RE: [tuning] Paul Erlich 22t-ET scales

Joseph Pehrson wrote,

>I'm really "digging" the Paul Erlich 22t-ET scales. You know,
>traditional major and minor chords in these scales sound like jazz!

Jazz? They sound pretty close to JI major and minor chords, at least
compared to 12-tET. Unless you mean traditional _keyboard_ major and minor
chords, in which case we're in irrelevant territory again.

>First, why are almost all of them "decatonic" 10 notes. Why does that
>work well for 22? Why don't we use the full 22??

They're meant to be analogous to the 7-note diatonic scales in 12-tET (or
19-tET, 31-tET, etc.) Read my paper. You can use the full 22 if you want (I
work that way).

>And, what does the terminology "major" and "minor" refer to in these
>scales... maybe I just have to work with them longer to hear it...

They refer to the quality of the tonic tetrad, obtained by playing the 1st,
4th, 7th, and 9th notes of the scale at the same time.

>Of course, in Paul's article, one idea of these scales is to make
>7-limit consonances work nicely. Of course this is totally unrelated to
>the Indian music which used similar intervals, or at least 22 notes in
>an octave, yes?

Right.