Constrained tuning: Difference between revisions
Reduce use of the word "historically" in response to Graham Breed's comment on Facebook where he said the use of "historically" implies this is a settled debate, when it's actually still ongoing |
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This is one of the reasons why the tuning of 1-5/4-3/2 is so skewed in CTE blackwood. This problem doesn't happen with the TE tuning: the extra degree of freedom in adjusting the octave, and different weights, tend to even this kind of thing out. TE blackwood has 1-5/4-3/2 tuned to approximately 0-398-717 cents, which does seem to evenly split the error between the 5/4 and 6/5. We can see that something good about the way that TE tunes compact triads has not quite translated to CTE. Another way to look at this situation is that with CTE, 5/4 is prioritized more strongly than 6/5, and also 1-3-5 is tuned as nicely as possible, instead of 1-5/4-3/2. | This is one of the reasons why the tuning of 1-5/4-3/2 is so skewed in CTE blackwood. This problem doesn't happen with the TE tuning: the extra degree of freedom in adjusting the octave, and different weights, tend to even this kind of thing out. TE blackwood has 1-5/4-3/2 tuned to approximately 0-398-717 cents, which does seem to evenly split the error between the 5/4 and 6/5. We can see that something good about the way that TE tunes compact triads has not quite translated to CTE. Another way to look at this situation is that with CTE, 5/4 is prioritized more strongly than 6/5, and also 1-3-5 is tuned as nicely as possible, instead of 1-5/4-3/2. | ||
=== Defense of CTE === | |||
Anyone who performs tuning optimization has [[octave reduction]] to unlearn. It is tempting to optimize for close-voiced chords such as 1–5/4–3/2 without much consideration, since textbooks often present harmony in this way. The close-voiced chord, 1-5/4-3/2, is an octave-reduced version of 1-3-5, with the latter being the simplest voicing possible in the [[chord of nature]] and nontrivially being the simplest such chord containing the fundamental (the 1st harmonic/true root). It is thus important to recognize that all octave-reductions are but simplifications for our cognitive processes. | Anyone who performs tuning optimization has [[octave reduction]] to unlearn. It is tempting to optimize for close-voiced chords such as 1–5/4–3/2 without much consideration, since textbooks often present harmony in this way. The close-voiced chord, 1-5/4-3/2, is an octave-reduced version of 1-3-5, with the latter being the simplest voicing possible in the [[chord of nature]] and nontrivially being the simplest such chord containing the fundamental (the 1st harmonic/true root). It is thus important to recognize that all octave-reductions are but simplifications for our cognitive processes. | ||