Identity (music) - Tuning

Tuning

In musical tuning, an identity is each of the odd numbers below and including the limit in a tuning. For example, the identities included in 3-limit tuning are 1, 3, and 5. Each odd number represents a new pitch in the harmonic series and may thus be considered an identity:

"The number 9, though not a prime, is nevertheless an identity in music, simply because it is an odd number". Partch defines "identity" as "one of the correlatives, 'major' or 'minor', in a tonality; one of the odd-number ingredients, one or several or all of which act as a pole of tonality".