Test of Windsong Pure Chimes: Musical Notation and Audio

Scale: Notes in the Pure Chimes are made up of 2 similar scales. C D-flat E F G A Bb, or C Phrygian Dominant (also known as Spanish Gypsy or Hijaz-Nahawand), and C D-flat E F G A B, or C Double Harmonic Major (also known as Byzantine, Gypsy Major, or Hijaz Kar.) There are 15 chimes that use Bb, implying C Phrygian Dominant, and 7 chimes that use B natural, implying C Double Harmonic Major. All other chimes fit into either scale. There is one exception - Floating Finch - that uses an F#, but it functions as a Chromatic Neighboring Tone and doesn't really have any impact on the scale.

Range: The range of the tones in the chimes is slightly more than 2 octaves. (C to Db 2 octaves + 1 half step higher)

Tempo: All chimes play in the same tempo where Quarter note = 120 Beats Per Minute. While most chimes fit ideally into 4/4 time, some can be used to establish a 3/4 feel instead. But don't let that limit you to just 4/4 or 3/4 time, combine them for 7/4, or use them freely.

Length: No chimes have only one tone, but rather from 2 to about 15. Duration appears to be from 2 Quarter notes to 16 (3 full bars of 4/4.)

The musical notation for each chime over 4 quarter notes in duration was prepared in 4/4 time with the chime's first tone starting on beat 1 for uniformity. The ring-out (sustain) of the chime sound leads to some ambiguity of where the "end" of each note occurs, I have notated these to fill the space between notes, rather than interpret where rests may be. Chimes can and should be used outside of the musical notation's fixed position, shifting the notes forward or back in quarter note intervals (one space on the Chime Tower meter guide), or treating the final note of each chime as longer or shorter in length.

Important note: These chime recordings were made from the Acoustics Lab. When a chime is loaded into a Wingsong Tower *MOST* chimes stop playing before the end of the file -- some cut off one or more notes, others just cut the ring short on the final note. This is a bug that has existed for many tales, but something that I hope can be fixed for Tale 10. I've submitted a detailed bug report on this, and as dev time permits it is being looked into, but I don't anticipate a fix for Tale 9. For recordings of chimes as they sound in the Windsong Tower with the current bug, see https://www.atitd.org/wiki/tale6/User:Avanya/Chime_guide