More Mirror Twins

Mirror twins are pairs of intervals, exactly opposite each other on the lattice.

The two intervals are reciprocals of each other, which means their ratios are flipped — if one is 5/3, the other is 3/5.

Harmonic distance is the same for each interval — the only difference is polarity. Listening to mirror twin pairs gives a good idea of what polarity sounds like.

The clearest example is the fifth/fourth pair, multiplying and dividing the tonic by 3.

Beautiful, consonant notes, one with overtonal energy, and the other with reciprocal energy.

The next closest pair is the major third / minor sixth. This has a different flavor. Now the tonic is multiplied and divided by 5.

The overtonal third feels stable and restful, though not quite as much so as the fifth. These notes are a bit farther from the center than the 5 and 4. The reciprocal sixth sounds more dissonant than the 4.

The next closest note to the center is the septimal flatted seventh, or harmonic seventh. The ratio of this note is 7/1, and its mirror twin is 1/7. I have not yet consciously used the mirror-seventh, and it’s not on my drawing of the lattice. The note is the septimal major second, at 231 cents, a dissonant interval indeed. The yellow lens shows where I would put it on the lattice.

Oy! That should put to rest the idea that just intonation is all about consonance! The septimal major second is nastier than anything equal temperament has to offer. I like the word “untempered” for this music because it better captures the wild and wooly nature of JI. “Just Intonation” sounds a bit stuffy to me, and the natural intervals of whole number ratios are anything but academic, they are burned in at a very basic level. Equal temperament is brilliant, but it’s actually the headier and less visceral of the two. IMO.

The next pair is a little further out — each note requires two moves on the lattice.

The ratios are 9/1 and 1/9. I still hear the 2 as stable, though it is less consonant than the previous notes. The b7- is suitably dissonant. It cranks up the tension in dominant-seventh-type chords, the workhorse tension-resolution chords of classical music.

I hear the effect of both tension and resolution diminishing somewhat, as tonal gravity gets weaker farther from the tonic.

These last two videos each contain a minor seventh. One is overtonal, the other reciprocal. The septimal flatted seventh, or harmonic seventh, is a stable, resolved note, the signature of barbershop harmony.

Septimal sevenths abound in this music, and they are sweet and consonant and stable.

The b7-, on the other hand, is dissonant and tense. It makes the ear want to change.

In equal temperament, these two notes are played exactly the same. ET weakens and obscures the difference, but it still can come through because of context.

The common “… and many more” tag, sung at the end of Happy Birthday, is a great example. That last note, “more,” is a harmonic seventh, 7/1, the stable, beautiful barbershop note at 969 cents. If you play “and many more” on a piano, the ear will hear the last note as a septimal seventh, only with less impact, because it is very sharp, at 1000 cents.

Next: Why Can We Hear Harmony?