Prolation Prolation Prolation is a term used in the theory of the mensural notation of medieval and Renaissance music to describe its rhythmic structure on a small scale, as opposed to "tempus", which described a larger scale. The term "prolation" is derived from the Latin "prolatio", first used by Philippe de Vitry in describing Ars Nova, a musical style that came about in 14th-century France. Prolation, together with tempus, corresponds roughly to the concept of time signature in modern music. Prolation describes whether a semibreve (whole note) is equal in length to two minims (half notes) ("minor prolation" or "imperfect prolation";
Whole tone scale Monk's "Four in One" (1948) and "Trinkle-Tinkle" (1952) are fine examples of this. A prominent example of the whole tone scale that made its way into pop music are bars three and four of the opening of Stevie Wonder's 1972 song "You Are the Sunshine of My Life". The rāga "Sahera" in Hindustani classical music uses the same intervals as the whole tone scale. Ustad Mehdi Hassan has performed this rāga. "Gopriya" is the corresponding Carnatic rāgam. Whole tone scale In music, a whole tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbours by the