Symmetrical Diminished Scale

Seen. I understand your point of view. It must be said that this conception falls within Russell's theory, which, as valid and historically important as it is (I myself consider it fundamental), is not the only existing theory and concerns a modal vision of music. Let us not forget that, for example, the diminished scale was used much earlier (see Debussy, Ravel, etc.) with a different connotation. I find that applying these concepts to pre-existing music born within another framework of rules (perhaps less solid, but with its own reason for being) can generate confusion.

Be that as it may, Modale, my interventions may sometimes seem sharp, but I assure you that even if our opinions may sometimes diverge, I hold the highest esteem for you, as well as for all those who contribute to the understanding of such a thorny subject, even putting themselves on the line.

The concrete problem is that on several occasions I have had to explain elementary principles of harmony (to which, naturally, objections may later be raised) to beginner students with truly confused ideas because theories presented from time to time as the only possible ones had been instilled in them; theories that were actually very advanced and they were unable to understand without first having acquired those same foundations of which Russell was certainly no stranger.

DrJellyfish wrote:

because they had been instilled with theories presented from time to time as the
only possible one

This was why I generally asked for references to treatises, to go to the source

The source is that one, I was reading it just last night, and it is absolutely reliable. I only have some doubts regarding the application of this theory to a decidedly tonal piece, whose performance, in a style consistent with the piece itself, should respect the rules, perhaps even fallacious ones, of tonality.

I share the perplexities regarding the application of what I said about symmetric diminished scales in tonal music.

I believed that we should speak, in this topic, about the scales in question but in a broad sense.

But of course, nobody forbids it.

Now I don't even remember well how we arrived at this point in the conversation... rogue seniority

Ah yes, I was responding to a question from Bit; I tried to report broadly what the most widespread texts say about improvisation. In fact, Russell's classification is interesting but perhaps a bit abstract in this case: in fact, in modal music, the use of only the diminished scale understood as a mode in itself is not that common.

I would like to clarify that Russell's text deals with the use of modal scales in tonal harmony. Therefore, the existence of a basic diminished scale can be extensively exploited in tonal harmony; I do it myself.

Modal harmony in the strict sense is something else entirely.

Of course it can be used!