Tuning up for the future
David Osbon · Contemporary Music Review · 1996
Manipulation of harmony as a compositional parameter is one of the keys to an articulate and coherent piece of music. Within the Western tradition this manipulation is restricted to the 12 note even-tempered scale. Musicological research has demonstrated that many of the world's musics have a secure numerical and architectonic harmonic structure, yet there are as many tunings as there are cultures. How can composers within our tradition combine the products of this research with their own sound-world? This paper shows how a microtonal tuning structure (ratio-defined) can be created as the top level of an architectonic harmonic structure. The point being that it is linked in both vertical (harmonic and tonal) and horizontal (melodic and formal) planes — at all levels.