Prime harmonic series

From Xenharmonic Wiki
(Redirected from The Prime Harmonic Series)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The acoustic prime harmonic series is similar to the set of prime numbers, except that it begins with 1, and skips 2 because of octave equivalence : 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 etc.

If “new” pitch classes in the harmonic series are always odd numbers (even numbers are always octave duplications), the question is whether there is a useful acoustic/musical distinction between odd composites and primes. The test case is 9, which is the first odd numbered partial that is composite.

Suppose one is producing notes with harmonic spectra whose fundamentals are members of an harmonic series. Each note that is played also exhibits its own series of partials as its timbre. Some of these partials may coincide with member of the original harmonic series. For example, a note whose fundamental is the 3rd member of an harmonic series will have its own third partial coincident with the 9th partial of the original series. (9 = 3 × 3). It can be shown that all further odd composite members of the original series will show up in the spectra of notes built on lower partials (e.g. 15 = 5 × 3 = 3 × 5). On the other hand, prime numbered partials of the original series do not occur in notes built on lower partials. So, do composites exhibit a kind of redundancy? Does this result in some kind of qualitative/musical difference between primes and composites, and the notes built upon them? Is the derivative nature of the composite members audible? These are questions which may lie in the realm of subjectivity, but one thing is certain: 7 and 11 sound more unusual to our ears than 9 does. If odd limit as a measure of consonance was all that mattered, wouldn’t there be a continuum of some kind from 7 to 9 to 11? Instead, 9 sounds like it belongs with its 3-limit brothers 3/2 and 4/3 far more than it does with 7 or 11.

Fortunately, it is not necessary to wait upon the answers to these admittedly very interesting questions before finding interesting uses for the prime harmonic series as material for scale generation. For example, through the magic of octave reduction, the first n members of the prime harmonic series can produce an n-atonic scale:

N (primes) scale
1 (1) 1/1
2 (1,3) 1/1, 3/2
3 (1,3,5) 1/1, 5/4, 3/2
4 (1,3,5,7) 1/1, 5/4, 3/2, 7/4
5 (1,3,5,7,11) 1/1, 5/4, 11/8, 3/2, 7/4 (pentatonic)
6 (1,3,5,7,11,13) 1/1, 5/4, 11/8, 3/2, 13/8, 7/4 (hexatonic)
7 (1,3,5,7,11,13,17) 1/1, 17/16, 5/4, 11/8, 3/2, 13/8, 7/4 (heptatonic)
8 (1,3,5,7,11,13,17,19) 1/1, 17/16, 19/16, 5/4, 11/8, 3/2, 13/8, 7/4 (octatonic)
9 (1,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23) 1/1, 17/16, 19/16, 5/4, 11/8, 23/16, 3/2, 13/8, 7/4 (nonotonic)
10 (1,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29) 1/1, 17/16, 19/16, 5/4, 11/8, 23/16, 3/2, 13/8, 7/4, 29/16 (decatonic)
11 (1,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31) 1/1, 17/16, 19/16, 5/4, 11/8, 23/16, 3/2, 13/8, 7/4, 29/16, 31/16 (hendecatonic)
12 (1,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31,37) 1/1, 17/16, 37/32, 19/16, 5/4, 11/8, 23/16, 3/2, 13/8, 7/4, 29/16, 31/16 (dodecatonic)

Of course, as in scales derived from the full series, there is nothing that says one must start at the beginning of the series or include consecutive members only. The possibilities are endless.


The prime heptatonic scale can be notated like this:

16:17:20:22:24:26:28:(32)

giving the following step sizes:

17/16 20/17 22/20
(11/10)
24/22
(12/11)
26/24
(13/12)
28/26
(14/13)
32/28
(8/7)
104.96 281.36 165 150.64 138.57 128.3 231.17

The prime dodecatonic scale can be notated:

32:34:37:38:40:44:46:48:52:56:58:62:(64)

giving these step sizes:

34/32
(17/16)
37/34 38/37 40/38
(20/19)
44/40
(11/10)
46/44
(23/22)
48/46
(24/23)
52/48
(13/12)
56/52
(14/13)
58/56
(29/28)
62/58
(31/29)
64/62
(32/31)
104.96 146.39 46.17 88.8 165 76.96 73.68 138.57 128.3 60.75 115.46 54.97

Any segment of the prime harmonic series can be used "as is" as musical material.

The step sizes of the series itself exhibit an interesting variety, including the phenomena of twin primes which provide for small steps which contrast with the wider steps elsewhere in the series:

20101106025758.jpg

a closer look at the steps above 11:

20101106042117.jpg

One example of using the prime harmonic series as a "found object" is Dante Rosati's "prime guitar".

Dante writes:

"The Prime Guitar is designed to play prime partials 17-199. The lowest string is tuned to the 17th partial of a series, and the successive strings are then tuned to partials 23, 37, 47, 67, and 89 to preserve the basic tonal spread of a standard set of guitar strings. Since every single note is a unique prime limit pitch, it was not practical to color code the frets in the same way as the previous guitars. On the other hand, it is very difficult to orient one's self on a neck with such irregular fret spacing without any color coding, so I settled on a simple alternating three color scheme that allows for easy visual spotting of where the frets are located.

Because the lowest partial is 17, there are no familiar lower prime limit intervals like octaves (2/1), fifths (3/2), thirds (5/4), etc. Nevertheless, some intervals between higher primes approximate the lower prime limit intervals (e.g. 61/31 is very close to an octave), without of course reproducing them exactly." (original page source)

"Tarkovsky's Mirror" for prime guitar by Dante Rosati

prime harmonics through the 6th octave of the harmonic series
prime harmonic cents (octave reduced) sorted delta
2 0 0 104.9554095
3 701.9550009 104.9554095 146.3886293
5 386.3137139 251.3440388 46.16897738
7 968.8259065 297.5130161 88.80069773
11 551.3179424 386.3137139 42.74869168
13 840.5276618 429.0624055 82.4553001
17 104.9554095 511.5177056 39.80023672
19 297.5130161 551.3179424 76.9564049
23 628.2743473 628.2743473 37.23227474
29 1029.577194 665.506622 36.44837885
31 1145.035572 701.9550009 138.5726609
37 251.3440388 840.5276618 32.97688371
41 429.0624055 873.5045455 95.32136099
43 511.5177056 968.8259065 60.75128768
47 665.506622 1029.577194 29.59446508
53 873.5045455 1059.171659 57.71314584
59 1059.171659 1116.884805 28.15076739
61 1116.884805 1145.035572 54.964428