Bison/Eliora's Approach

This page documents Eliora's approach to the rank-two temperament bison.

Theory

Bison is a period-2, rank-2 temperament, which is produced by a generator that represents 35/32. As such, the first-circle MOS of it is a 6L 2s scale, which will be refered to as the white bison in the page, referencing the white keys on a piano. It has a hardness of about 1.2 and sounds almost like 8edo, which makes it very xenharmonic.

Second-circle MOS is 8L 6s, with hardness around 4:1, which means several more circles of generators are desirable.

The step ratio becomes desirable around the 38-note bison, which in 298edo has hardness 11:7.

Subtending resolute and a chord

Subtending resolute is the term used by Eliora to descibe the interval subtending a chord that is considered resolved. In standard theory, this is perfect fifth to major and minor triads. Eliora will use the 600 cent tritone, the period, as the subtending resolute. It has a rather bitter characteristic, but it sounds different in the context of bison than it does in the standard Western music theory.

The basic chord of bison in this paradigm is 0-2-4 white bison steps, which will be called tendoneutral diminished bison triad in the grand scheme, but it can just be called the bison triad.