Compositional theory
A xen music theory or a compositional theory is a framework that governs the way tuning-related elements (intervals, chords, and scales) are used in music, analogous to Western 12edo functional harmony (commonly called "music theory").
Importance
The concept of a compositional theory is distinct from tuning theory in that tuning theory tells you things like
- cent values in a tuning
- what chords, structures, and JI/DR chords (approximations or not, and approximation quality) various tuning systems have
- LCJI is a psychoacoustic effect
- DR is a psychoacoustic effect
These things don't tell you how to write music any more than an understanding of human color vision or the ways colors mix tells you how to make visual art. In contrast, a compositional theory, or compositional theories, tell you how to write music, and there are many valid compositional theories even for the same tuning system. Absent such a theoretical framework, one might unintentionally copy Western frameworks when writing xen music, though using elements of Western 12edo theory in xen music is by no means inherently bad, as long as they're used intentionally.
Examples
Examples of compositional theories:
- Jaimbee's oneirotonic functional harmony (see the oneirotonic article) and other function-based theories
- Vector's porcupine and pajara functional harmony systems created for 22edo
- Xenmodalism, which can be summed as "depict the emotion/scenery/setting/event using the chords or modes you/the listeners associate with the feelings"
- Primodality and scale-based voiceleading
