On the Subject of Cruel Qualities

Remember when you were offered piano lessons as a six year old and you declined? Well now to deal with the consequences.

This module consists of a wheel with twelve notes in it, ordered chromatically. Five or more of those notes are selected with a triangle pointing towards them. These notes make up the given chord. If the triangle is yellow, the note’s pitch is in the range of the chromatic wheel. If the triangle is green, the note is an octave above the standard chord. If a triangle is colored differently than yellow or green, use Triangle Color Lookup Table to adjust the specific note (or (in rare cases) the entire chord).

Every chord consists of two parts: root and a quality. For example, the root of the chord C+Δ(add1) is the note C, and the quality is +Δ(add11). Use the tables on the next pages (or your long experience with jazz harmony) to determine the root and quality of the given chord. If the binary number in the center of the module is a 1, use the bottom table, otherwise use the top table.

Look up the root and quality of the answer chord in the tables below, using the table labeled with the same binary number you’ve received from the module. Similarly with triangles, green offsets in lookup tables indicate tones above the octave.

Select the notes of the answer chord by rotating the wheel and pressing the button labeled ◈. Pressing the button labeled ↑ will toggle your submission mode, to submit any notes above the octave of the wheel. Pressing the ✔ button will submit the module.

Triangle Color Lookup Table

Triangle ColorCondition
Cyan**Replace this note with a note in a distance of a tritone*.
Red**Replace this note with both chromatically adjacent notes.
Purple**If this note is the root of your chord, shift the entire answer chord one semitone up, otherwise shift it one semitone down.
Orange**Shift this note up by the number of (batteries + ports) % 12, looping in the regular octave.
GrayIf the sum of the serial number’s digits is prime, discard it completely. Otherwise, if the last digit of the serial number is even, consider it as a tone in the regular octave, if odd, in the higher octave.

* Tritone is an interval with a distance of +6 (between the perfect fourth and perfect fifth).

** These triangles all refer to notes in the regular octave.

Exchange Table 1:

Root to QualityQuality to Root
A6/9QA
A♯Δ13A♯
B-11EB
CΔsus2(add6)LYC
C♯øb9LOC♯
D+Δ♯9MD
D♯-13♯11PD♯
E+7sus4♯9ALE
Fø11b9FF
F♯o♯13TF♯
GΔ9sus4SG
G♯-Δ9♯11ASG♯

Exchange Table 0:

Root to QualityQuality to Root
AQ6/9A
A♯Δ13A♯
BE-11B
CLYΔsus2(add6)C
C♯LOøb9C♯
DM+Δ♯9D
D♯P-13♯11D♯
EAL+7sus4♯9E
FFø11b9F
F♯To♯13F♯
GSΔ9sus4G
G♯AS-Δ♯11G♯
Chord Lookup Table 0:
Off.6/9Δ13-11Δsus2
(add6)
øb9+Δ♯9-13♯
11
+7su
s4♯9
ø11b
9
o♯13Δ9su
s4
‑Δ9♯
11
+0XXXXXXXXXXXX
+1XX
+2XXXXXXXX
+3XXXXXXXX
+4XXX
+5XXXXXX
+6XXXXX
+7XXXXXXX
+8XXX
+9XXXX
+10XXXXXX
+11XXXXX
Chord Lookup Table 1:
Off.Q* NΔ* E* LY*LO* M* P* AL* F* T* S* AS*
+0XXXXXXXXXXXX
+1XX
+2XXXXX
+3XXXXXXX
+4XXXXXX
+5XXX
+6XXXXXXXX
+7XXX
+8XXXXXXX
+9XXXXXX
+10XXXXXX
+11XXXX

Chord Lookup Table 1 Chord Information

*Q indicates a five note chord built in quartal voicing.

*N indicates the Neapolitan chord (with added Δ to add its 4th voice).

*E indicates the Electra chord (used by Richard Strauss in his Elektra opera).

*LY indicates the full chord of the lydian scale.

*LO indicates the full chord of the locrian scale.

*M indicates the Mystic (Prometheus) chord used by the composer Alexander Scriabin.

*P indicates the Petrushka chord (used by Igor Stravinsky in his ballet Petrushka).

*AL indicates an Alpha chord. An octatonic scale organized into two stacked diminished seventh chords (omitting the +11 note to make the chord asymetric).

*F indicates the Farben chord (used in the piece Colors (Farben) by Arnold Schoenberg).

*T indicates the Tristan chord (used by Richard Wagner in his Tristan and Isolde opera).

*S indicates stacked chords. Two chromatically adjacent major seventh chords stacked upon each other.

*AS indicates Asmir chord :)). A crazily altered chord we adore.