Tritave: Why?

So who dreamt up this term "tritave"? Best I can tell, some tuning-list
folks are using it to mean a 3:1 interval. Speaking for my personal view,
it strikes me as an odd term for two reasons:

* We don't call 2:1 a bitave or a ditave.
* There's already a well-understood word for this interval, notably a
twelfth.

I guess the idea is to emphasize its use as an interval of repetition? If
so, why not dream up a term that's more consistent with existing
terminology?

Gary Morrison wrote:

> So who dreamt up this term "tritave"?

Jon Pierce.

> Best I can tell, some tuning-list
> folks are using it to mean a 3:1 interval. Speaking for my personal view,
> it strikes me as an odd term for two reasons:
> > * We don't call 2:1 a bitave or a ditave.

Perhaps we should!

> * There's already a well-understood word for this interval, notably a
> twelfth.

It isn't 12 of anything in a Bohlen-Pierce scale.

> I guess the idea is to emphasize its use as an interval of repetition? If
> so, why not dream up a term that's more consistent with existing
> terminology?

There's a brief argument at

http://members.aol.com/bpsite/intervals.html#anchor302810

Whether or not that's convincing, "tritave" is the term that's caught on.

Graham

> It isn't 12 of anything in a Bohlen-Pierce scale.

It isn't 8 of anything in many octave-based tunings either.

>
>
> Whether or not that's convincing, "tritave" is the term that's caught on.

Alright, whatever...

>So who dreamt up this term "tritave"? Best I can tell, some
>tuning-list folks are using it to mean a 3:1 interval.
//
>I guess the idea is to emphasize its use as an interval of
>repetition? If so, why not dream up a term that's more
>consistent with existing terminology?

I like 3:1 pretty well.

I guess 'dodecatave' is just too much of a mouthful.

-C.