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A scale curiosity

🔗Gene W Smith <genewardsmith@juno.com>

7/15/2002 8:18:29 PM

Here's a 7-limit JI scale which is the Fokker block for commas 36/35,
2401/2400 and 4375/4374, or equivalently for commas 21/20, 2401/2400 and
4375/4374:

1--27/25--7/6--63/50--49/36--72/49--100/63--12/7--50/27

It's strictly for lovers of subminor seconds, since that's all the
harmony you get, with the 7/6 occurring between six of the nine pairs of
intervals separated by two degrees. However if we look at the three
exceptions, we find that the interval from
63/50 to 72/49, namely 400/343, is flat from 7/6 by a mere 2401/2400, and
the same is true for the interval from
49/36 to 100/63. The remaining interval, from 27/25 to 50/27, is sharp
from 12/7 by an even more negligible 4375/4374.
This JI scale is therefore barely, if at all, distinguishable from a
circle of approximate subminor thirds--which is to say, an equal division
of the octave into nine parts, where the only thing we allow as
consonances are two or seven steps out of nine. Is this scale JI, JI
tempered by 2401/2400 and 4375/4374 (ennealimmal temperament) or simply
the 9-et?