Who's Afraid of the Big Bad 9:7? Part 7

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tip #12: |
| When learning to hear 9:7's own unique sensation, steering away from |
| other kinds of thirds helps make that sensation more apparent. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+


This makes sense both in chords and melodic contexts, and is probably part of
why a 9:7 stack brings out 9:7's sensation more clearly. So perhaps tip #12 is
just stating the obvious!


Up to this point I've been yacking about 9:7's inherent exotic sound. What
exactly is that sound? Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to share it with you
through a mere ASCII text message like this. It's not very easy even to present
you with a score in ASCII text either!

(Clearly what I need is a bloody Web page with some sound files!)

But what I can do is describe some general melodic formulas that you can use
to guide your discovery process.


+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tip #13: |
| Use 9:7 melodically in contrast with semitone or microtonal intervals |
| more than in contrast with whole steps or minor thirds. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+


I derived this tip from how I heard supramajor thirds used in a composition
for a classical Persian (essentially) violin. One scheme that seems to bring
out 9:7's inherent sensation is to use semitones for leading-tone-to-tonic
movements before a climb. In the melodic climb, use seconds sparingly, then
leap by a 9:7 at the climax. The bring out that climax by repeating the 9:7,
and trilling the upper note of the interval microtonally. Or trill it in 9:7s.


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As I recall, Brian cited, as an example of his assertion that 2/19 doesn't
work like a semitone, a whole-half-whole-half-etc. symmetric mode, implemented
as 3 2 3 2 3 2, etc. He said that it sounded kind of queasy as I recall. When
I tried it on my 19TET guitar, I didn't hear what he was refering to, but I have
no reason to doubt that he's hearing something real.

I think that Paul's right that a semitone can be a lot of things. So if
Brian's point is that 19 has no single interval that can perform all of the same
functions as 12's single unified semitone implementation, then I'd say that he's
pretty clearly right. And he's certainly right that that requires composers to
rethink a number of ideas that we take as axiomatic truth.

But if Brian's suggesting that 19 has nothing that performs ANY of the
functions of 12's single unified semitone, then I can't see that point clearly.
For example, it seems clear to me that 2/19 makes a perfectly effective diatonic
semitone, and 1/19 makes a perfectly effective chromatic semitone.


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