--- In harmonic_entropy@yahoogroups.com, "traktus5" <kj4321@h...>
wrote:

> Continuting from above, that's what I'm trying to get my hands
on...
> reading about the mixing of light waves...that, for instance, the
> dominant seventh chord and triad have practially no 'nest';

What does this mean? What's a 'nest'? Why don't they have one? How
are you assuming these chords are tuned? I would have presumed the
opposite -- the waveforms nest better for these chords than for
almost any others -- but I need more specifics on how you're defining
these terms.

> it's
> strait out of one harmonic series, just one vibration pattern, or
> expanding circle of sound, so to speak, whereas the mixture of
> harmonic patterns in other chords is clearly more interesting....
> (I'm still working this out)...and am trying to figure out how it's
> related to presumed basic forces in music, such as the tritone,
> minor-ness, and the self similarity, or energy gradient, of I is to
> V as IV is to I.

I think the common-practice associations we have with the tritone,
dominant-to-tonic pull, etc., are very much cultural, and those in
other cultures don't necessarily hear these things in the same way.
There are many layers between acoustic reality and psychomusical
reality, and one of the huge ones is culture.

> > > > but at the level of harmonics, which is
> > > involved with the perception of 'chord color'? I guess I'm
sort
> of
> > > thinking of that older theory of dissonance pertaining to
> > coinciding
> > > partials....
> >
> > Well, then a chord would seem to have a different color if it
were
> > tuned slightly differently, yes?
>
> Absolutely. You've been very patient with my bias.

I don't know what your bias is. Since you're speaking of just ratios,
but your only listening was in 12-equal, there isn't any way that
your statements can be tested or verified, since there's no tuning
that would be appropriate.

> I just haven't
> had the exposure to microtonal music yet, (Bach, Stravinsky,
> Schoenberg, Part, Cage, etc, yes) and just work on my piano, which
> I don't tune myself, but share, with the tuning group, an intense
> interest in the math of music, and a desire to expand beyond
> conventional harmony (my speciality being alternate, 'functional'
> [non-dominant] harmony). Can you suggest an easily obtainable CD
> of alternate tuned music? (I have no speakers on my computer.)

Easley Blackwood's CD _Microtonal_ might be a good, easily obtainable
start. You can hear all the ETs from 13 to 24 on it (not necessarily
all presented in their best light).