User:Mousemambo/Workbench: Difference between revisions

This section outlines what could be followed as an introductory course for people interested in understanding, playing or composing xenharmonic music.

This course extends from a prerequisite of Music Theory 101, a ubiquitous first-semester college course whose material is also commonly taught to high school piano, guitar and jazz musicians. There are several free online textbooks teaching Music Theory 101 (recommendations need to be provided).

*'''Xenharmonic harmony'''

**[[Dyad]]

**[[Interval quality]]

**[[Consonance and dissonance]]

**[[Diatonic functional harmony]]

**[[Just intonation harmony]] (or [[Harmony in just intonation]]). This needed article would present an introduction to creating harmony in just intonation (JI) tunings. It introduces ideas and strategies for harmony that also apply to other uneven tunings, and provides a foundation for understanding more extended xenharmonic harmonization. Some ideas to include...

***Historically, pure tunings were understood to mostly support only limited dyadic harmony, because few intervals in any purely JI tuning were considered acceptably consonant. Interval table analysis of an example JI tuning reveals how many of that tunings' dyadic intervals are unusable for harmony. Consonant triads are traditionally very rare in JI tunings.

***However, many traditional cultural musics successfully integrated dyadic harmony, e.g. ancient Greek music and its early European descendants, traditional classical Chinese music, and some traditional African music.

***Melodic arpeggiation, and the introduction of ostinato in early basso continuo accompaniment, provided an opening to harmonic ideas in early European JI music, without the more glaring dissonance of notes sounded simultaneously.

***Later, the development of [[Wikipedia:Meantone temperament|meantone temperaments]] in European music expanded the number of acceptably consonant intervals ([[wikipedia:List_of_meantone_intervals|List of meantone intervals]]), while listeners also became more accepting of less pure intervals as consonant (most extremely in [[Wikipedia: Emancipation of the dissonance|Emancipation of the dissonance]]), allowing expansion and exploration of triadic and larger harmonies.

**[[Dyadic chord]]

**Harmony in Specific Tunings

***[[Blacksmith temperament modal harmony (in 15edo)]]

***[[Harmony of 23edo]]

**Articles

***[[User:Aura/Aura's Ideas on Functional Harmony|Aura's Ideas on Functional Harmony]]‎‎

***[[User:FloraC/Analysis on the 13-limit just intonation space: episode ii#Chapter VI. Overview on Functional Harmony|FloraC's Overview on Functional Harmony]]

== Elements of good Xenharmonic Wiki article writing ==

* '''Introduction to good nonfiction writing (with an emphasis on exposition)'''

** Why are you writing?

** What is "good" in good nonfiction writing?

*** Clarity of purpose: Strong focus on the idea being presented.

*** Clarity of statement: Intelligibility in the contexts of reader and meaning.

*** Clarity of structure: A nonfiction narrative arc.

** How to write an effective nonfiction paragraph or "paragraphic" section (a section functioning like a paragraph).

*** Each paragraph presents one idea.

*** Paragraphs include:

**** Always, an initial statement of the idea.

**** Optionally, the definition of a new term.

**** Almost always, how the idea connects to previously presented ideas (provides context).

**** Optionally, how the idea connects to related ideas outside this writing (provides context).

**** Always, sentence(s) that develop(s) the idea.

**** Always, sentence(s) that support(s) the idea.

**** Always, an explanation of why the idea is valuable.

**** Usually, a summary of what the paragraph has presented.

**** Optionally, a description of how this idea connects to the next idea(s) to be presented.

*** Edit your paragraphs to analyze what functions every sentence is providing (see above), simplify wording and phrasing, use natural speech, remove unhelpful redundancy, create powerful flow between paragraphs.

** What is an explanation and what are some types of explanation?

** Effective narrative structure in nonfiction writing.

** Tone in writing: Encyclopedic, authoritative, monographic, informal, conversational, etc.

** Recommended reading for learning how to write better nonfiction (to be added).

* '''Every Xenharmonic Wiki article should include...'''

** An introductory paragraph or two that:

*** Is accessible to the Wiki's yet-to-be-officially defined target audience: musicians with at least a basic introduction to music theory. This can be defined as first-semester, college Music Theory 101, but is also commonly introduced to high-school piano, guitar, and jazz musicians.

*** Provides links to beginner and intermediate-level articles on music theory as needed.

*** Clearly places the article's topic into the context of music.

*** Presents the purpose of the article in a way that will be understood by someone completely new to the article's concept, with links to articles about concepts that are necessary prerequisites.

*** Regardless of the topic (advanced or not), includes absolutely no math theory terminology beyond high school level, unless it is very commonly used in Xenharmonic music discussions, and links to/toward beginner-level articles are provided. If no such article exists, omit that terminology from the introduction, and present it later with a red link to create that article. There are certainly also alternative ways to address the serious Xenharmonic Wiki problem of inaccessible articles that understandably frighten off musicians without a higher math degree. There are occasional paired articles, one for beginners (e.g. [[Mapping]]) and one for advanced readers (e.g. [[Temperament mapping matrices]]). This can be an effective approach but requires substantially more work.

** Sections that divide the article into different depths of understanding, i.e. that require the reader to have less or more preexisting understandings. More advanced understandings belong in sections later in the article. This is true even formore advanced articles, because in effective narrative nonfiction writing there is always a progression of understanding.

** No list or table without an effective explanation of its contents.

**Wikipedia link format. Wikipedia: <articleNameWithUnderlinesForSpaces>