UT-mos disillusionment [utonal]

Paul and all...

If I'm understanding everything correctly from the posts, it seems as
though several people... Paul Erlich, formost, but also Joe Monzo, don't
really feel there is a solid acoustical basis for perceiving
relationships of utonal chords through their "higher" ratios or from the
"guide tone." I believe this is also what George Kahrimanis was trying
to research.

Right, wrong?

The utonal chords are therefore totally a "fabrication" or construct...
kind of like the serial 12-tone system.... a system which clearly can be
learned for composition, but which is not inherently "natural" to the
acoustical sound world... although some can "stretch" a justification to
try to explain it.

I understand that the folks over at Anaphoria disagree with this
assessment.

How can we come to some tentative agreement or assessment of this....
experiments with isolated chords or in musical contexts?? (This aspect
of the experiment ALSO seems subject to some dispute around here...)

Why am I so interested??

Well, Paul remembered my reaction to the interesting Daniel Wolf
experiment. I had THOUGHT two chords had identical pitches... one was a
utonal chord and the other an otonal. I was slightly wrong... one of
the inner voices had changed by several cents.. however the chords were
still quite similar.

I heard a "powerful resolution" of the utonal chord to an otonal chord.
At that time I was thinking they were chords of exactly the same
pitches...

The effect was that of the focus of a lens. The utonal chord was a bit
blurred, leading to the final clarity of the otonal one, like a picture
coming into focus.

I was PROFOUNDLY struck by this effect, since it seemed a possible "new"
kind of cadential resolution I had never heard before. The idea of
bringing such chords into "focus" could be a powerful effect...
particularly in the electronic realm.

I imagine it would not be easy to incorporate these effects in
compositions, particularly as "new cadences," but it might be worth it
if it could be done.(??)
Certainly more knowledge and research into the relationships between
utonal chords and utonal and otonal chords would be imperative for this
kind of composition...yes?

_________ ______ __ __ _
Joseph Pehrson

>Certainly more knowledge and research into the relationships between
>utonal chords and utonal and otonal chords would be imperative for this
>kind of composition...yes?

Joseph, you count me in the wrong "side". The thesis I put to test
is not only that utonality is as "natural" as otonality, but that
the effect spills over to progressions. And that a very large part,
if not all, of the common practice can be tested to conform with this
assumption.

Good day!
- George K.