Tunings, part 2

 

In the post Tunings, part 1, I discussed the recent discovery of how moving a specific tuning into a different register greatly changes the atmosphere, textures, colors, and emotional impact of that tuning.  I've been thinking about this rather extensively.  Why does this happen?  For example, if I take baritone A tuning number 21, and move it into baritone G register, it no longer sounds like tuning number 21, even though it is the exact same tuning in terms of how that tuning is constructed through and using intervallic relationships and how they're structured.

My original expectation was that moving tuning no. 21 from baritone A into the baritone G register would in fact be (function as, sound the same as) the same tuning as when it was in baritone A register.  Of course I now know that this is not necessarily true.

In the post Tunings, part 1, I posited that one of the possible reasons for this difference is based on the overtone series.  I still suspect that could be true.

But now I think there could be another equally valid, if not more valid, reason.  I wonder if it is true that a tuning devised in a specific register only has its full impact and identity when it is in the register in which it was originally devised.  In other words, tuning number 21 in baritone A has a very strong emotional impact, an unusual texture, and evokes a new atmosphere for me.  Moving tuning number 21 into baritone G register no longer has those qualities.  This isn't to say that tuning 21 only works in baritone A register.  But it is to say that tuning 21 becomes something else when moving it into a different register.  This isn't qualitative; it's not a better or worse proposition.  It's just.... different.  

To put it another way: if tuning number 21 in baritone A register is orange, moving tuning number 21 into baritone G register turns it green.

I did not expect that moving a tuning into a different register could so drastically and dramatically change the feel and meaning of the tuning.  Yet it clearly does.

Which leads me back to thinking that for a tuning to have its original impact, original meaning, and original identity, that the tuning must be in the register in which it was originally devised.  

So does this mean that the register has as much impact as the tuning itself?  That the register is a kind of defacto tuning environment that works in a syzygystic relationship with the tuning?

I don't know.  But I think I'm one step closer to finding out.

-kk