Private lessons with Joseph Monzo are available online via Discord / WhatsApp / Skype: composition, music-theory, tuning-theory, piano, and all woodwinds (sax, clarinet, flute, bassoon, recorder). Current rates US$ 80 per hour (negotiable). Send an email to: monzojoe (AT) gmail.
A term used by Paul Erlich to specify a periodicity-block whose boundaries define a parallelepiped (or N-dimensional equivalent) shape. (See Erlich, A Gentle Introduction to Fokker Periodicity Blocks: part 1 and continue to follow the links to part 2, an excursion, and part3.)
Yahoo tuning group, Message 55480
From: "Gene Ward Smith"
Date: Fri Aug 13, 2004 11:11 pm
Subject: Re: JI 12-tone 7-limit epimorphic scales?
--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Kurt Bigler
> So does the Fokker block approach generate epimorphic scales of the
> non-monotonic variety? Or is it monotonic only (I hope)?
It can easily enough be non-monotonic; in fact the Dona Nobis Pacem scale I used recently here is exactly that. Not only that, it's a good example of where some 5-limit chords will mostly likely be assimilated to a 7-limit interpretation, the sort of thing Carl [Lumma] was talking about.
> I looked up Fokker block and saw that it is a parallelepiped structure,
> which then somehow reinforced my original (incorrect) intuition. Hmm.
Of course, paralleopideds are not the only thing which works; various other sorts of convex bodies will also [see Erlich, A Gentle Introduction to Fokker Periodicity Blocks: An Excursion]. Simply detempering a MOS with respect to a distance measure such as the Hahn norm works also as a means of concocting epimorphic scales.
See also:
Erlich, Paul and Monzo, Joe. 1999. The Indian Sruti System as a Periodicity-Block
Erlich, Paul. 1999. Partch's 43-tone Scale as a Periodicity-Block
Please help keep Tonalsoft online! Select your level of support from the menu. Thank you!