> This is what the paper says: "All musical traditions employ a
> relatively small set of tonal intervals for composition and
> performance, each interval being defined by its relationship to the
> lowest tone of the set. Such sets are called musical scales. Despite
> some interesting variations such as the pélog scale used by Gamelan
> orchestras in Indonesia whose metallophone instruments generate
> nonharmonicovertones, the scales predominantly used in all cultures
> over the centuries have used some (or occasionally all) of the 12 tonal
> intervals that in Western musical terminology are referred to as the
> chromatic scale (Nettl, 1956
> ; Carterette and Kendall, 1999
> )."
>
> Is this what you're saying is empirically wrong? Have Nettle and/or
> Carterette and Kendall, about whom I know nothing, been proved fakers?
You can find sources to support any argument. Based on my reading of anthopological evidence, I do not agree with the above sources. I encourage people interested in the debate to do a thorough review of the available evidence.
Miles