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saturated harmonies

🔗Paul H. Erlich <PErlich@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxx>

6/21/1999 12:45:57 PM

Margo Schulter wrote,

>In any case, I might conclude that the idea of saturating a texture
>with the most complex stable sonorities possible, and maximizing the
>concord of these sonorities by tuning them in pure integer ratios
>(e.g. 3-limit, 5-limit, or 19-limit just intonation), may be common to
>most eras.

Margo's used the word "saturated" several times in her post, and it seemed
not incompatible with my definition of "saturated" (see Graham Breed's
http://www.cix.co.uk/~gbreed/ass.htm for more info). For reference, here are
all the saturated chords at each harmonic limit through 13 (octave
equivalence is assumed):

3-limit:
ratios cents
3:2 (=1/3:1/2) 0 702

5-limit:
ratios cents
4:5:6 0 386 702
1/6:1/5:1/4 0 316 702

7-limit:
ratios cents
4:5:6:7 0 386 702 969
1/7:1/6:1/5:1/4 0 267 583 969

9-limit:
ratios cents
8:9:10:12:14 0 204 386 702 969
1/14:1/12:1/10:1/9:1/8 0 267 583 765 969
10:12:15:18 (=1/18:1/15:1/12:1/10) 0 316 702 1018
12:14:18:21 (=1/21:1/18:1/14:1/12) 0 267 702 969

11-limit:
ratios cents
8:9:10:11:12:14 0 204 386 551 702 969
1/14:1/12:1/11:1/10:1/9:1/8 0 267 418 583 765 969
22:24:33:36 (=1/36:1/33:1/24:1/22) 0 151 702 853

13-limit:
ratios cents
8:9:10:11:12:13:14 0 204 386 551 702 841 969
1/14:1/13:1/12:1/11:1/10:1/9:1/8 0 128 267 418 583 765 969
24:26:36:39 (=1/39:1/36:1/26:1/24) 0 139 702 841

At the 15-limit, there seems to be a problem with Graham's page, which I
will address in my next post.