User:BudjarnLambeth/Moon dust

The moon dust scale^{[idiosyncratic term]} is a 16-tone JI scale, with a period of 16/1 (four octaves), invented by Budjarn Lambeth in 2025.

It was inspired by the work of Maeve Gutierrez (see history section).

It has distinctly dynamic melodic steps with interspersed bendy little steps and big stark leaps.

It contains a mixture of mundane 3-limit harmonies with some quite xenharmonic 2.3.7.11.19 subgroup harmonies. It has some dissonances to create tension but also many consonances to resolve it.

Intervals

• 11/9
• 19/14
• 3/2
• 9/4
• 19/8
• 11/4
• 7/2
• 4/1
• 9/2
• 11/2
• 6/1
• 9/1
• 19/2
• 11/1
• 14/1
• 16/1

Techniques

Keyboard mapping

When using the scale on an isomorphic keyboard such as the Lumatone or Scale Workshop, it is recommended to have one axis ascend by 1 step at a time, and the other axis ascend by 3.

It is recommended to set the base frequency (for the tonic note) to D2, that is 73.4162 Hz.

Chord voicing

When voicing chords, Lambeth recommends that the two lowest notes of the chord should be 5 scale steps apart.

Above this foundation, you can then add any higher notes you wish as chord extensions.

(He reminds that rules are made to be broken, though, of course.)

Alternatively, another way Lambeth recommends to use this scale is to forget about vertical harmony and to instead focus on writing interweaving melodic lines that each sound good on their own, and they will just naturally generate consonant harmonies. (Similar to late medieval/early Renaissance harmony.)

History

Maeve Gutierrez shared the following JI chord in the Xenharmonic Alliance Discord server in late September 2025:

• 11/9 - 19/7 - 3/1 - 19/4 - 7/1 - 9/1 - 11/1

Budjarn Lambeth then moved the whole chord (except the 11/9) down 1 octave, to get:

• 11/9 - 19/14 - 3/2 - 19/8 - 7/2 - 9/2 - 11/2

Lambeth then added a 4/1 to act as the equivalence and a 16/1 to act as the period.

He then filled in the rest of the notes around those using Scale Workshop and his ears.

Approximations in other tunings

Primodal or over-n

Over-7 primodality

The moon dust scale can be used as an over-7 primodal scale by simply replacing the 11/9 with a 17/14, and keeping all other intervals exactly the same.

Over-9 semi-primodality

It can be used as an over-9 scale by simply replacing the 19/14 with a 49/36, and keeping all other intervals exactly the same.

Scale Workshop

• The moon dust scale in Scale Workshop