Mavila: Difference between revisions
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'''Mavila''' is an extremely important temperament. It was first discovered by [[Erv Wilson]] after studying the tuning of the "Timbila" music of the Chopi tribe in Mozambique. It is also closely related to the "pelog" scale in Indonesian and Balinese Gamelan music. | '''Mavila''' is an extremely important temperament. It was first discovered by [[Erv Wilson]] after studying the tuning of the "Timbila" music of the Chopi tribe in Mozambique. It is also closely related to the "pelog" scale in Indonesian and Balinese Gamelan music. | ||
See [[Pelogic family #Mavila]] for more technical data. | |||
== Inverted major and minor intervals: the antidiatonic scale == | == Inverted major and minor intervals: the antidiatonic scale == | ||
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== Tunings == | == Tunings == | ||
The fifths of mavila are very flat | The fifths of mavila are very flat – 16edo (675.0 cents) and 23edo (678.3 cents) are typical tunings, and the optimal 5-limit tuning is 679.8 cents. As a result, mavila is best played with specialized timbres: either timbres with a lot of rolloff (such as marimba, sine waves, ocarina, etc), or timbres with detuned partials (such as Gamelan or Timbila instruments), etc. | ||
The temperament defines a tuning spectrum, similarly to the meantone spectrum. The fifth of 7edo (~686 cents) is often thought of as an informal dividing line between meantone and mavila temperament: if the fifth is flatter than this, it will generate anti-diatonic scales, and if it is sharper than this, it will generate diatonic scales. The fifth of 9edo is also often thought of as the other tuning endpoint on the mavila spectrum. | |||
Much like meantone, mavila is [[support|supported]] by several low-numbered edos, which will basically be the same size as the mosses listed above. | |||
7edo can be thought of as a primitive tuning, yielding a totally equal heptatonic scale that is equally diatonic and anti-diatonic. | |||
The next edo supporting mavila is 9edo, which can be thought of as the first mavila edo (and the first edo in general) differentiating between 4:5:6 major and 10:12:15 minor chords. This is fairly interesting, as there is no real equivalent in meantone terms. It is larger than the "diatonic" sized mos, but smaller than the 16-tone "chromatic" mos. It is best thought of as a "superdiatonic" scale. The fifth is 667 cents. | |||
It is also supported by 16edo, which is probably the most common tuning for mavila temperament. This can be thought of as the first edo offering the potential for chromatic mavila harmony, similar to 12edo for meantone. This is also the usual setting for the aforementioned Armodue theory, although the Armodue theory can easily be extended to larger mavila scales such as mavila[23]. The fifth is 675 cents. | |||
The next edo supporting mavila is 23edo, which is the second-most common tuning for mavila temperament, used frequently by [[Igliashon Jones]] in his [[Cryptic Ruse]] albums. The fifth is 678 cents, and as a result the harmonic properties are slightly better than 16edo, although still fairly inharmonic compared to meantone. The anti-diatonic scale is more "quasi-equal" in this tuning than in 16edo. | |||
25edo also supports mavila, although the tuning is 672 cents and hence very flat, even flatter than 16edo. | |||
== Mos tree == | == Mos tree == | ||
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After the 16 tone chromatic scale is the 23 tone enharmonic mos, which can be thought of as an "extended mavila" analogous to the "extended meantone" 19-tone enharmonic scale. If the mavila fifth is flatter than that of 16edo (675 cents), it will instead generate an mos at 25 notes. This is similar to how if the meantone fifth is tuned sharper than 12edo, it will instead generate a 17-tone mos rather than a 19-tone one. | After the 16 tone chromatic scale is the 23 tone enharmonic mos, which can be thought of as an "extended mavila" analogous to the "extended meantone" 19-tone enharmonic scale. If the mavila fifth is flatter than that of 16edo (675 cents), it will instead generate an mos at 25 notes. This is similar to how if the meantone fifth is tuned sharper than 12edo, it will instead generate a 17-tone mos rather than a 19-tone one. | ||
== Music == | == Music == | ||