a flat seventh (♭7) and the Double Harmonic Major having a natural seventh (7).
The scale contains a built-intritone substitution, a dominant seventh chord a half step above the root, with strong harmonic movement towards the tonic chord.
The double harmonic scale is not commonly used inclassical music fromWestern culture, as it does not closely follow any of the basicmusical modes, nor is it easily derived from them. It also does not easily fit into common Westernchord progressions such as theauthentic cadence. This is because it is mostly used as amodal scale, not intended for much movement through chord progressions.
The Arabic scale (in the key of E) was used in Nikolas Roubanis's "Misirlou", and in theBacchanale from the operaSamson and Delilah bySaint-Saëns.Claude Debussy used the scale in "Soirée dans Grenade", "La Puerta del Vino", and "Sérénade interrompue" to evoke Spanish flamenco music or Moorish heritage.[5] In popular music, Ritchie Blackmore ofDeep Purple andRainbow used the scale in pieces such as "Gates of Babylon" and "Stargazer". TheMiles Davis jazz standard "Nardis" also makes use of the double harmonic.[citation needed].Opeth used this scale in their song "Bleak" from the albumBlackwater Park. It is also used byHans Zimmer in his score forDune.
The double harmonic scale features radial symmetry, or symmetry around its root, or center note. Breaking up the three note chromaticism and removing this symmetry by sharpening the 2nd or flattening the 7th note respectively by one semitone yields the harmonic major and Phrygian Dominant mode of the harmonic minor scales respectively, each of which, unlike thedouble harmonic minor scale, has a full diminished chord backbone.
This scale (and its modes like theHungarian minor scale) is the only seven-note scale (in 12-tone equal temperament) that isperfectly balanced; this means that when its pitches are represented as points on a circle (whose full circumference represents an octave), their average position (or "centre of mass") is the centre of the circle.[6]
The main chords of the double harmonic major are:
I7M bII7M iii6 iv7M V7(b5) bVI7M(#5) viisus2add13(b5)
There are other possibilities of tetrad:
I7M(#5) bII7 bii7M bii7 bii7(b5) III6 iv° V6(b5) bvi°
Like allheptatonic (seven-pitch) scales, the double harmonic scale has a mode for each of its individual scale degrees. The most commonly known of these modes is the 4th mode, the Hungarian minor scale, most similar to theharmonic minor scale with a raised 4th degree. The modes are as follows:[7]
| Mode | Name of scale | Degrees | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Double harmonic major | 1 | ♭2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ♭6 | 7 | 8 |
| 2 | Lydian♯2♯6 | 1 | ♯2 | 3 | ♯4 | 5 | ♯6 | 7 | 8 |
| 3 | Ultraphrygian | 1 | ♭2 | ♭3 | ♭4 | 5 | ♭6 |  7 | 8 |
| 4 | Hungarian/Gypsy minor | 1 | 2 | ♭3 | ♯4 | 5 | ♭6 | 7 | 8 |
| 5 | Oriental | 1 | ♭2 | 3 | 4 | ♭5 | 6 | ♭7 | 8 |
| 6 | Ionian♯2♯5 | 1 | ♯2 | 3 | 4 | ♯5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 7 | Locrian37 | 1 | ♭2 | 3 | 4 | ♭5 | ♭6 | 7 | 8 |
Some of the closest existing scales to the double harmonic major scale are thePhrygian dominant scale, the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale, as they are alike save for the Phrygian dominant's flattened seventh degree. Theharmonic major scale (also known as major flat 6 and Ionian flat 6) is identical to the standardmajor scale aside from the sixth scale degree being flattened by asemitone, differing from the double harmonic major in having a natural second degree.
