Harmonic exploration and functional rules for 53-TET chords

Investigate new dissonant and consonant chord relations and establish functional harmonic rules for chords in 53-tone equal temperament (53-TET).

Background

The Harmonic Eigenspace represents tetrad chord qualities as points in a psychoacoustically grounded coordinate space derived from spectral dissonance. Although the application enables users to navigate and audition chord qualities across 12-TET, 31-TET, and 53-TET, the authors state that the broader harmonic exploration of newly available consonant and dissonant relations remains unresolved. They also identify the absence of established functional rules for 53-TET chords as an open area. This concerns the perceptual and musical roles that microtonal chord qualities may assume in harmonic practice, including how chords near stable just-intonation regions might function differently from their 12-TET counterparts and how cultural practices may assign different meanings to dominant-like or neutral sonorities.