I've been having an off-list discussion with Paul E about 22TET, and as part of that discussion he had me try to execute an I-IV-ii-V-I progression in 22. To satisfy my own curiousity, I decided to try it in several tunings back to back, and see how they compared. [Actually, I had done I-IV-ii-V-i the first time. I later went back and did everything to end on I, and then added the JI experiment.] Paul thought that my impressions of the effect of the tunings I used might make an interesting seed for discussion, so here they are.
Neither 12 or 19 presented a comma problem, but the sound or mood of the scales were quite different, and I personally preferred 19. I found 12 to be somewhat blunt and somewhat jarring in impact, yet sharp or edgy in quality; metal chains came to mind. 19 on the other hand, sounded sweet and lush, and suggested rain forest or some other dense vegetation. This makes me wonder whether 19 is "better" for diatonic music that 12? [I know there's plenty of more complex music that could be done in both, but I'm not there yet, as I'm still slowly working my way toward musicianship.]
Next up was 22. I used the tones necessary to construct a proper minor triad, and, as I was about to discover in a big way, this resulted in comma shifts in both outer voices, which is what Paul was hoping to illustrate to me. The result, as I described it to him last week, was "as close as a sound has ever come to conveying nausea to me". The first time I heard it, the sensation was almost physical, and this was true on a couple of repeated listening as well, if I were relaxed and letting myself get lost in the sound. If I were being more the engineer about it, is simply sounded disturbing and out of tune.
Lastly was the solution I had worked out in solving the puzzle Paul had given me. By taking the ii as a diminished triad, everything fell nicely into place. The overall effect was pretty close to what I felt in the 12 or 19 versions, but there was more contrast, and an added tension I hadn't heard before. Rather that wet, lush forest, this was a semi-alien landscape, not sparse by any means, but more intense, and with a broader spectrum of colors. I described it to Paul as being like a cactus garden, but there's more to it than that. I guess this is what it feels like to discover a "new" world, as opposed to a different rendition of familiar things?
Since then, I followed up and tried the progression in 5-limit JI as well. It was not nearly so bad as the comma-ridden version in 22, more like a sour grape in a fruit salad, but the comma shift still made the chords sound "wrong" somehow. I presume it was more tolerable because the commas were only half as large as in the 22TET rendition. Can anyone offer an explanation for this?
I'm sure this is old hat for most of you, but I got quite a first hand education from it, and I'm hoping it'll result in some discussion nonetheless. I feel like I've found that unknown something that I was looking for in 22, so I'm pretty excited, and giving thought to having an instrument built.
Thanks for listening,
Steve
Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 14 Jan 1997 23:59 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA25108; Wed, 15 Jan 1997 00:02:25 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA25113 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id PAA11810; Tue, 14 Jan 1997 15:02:23 -0800 Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 15:02:23 -0800 Message-Id: <199701142300.PAA11749@eartha.mills.edu> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
> Seriously, I don't think most folks listen to what tuning a piece > of music is in, they listen, on whatever level, to the music, and > that should come first. If it piques them somehow, they'll buy it. > If what piques them is something that can't be reproduced in 12, > *then* you might have a "convert".
I think that Steven is right here with three caveats: 1. There are other musical markets than pop, not to suggest for a moment that addressing the pop market isn't deadly critical. For example, one other market I personally think also very valuable to pounce on is film music. 2. Within the pop market there's a 2-5% or so residual that would find even moderately subtle differences (like strictly diatonic music implemented in 19 compared to 12) curious-sounding. A valuable strategy, I believe, is to use the other 95-98% to bouy up a xenharmonic song's popularity so that it can propagate to the attention of the target 2-5%. Within other markets, where subtlty is more of a way of life (like classical, jazz, or the assorted "artsy" forms) there is a much bigger % awareness. Obviously in the case of movie music the awareness would be mostly subconscious. 3. It certainly is possible to make xenharmony very difficult to miss. Microtonal chromatic runs (e.g., successive 34ths of an octave) make unusual tunings a whole lot harder to miss than sticking with diatonic melody. For example, starting on a diatonically-credible leading tone and then delaying resolution through several intermediate upward microtonal
steps, will get a lot of peoples' attention!
Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 15 Jan 1997 16:47 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA11423; Wed, 15 Jan 1997 16:50:53 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA11419 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id HAA01653; Wed, 15 Jan 1997 07:50:46 -0800 Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 07:50:46 -0800 Message-Id: <34970115154143/0005695065PK2EM@MCIMAIL.COM> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu