--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Daniel Forro <dan.for@...> wrote:

> > I think the original question was why minor chords are less
> > consonant than major chords.
>
> Are they really?

Yes, very much so. In fact the effect is so extreme, minor
chords beyond the 9-limit are essentially unusable.

> Who cares?

It's quite important in designing instruments and so on.

> For me they both are part of one class of consonant
> sounding chords based on the chain of thirds (or sixths).

Even in the 5-limit, one may speculate why Bach favored
the minor keys. I would go so far as to say that counterpoint
works better in minor keys, partly because the consonance
of the tonic chord is weaker, and therefore the voices
are more free and not constantly heard as harmonics of it.

> From the point of music theory C-E-G is the same chord as
> E-G-C and G-C-E,

That's true if we accept the notion of octave-equivalence
100%. However, anyone who has ever scored for orchestra
or played jazz piano knows, it is not true 100%. Beyond
the 5-limit, it is even less true. The inversions of the
7-limit otonality are very different in character (try it!).

-Carl