User:Grady/Harmonic similarity: Difference between revisions

Line 81:

Something to note about this is that the interval quality terms in wide use are arbitrary categorical boundaries. For instance, this theory posits that out of all the interval classes labeled as major, the major second is the one that's closest to a "perfect" interval quality, while out of all the ones labeled as minor, the minor seventh is the closest in that regard.

=== Brightness and darkness ===

The definition of brightness in wide use within the xenharmonic community is that a scale is brighter if its scale degrees are farther above the root. Most Western listeners will agree that brighter modes of the [[5L 2s|diatonic scale]] sound brighter and darker modes sound darker; however, in my experience and probably the experience of most other Western listeners as well, "brighter" modes (as per the xenharmonic definition) of the [[2L 3s|pentatonic scale]] actually sound darker, and "darker" modes sound brighter. This seems to indicate that the perception of brightness isn't actually determined by distances of scale degrees above the root. The theory of harmonic similarity provides an explanation for this, asserting that the reason brighter diatonic modes sound bright is because they contain more scale degrees of major quality, while darker modes sound dark because they contain more scale degrees of minor quality. This is of course inverted with the pentatonic scale, where brighter modes contain more scale degrees of minor quality and darker modes contain more of major quality.

@@ Line 81: / Line 81: @@
 Something to note about this is that the interval quality terms in wide use are arbitrary categorical boundaries. For instance, this theory posits that out of all the interval classes labeled as major, the major second is the one that's closest to a "perfect" interval quality, while out of all the ones labeled as minor, the minor seventh is the closest in that regard.
+=== Brightness and darkness ===
+The definition of brightness in wide use within the xenharmonic community is that a scale is brighter if its scale degrees are farther above the root. Most Western listeners will agree that brighter modes of the [[5L 2s|diatonic scale]] sound brighter and darker modes sound darker; however, in my experience and probably the experience of most other Western listeners as well, "brighter" modes (as per the xenharmonic definition) of the [[2L 3s|pentatonic scale]] actually sound darker, and "darker" modes sound brighter. This seems to indicate that the perception of brightness isn't actually determined by distances of scale degrees above the root. The theory of harmonic similarity provides an explanation for this, asserting that the reason brighter diatonic modes sound bright is because they contain more scale degrees of major quality, while darker modes sound dark because they contain more scale degrees of minor quality. This is of course inverted with the pentatonic scale, where brighter modes contain more scale degrees of minor quality and darker modes contain more of major quality.