black scale
n.— «The pentatonic scale is sometimes called the black scale, as so many Negro spirituals are pentatonic: “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Deep River” were named. (I happen to know that Wings’”Mull of Kintyre” is also pentatonic, but that wasn’t mentioned.) The definitive version is Mahalia Jackson’s.» —“Tears of redemption, snorts of derision” by Miranda Sawyer Observer (United Kingdom) Mar. 25, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Why is it harder to talk if we don’t move our hands? Even when we’re talking on the phone we feel the need to gesture to aid communication. A new book offers a look at the relatively new field of gesture studies. And: Ever wonder why we describe the...