From: mclaren
Subject: combining different tunings simultaneously
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In Topic 2 of Digest 706 William Alves wrote:
"I also wonder what, exactly, is Brian's dividing point for deciding when a
tuning is a combination of tunings? It doesn't seem to me to be a
straight-forward question."
This strikes me as an extremely insightful comment by Bill Alves.
Theoretically, meantone tuning is a combination of tempered and
just intervals--so theoretically it ought to be heard as a combination
of two types of different tunings. But it never sounds that way to
these old ears.
The issue of categorical perception is an important one. There's a
well-known range within which intervals can be "mistuned" yet
still heard as members of the scale.
Lastly, there's the issue of combining separate tunings as whole
entities, each of which boasts its own internal structure.
When combining 7/oct and 5/oct, for instance, the result does
not sound to my ears as though it's two different small equal
temperaments. Rather, it sounds like a gapped subset of 35/oct.
However, in a composition which combined 15/oct and 17/oct
my ears heard 17/oct alternating with 15/oct in a regular way.
The first composition used a piano timbre, though, while the second
used timbral and registral alternation to keep the tunings audibly
separate, so this might not be a fair test.
Na'theless, my experience is that when two relatively simple
tunings are combined simultaneously, the ear often preceives
them as a single complex tuning.
The reasons why this will occur under some circumstances,
while it doesn't occur under other circumstances, remain obscure.
This suggests that it is not obvious how a 24-tone subset scale
embedded in a 72/oct composition will be heard. Timbre, rhythm
and tonal fusion will almost certainly play a part, along with
tessitura and dynamics.
--mclaren
