Otonality and utonality

5-limit otonality and utonality: overtone and "undertone" series, partials 1-5 numbered Play otonalityⓘ, Play utonalityⓘ, Play major chord on Cⓘ, and Play minor chord on Fⓘ.
31-limit otonality Playⓘ
13-limit utonality Playⓘ

Otonality and utonality are terms introduced by Harry Partch to describe chords whose pitch classes are the harmonics or subharmonics of a given fixed tone (identity), respectively. For example: ⁠1/1⁠, ⁠2/1⁠, ⁠3/1⁠,... or ⁠1/1⁠, ⁠1/2⁠, ⁠1/3⁠,....

An Otonality is that set of pitches generated by the numerical factors (...identities)...over a numerical constant (...numerary nexus) in the denominator. Conversely, a Utonality is the inversion of an Otonality, a set of pitches with a numerical constant in the numerator over the numerical factors...in the denominator.

This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.