User:Unque/Córduan Gense Theory
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This page is part of a worldbuilding project. It describes musical tuning concepts from a fictional alternate world, rather than the real world.
It may contain references to people, cultures, or places that do not actually exist, or events that did not actually happen. This does not mean that it can’t be used to make real music—it still could be; it just means this article shouldn’t be used as a factual source about real history or traditions, or as a source of terminology and principle compatible with real established common practices and conventions. |
Gense /ʒense/ Theory is a fictitious alternative music theory popularized in the fictional nation of Córdua. As such, the concepts discussed here, and the history thereof, should be understood to be fictitious, and therefore not necessarily applicable to the real world.
Nearly all concepts present in Gense Theory are derived from or heavily influenced by real-world maqam traditions, Ancient Greek tetrachord genera, and the music theory of the European Renaissance.
Tone system and tuning theory
While in theory, the Genses are said to represent certain underlying Just Intonation intervals, in practice the actual realizations thereof differed from place to place, and from person to person. Theorists and practitioners throughout the Renaissance made various claims on the fewest number of intervals necessary to accurately represent all nine Genses (see below); these numbers ranged from as few as 9 to as many as 20 unique notes between the root and the Perfect Fifth.
During the Romantic period, fixed-pitch instruments such as keyboards and fretted strings became some of the most popular styles of instrumentation, which led equal-step tunings to be more desirable for the purposes of transpositional invariance. While equal temperament systems of 12, 19, 29, 31, 41, and more were all suggested and experimented with from the Renaissance onwards, 17 Equal Divisions of the Octave ended up dominating by the modern era; this system was able to represent the Genses accurately enough to be recognizable to nearly all musicians and listeners, while also being small enough to be consistently manageable on instruments such as guitars and claviers.
The Genses
The term "Gense" is derived via Arabic from the Greek "genus," and describes a number of pentachords that are used to build scales. While this concept dates back several centuries prior, the Nine Genses were not standardized in academia until 1450, near the end of the Renaissance period. Due to the idiosyncratic nature of Gense tuning variations, the 17-EDO tunings are not always regular or direct approximations of the classic JI Genses.
| Name | JI Pentachord | JI Step Sizes | 17-EDO Pentachord | 17-EDO Step Sizes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vete /vete/ | 12/11 – 6/5 – 4/3 – 3/2 | 12/11 – 11/10 – 10/9 – 9/8 | 2 – 4 – 7 – 10 | 2 – 2 – 3 – 3 |
| Ige /iʒe/ | 25/24 – 5/4 – 4/3 – 3/2 | 25/24 – 6/5 – 16/15 – 9/8 | 1 – 6 – 7 – 10 | 1 – 5 – 1 – 3 |
| Colço /colθo/ | 21/20 – 6/5 – 4/3 – 3/2 | 21/20 – 8/7 – 10/9 – 9/8 | 1 – 4 – 7 – 10 | 1 – 3 – 3 – 3 |
| Mejro /meʒɾo/ | 9/8 – 5/4 – 4/3 – 3/2 | 9/8 – 10/9 – 16/15 – 9/8 | 3 – 6 – 7 – 10 | 3 – 3 – 1 – 3 |
| Açre /aθɾe/ | 21/20 – 6/5 – 7/5 – 3/2 | 21/20 – 8/7 – 7/6 – 15/14 | 2 – 4 – 8 – 10 | 2 – 2 – 4 – 2 |
| Nonço /nonθo/ | 9/8 – 6/5 – 4/3 – 3/2 | 9/8 – 16/15 – 5/4 – 9/8 | 3 – 4 – 7 – 10 | 3 – 1 – 3 – 3 |
| Nifre /nifɾe/ | 9/8 – 6/5 – 7/5 – 3/2 | 9/8 – 16/15 – 7/6 – 15/14 | 3 – 4 – 8 – 10 | 3 – 1 – 4 – 2 |
| Motaqe /motaqe/ | 10/9 – 11/9 – 4/3 – 3/2 | 10/9 – 11/10 – 12/11 – 9/8 | 3 – 5 – 7 – 10 | 3 – 2 – 2 – 3 |
| Sachre /saʃɾe/ | 7/6 – 11/9 – 4/3 – 3/2 | 7/6 – 22/21 – 12/11 – 9/8 | 4 – 5 – 7 – 10 | 4 – 1 – 2 – 3 |
Notice that each Gense ends on 3/2~10\17; this note is removable, and each Gense thus has two forms. When disambiguation is necessary, the four-note clipping of a Gense may be indicated as e.g. Mejro[4], whereas the five-note extended Gense may be indicated as e.g. Nonço[5].
Maqames
In Córduan tradition, a Maqam (plural: Maqames) is a sequence defined by having a specific Yeti Gense, or a Gense on its root note that defines the tone of the Maqam. Any other Genses used to complete the scale are known as Pati Genses, and always have their roots on the fourth or fifth of the Yeti Gense. While there exist some conventions concerning which Pati Genses are more commonly used over which Yeti Genses, there is no official standard that indicates any combination as illegal.
| Yeti Gense | 4-note Yeti | 5-note Yeti |
|---|---|---|
| Vete | Maqam Vete | Maqam Frige* |
| Ige | Maqam Ige | Maqam Chure* |
| Colço | Maqam Lofre* | Maqam Colço |
| Mejro | Maqam Mejro | Maqam Lidie* |
| Açre | Maqam Crome* | Maqam Açre |
| Nonço | Maqam Ayole* | Maqam Nonço |
| Nifre | Maqam Sravo* | Maqam Nifre |
| Motaqe | Maqam Rete | Maqam Motaqe |
| Sachre | Maqam Sife | Maqam Sachre |
* These Maqames were not attested in classical tradition, and have only been given names in the modern era.