There is a sort of perceptual gestalt – an imprint or impression – that happens while listening to music, as the memory registers the various pitch heights of an given intonation system. It happens as the pitch material is presented sequentially – as in melody – and in harmony as well…
But there is a third type of event that perhaps gets discussed less: the overlapping of natural (or otherwise electronically extended) decay stages of musical instrument timbres, as well as from their propagation in reverberant spaces as the music progresses through time. This is – for instance – at the core of a portion of Kraig Grady’s microtonal and just intonation sound: amazing sounding, shimmering, acoustic affects as the decays of the instruments overlap; often showcasing exquisite sonic interactions between the underlying intonation system being used and the timbre of the instruments.
But it’s also the number one dead giveaway that music is in 12 equal, as in Steve Roach’s new album (available for streaming in its entirety):
Steve Roach - Soul Tones (2012)
The composite that is created in the listener’s memory from the sum of musical pitch events happening over time, gives one that impression about the intonational quality. Music in 12 has a certain unique kind of gong-like nonharmonic resonant quality in this regard; a distinct sonic signature that is unmistakable. Nothing wrong with it really, and indeed this is a wonderfully beautiful sounding record, but notice, if you listen, to this quality in the overlapping of the sounds. The imprint on the memory, and the impression of the intonation, is unquestionably that of 12 equal.
This is among the reasons why it can be so rewarding to compose with alternative intonations as a matter of routine musical practice; one has access to – and experience with using – myriad other kinds of sonic signatures, qualities and imprints on the listener’s memory; whole new orders of acoustic – and psychoacoustic – phenomenon and expressive musical color become a part of the composer’s vocabulary.
12 equal is beautiful really, but as we can well appreciate, it’s merely one member of huge a continuum of possibilities.
j:l
Disclaimer: I’m actually a fairly huge fan of Steve Roach, 12-ED2 or not. :)