Rperlner

::Hi Aura. Just replying to check that you saw I posted more emails from the exchange with Dr. Yarman, including his comments on your Space Tour. Regarding the original topic: Dr Yarman's observations have mostly concerned the Turkish tuning of Huzzam, which is different from the Arabic tuning I originally had in mind. I agree that it is possible to temper 512/507 in a way that only affects the tuning of Hisar in the Turkish variant, but, I'm still not sure it makes sense to temper 512/507 as opposed to say 352/351 in that case. On Dr. Yarman's recommendation, I also plan to follow up with Sami Abu Shumays on the Arabic version of Huzam, and whether it makes sense to think of that as tempering 512/507. --[[User:Rperlner|Rperlner]] ([[User talk:Rperlner|talk]]) 04:17, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

== Stroll impressions ==

:::Hi Aura. I have considered your advice, but I am not convinced it can be applied to writing a fugue (at least not a fugue in the style of JS Bach, which is roughly what I was going for, aside from the use of a modal subject.) First of all, fugues generally modulate a lot, so it is expected and desirable that there be passages where the tonic is not immediately clear. As long as the tonality is clear at the beginning and end, transitions are smooth, and the piece continually feels like it's going somewhere (whether the destination is clear or not), it should be effective. This applies to a number of other forms in the common practice period as well, such as Sonata Allegro form and scherzo. Second of all, fugues rely on transposing a melody by a variety of intervals other than an octave. This can be difficult to do if the scale structure is irregular. I'm not going to say it's impossible to do with 5-limit-JI-like diatonics as you have suggested, but it's much harder and there's not much precedent for it in the repertoire. Fugues have almost exclusively used Meantone tunings and Meantone-like well temperaments. Where scales like you suggest for diatonic modes have been used effectively is in Indian Raga music, but these are typically played over a drone of a perfect fifth on the tonic -- about as static a harmony as one could possibly imagine. From what I've seen of your works, they are not quite that harmonically static, but they are still neither polyphonic (you seem to use simple melody and accompaniment texture) nor especially modulatory (you modulate sometimes, but they seem more like brief transitions between long stable passages than the driving force behind the structure of a piece.) I would be interested to see how you would approach more polyphonic textures, and forms with more harmonic development. Finally, I'd like to make a brief point about the proper resolution of augmented 4ths and diminished 5ths in the common practice style: It seems pretty clear to me that the proper resolution has more to do with the scale structure providing context for the interval, than the tuning of the interval itself. The fundamental issue is that if two voices a certain interval apart resolve inward by step to a third, then the original interval is, by definition, some sort of 5th. It just so happens that in meantone temperaments the diminished 5th is larger than the augmented 4th, as a side effect of making 5-limit thirds more pure. But, this is not always the case. e.g. Using a historically accurate tuning for Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, the preludes and fugues in remote keys will have augmented 4ths larger than diminished 5ths, but you can check for yourself that they still overwhelmingly resolve the standard way. I also tested the limits of this phenomenon by rendering scale segments outlining a diminished 5th and augmented 4th (BCDEF and FGAB) in extremely non-meantone temperaments using Musescore, and seeing what dyad sounds best after them. In both cases it was C raised by a comma and E, as would be expected from common practice rules about resolving tritones. Tuning may have some effect, but scale structure is far more important. --[[User:Rperlner|Rperlner]] ([[User talk:Rperlner|talk]]) 04:03, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

:: I know this may sound hard to believe, but in all my experimenting with different intervals, I've found that the wrong kind of interval involving small-number-ratios between the wrong two notes actually works against the formation of a sense of tonality.  Conversely, a more tense-sounding interval in the right location- yes, even if the interval in question happens to be [[40/27]]- can actually strengthen your sense of tonality.  Yes, intervals with small-number-ratios are vital to establishing tonality, but because of their power, they have to be well-placed within the tonal system, or otherwise the sense of tonality shifts when you don't want it to. --[[User:Aura|Aura]] ([[User talk:Aura|talk]]) 04:50, 13 December 2020 (UTC)