TRANSFER

The literature on scales other than 12-tone equal temperament generally ignores certain important possibilities, which are likely to become more important as time goes on. Usually these articles and treatises are concerned with just one non-12 system, or marshal all the arguments against leaving 12-tone that they can dream up. Often they neglect the problems arising from the necessity of any new tunings co-existing with the ordinary 12-tone system. The staggering investment in conventional keyboard instruments and the rigid programming of most musicians' habit-patterns to 12-tone temperament has to be taken into account -- it forms the background or environment against which any new tunings will be compared and contrasted.

In many cases, the new system is treated as totally incompatible and the innovators burn all their bridges behind them. Some composers masochistically set fire to all their conventional compositions! Some theoretical articles propose the abolition of 12-tone temperament or other drastic revolutions. Sadly, there are those who despair and give up and refuse to listen to anyone else1s successes with new tunings.

Cheer up! There is no need for such dramatic gestures. We wish to suggest certain very real possibilities by introducing the term TRANSFER. It is fairly obvious that one can compare two tuning systems or indeed three or more systems, by playing the same piece in one after another. But suppose one deliberately composes something which changes tuning-systems in the middle or at several places. It would seem inadvisable to extend the meaning of the already-overburdened word MODULATION to this novel and startling effect. Hence, Transfer.

The simplest kind of transfer would be between two Systems having more than one note in common. 12 and 15, for instance, will have 3 common pitches, one-third-octave apart, such as C, E, and C#. 12 and 16 equal temperaments will have four such intersections, for instance at A, C, D#, and F#. (The 12-to-24 case is trivial of course, since 24 has two complete sets of 12 and thus cannot escape 12 -- there is interpolation or addition rather than any sense of transferring.) 9 and 15, or 10 and 15, or 16 and 20, or 14 and 21, offer other instances of transfer at more than one common point. This possibility can be explored by those who wish to add one or more non-12 instruments to a group of existing ones.

Next comes the transfer between systems which do not have any notes in common except the starting-point (which usually would be C or A). The bridging might be aided by using two systems which have similar harmonic or melodic properties or both. 19 and 31 is an obvious case. 12 and 19 forms a striking contrast when certain chords are transferred from one system to the other. In computer music, one could investigate the use of elastic tuning, where a tempered chord glides into -just or vice-versa, or a chord in one system slides into the other system vhile continuing to be sustained. In other cases, dramatic contrast can be had by jumping boldly from system to system.

A further development which has not gotten its proper amount 6f attention is the use of two different tuning-systems AT THE SAME TIME, for example to produce a new kind of Dissonant Counterpoint. Not for beginners, perhaps; but seriously: Are you man or mouse?