Primodality: Difference between revisions

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'''Primodality''' (also informally called '''Zheanism''' after its originator [[Zhea Erose]]) is an approach to JI designed to emphasize the identity of the "tonic" as the pth harmonic and places importance on the particular timbre of chords with a given tonic. Scales and chords having the identity of the prime p as the tonic are collectively called a '''prime family''', and can be denoted simply by ''/p''. Zhea also uses various adjectives for specific primodalities, such as ''septimal, undecimal, tridecimal, septendecimal, novem(decimal)'' for /7, /11, /13, /17, /19, which are not to be confused with the use of these adjectives to denote prime limits.

'''Primodality''' (also informally called '''Zheanism''' after its originator [[Zhea Erose]]) is an approach to JI designed to emphasize the identity of the "tonic" as the pth harmonic and places importance on the particular timbre of chords with a given tonic. Scales and chords having the identity of the prime p as the tonic are collectively called a '''prime family''', and can be denoted simply by ''/p''. Zhea also uses various adjectives for specific primodalities, such as ''septimal, undecimal, tridecimal, septendecimal, novem(decimal)'' for /7, /11, /13, /17, /19, which are not to be confused with the use of these adjectives to denote prime limits. Zhea's ideas are new in that she not only argues that higher JI is different from close irrational tunings, but claims that each prime comes with its own different timbral "gestalt", associated with chords built from small multiples of ''p'' (particular 2p) as the tonic.

Most importantly, primodality sees any overtone as valuable on its own, rather than relative to some fundamental. Taking a specific overtone as a tonic we can get its particular scales and colors and even versions of "non-xenharmonic" scales, even when the corresponding fundamental is too low to be audible. In particular, primodality discards the concept of [[harmonic limit]], which Zhea considers an artificial way to look at JI harmony. Zhea argues that prime families are a more natural way to categorize intervals; intervals from the same prime family (intervals with a common denominator for example, all /2, all /11 or all /13) tend to blend better together. For example, it is preferable to add 21/16 to 4:5:6:7, rather than 4/3.

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Primodality, and Zhea's microtonal theory overall, emphasize subtle timbral effects, as opposed to lower-complexity JI identities such as 4:5:6:7:9 that are more common in composite modes. Mode p and Mode 2p (called respectively the ''first'' and ''second octaves of /p'') are considered the most important for the identity of /p; those intervals are the most recognizable as distinct identities. For any prime p, the set of harmonics from p to 2p is unique in the sense that the sets {p/p, ..., 2p/p} and {n/n, ..., 2n/n} only intersect at {1/1, 2/1} for any positive integer n < p. Similarly, the second octaves of p and the second octave of any n < p only intersect at {1/1, 3/2, 2/1}.

Primodality could be understood as the use of ''prime'' [[Overtone scale|modes of the harmonic series]] (hence "prime" + "mode" + "-ality") which is of musical interest because using a prime as the mode maximizes irreducible intervals; and as an additional step away from the exhibition of obvious low-limit JI intervals, primodality suggests the use of very ''large'' modes of the harmonic series (or subsets thereof), which as in [[8th Octave Overtone Tuning|higher harmonic tuning]] leverages JI instead for the "harmonic cloud" effect of a shared very low (sometimes infrasonic) fundamental.

== Neji ==

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-'''Primodality''' (also informally called '''Zheanism''' after its originator [[Zhea Erose]]) is an approach to JI designed to emphasize the identity of the "tonic" as the pth harmonic and places importance on the particular timbre of chords with a given tonic. Scales and chords having the identity of the prime p as the tonic are collectively called a '''prime family''', and can be denoted simply by ''/p''. Zhea also uses various adjectives for specific primodalities, such as ''septimal, undecimal, tridecimal, septendecimal, novem(decimal)'' for /7, /11, /13, /17, /19, which are not to be confused with the use of these adjectives to denote prime limits.
+'''Primodality''' (also informally called '''Zheanism''' after its originator [[Zhea Erose]]) is an approach to JI designed to emphasize the identity of the "tonic" as the pth harmonic and places importance on the particular timbre of chords with a given tonic. Scales and chords having the identity of the prime p as the tonic are collectively called a '''prime family''', and can be denoted simply by ''/p''. Zhea also uses various adjectives for specific primodalities, such as ''septimal, undecimal, tridecimal, septendecimal, novem(decimal)'' for /7, /11, /13, /17, /19, which are not to be confused with the use of these adjectives to denote prime limits. Zhea's ideas are new in that she not only argues that higher JI is different from close irrational tunings, but claims that each prime comes with its own different timbral "gestalt", associated with chords built from small multiples of ''p'' (particular 2p) as the tonic.
 Most importantly, primodality sees any overtone as valuable on its own, rather than relative to some fundamental. Taking a specific overtone as a tonic we can get its particular scales and colors and even versions of "non-xenharmonic" scales, even when the corresponding fundamental is too low to be audible. In particular, primodality discards the concept of [[harmonic limit]], which Zhea considers an artificial way to look at JI harmony. Zhea argues that prime families are a more natural way to categorize intervals; intervals from the same prime family (intervals with a common denominator for example, all /2, all /11 or all /13) tend to blend better together. For example, it is preferable to add 21/16 to 4:5:6:7, rather than 4/3.
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 Primodality, and Zhea's microtonal theory overall, emphasize subtle timbral effects, as opposed to lower-complexity JI identities such as 4:5:6:7:9 that are more common in composite modes. Mode p and Mode 2p (called respectively the ''first'' and ''second octaves of /p'') are considered the most important for the identity of /p; those intervals are the most recognizable as distinct identities. For any prime p, the set of harmonics from p to 2p is unique in the sense that the sets {p/p, ..., 2p/p} and {n/n, ..., 2n/n} only intersect at {1/1, 2/1} for any positive integer n < p. Similarly, the second octaves of p and the second octave of any n < p only intersect at {1/1, 3/2, 2/1}.
 Primodality could be understood as the use of ''prime'' [[Overtone scale|modes of the harmonic series]] (hence "prime" + "mode" + "-ality") which is of musical interest because using a prime as the mode maximizes irreducible intervals; and as an additional step away from the exhibition of obvious low-limit JI intervals, primodality suggests the use of very ''large'' modes of the harmonic series (or subsets thereof), which as in [[8th Octave Overtone Tuning|higher harmonic tuning]] leverages JI instead for the "harmonic cloud" effect of a shared very low (sometimes infrasonic) fundamental.
 == Neji ==