Re: HTT-29 improvisation

Hello, there, everyone, and I'd like to express my eagerness to hear
George Secor's improvisation in HTT-29. One advantage of having
computer audio capability is the opportunity to enjoy and share
feedback on such efforts -- and this one, from remarks so far, sounds
like a real classic!

In the meantime, I might say that a variation on HTT-29 that I call
HTT-24 -- an unofficial variation, I would emphasize -- is a very
attractive tuning to me. As noted, while it's structurally and
mathematically a temperament, lots of the ratios are either just
(e.g. 7:4, an important one for my style); virtually just to a
tolerance of around 0.05 cents (e.g. 11:9, 13:11), in comparison with
a typical synthesizer resolution of around a cent or more; or
otherwise within about 3.248 cents of just.

I really want to hear that 15:13 in the improvisation, about 248
cents. Often I tend to hear it as "cool and charmingly different," but
I can see how it could be notably dissonant if the context leads you
to expect some other kind of third.

And to think, George, that you were doing this in 1975!

One of the charms of HTT-29 and a variation like HTT-24 is the
combination of near-just intervals, regular chains of fifths, and some
clever nuances of temperament adding a creative element of
"not-quite-regular" structure.

Some of the same qualities also apply to a more obvious "temperament"
like 17-WT, a more compact and less accurate system which nevertheless
offers some similar types of isoharmonic sonorities.

Thus while the structures are obviously different, I would regard
HTT-29 and 17-WT alike as representing an approach which permits more
regular or "quasi-regular" features than a classic JI system
representing three or more primes, while at the same time providing a
greater variety of intervals and sonorities than would occur in an
equal temperament of comparable size.

Anyway, I'm much looking forward to hearing that improvisation,
George!

Most appreciatively,

Margo