Files
kennethreitz ce93f429a2 Add Knowledge: the vault's reference shelf, crosslinked across the site
Publish the Obsidian vault's Knowledge folder as /knowledge (881 notes,
67 folders), with a Knowledge item in the nav and footer.

- scripts/import_knowledge.py regenerates data/knowledge from the vault:
  slugged paths, folder notes as index pages, wikilinks resolved to site
  links (or plain text), callouts, highlights, and Dataview tables
  rendered statically. Personal notes are withheld via an exclusion
  list plus a privacy guard.
- tuftecms/core/knowledge.py builds a concept index from note titles and
  aliases. First mentions on ordinary pages link to their Knowledge note
  (capped, never in headings, code, links, or sidenotes); Knowledge pages
  list related notes and where they're mentioned across the site; other
  pages get a Related Knowledge block.
- Knowledge URLs join sitemap.xml (so the sweep test covers them), never
  displace existing legacy slugs, list alphabetically, and mermaid
  diagrams render client-side only on pages that have them.
2026-10-18 20:08:46 -04:00

2.0 KiB

description, source
description source
Major, but hovering an inch off the ground. obsidian-knowledge

Lydian

Major, but hovering an inch off the ground.


The Mode

Lydian is the fourth mode of the major scale, starting on its fourth degree. Built on C it borrows from G major, which raises a single note — the fourth — by a half step. Everything else matches the ordinary major scale, so Lydian is essentially Ionian with one bright, floating alteration, and that alteration changes everything.

The raised fourth lends the mode a weightless, dreamlike, almost celestial quality. It sounds like major but somehow more so — lifted, luminous, faintly otherworldly. Many composers describe Lydian as the sound of wonder or awe, major-key brightness pushed toward the ethereal.

Structure

Attribute Value
Interval formula W W W H W W H
Notes (from C) C D E F♯ G A B
Characteristic tone The ♯4th — floating, dreamlike
Parent major scale G major

Character

The sharpened fourth is what gives Lydian its shimmer. In the plain major scale the fourth wants to pull down toward the third; raise it and that gravity releases, leaving the note suspended and bright. The tritone it forms with the root refuses to resolve within the mode, so the whole scale seems to float without touching down. It is brightness without the homey grounding of Ionian — light that hovers rather than settles.

In Practice

Lydian is a favourite of film composers reaching for magic, space, or open sky — its glow underpins countless scores of wonder and adventure. Jazz musicians prize it over major chords for the same lift, and it colours plenty of progressive rock and dreamy pop. Where a scene needs to feel like looking upward, Lydian tends to be doing the work.