Towards a new model for microtonal music:

The regular temperaments of 22TET

Gareth Hearne

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the

degree of Bachelor of Music (Honours)

UWA School of Music, November 3rd, 2014

Table of Contents

List of Examples i

List of Tables ii

Glossary iii

Acknowledgements iv

Abstract vii

Chapter 1: Introduction and literature review

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Literature review 2

1.3 Conclusion 12

Chapter 2: 12TET and how we use it

2.1 Introduction: Tonality 13

2.2 The diatonic scale and MOS scale theory 14

2.3 Regular temperament 20

2.4 12TET in the 7-limit 25

2.5 Chord progressions: Comma pumps and neo-Riemannian transformations 27

2.6 Conclusion 33

Chapter 3: Outside 12TET

3.1 Introduction 35

3.2 Harry Partch and just intonation 35

3.3 X_System and temperament 38

3.4 Hába 40
 3.5 Blackwood 43

3.6 Ives 46

3.7 Wyschnegradsky 48

3.8 Balzano 51

3.9 Conclusion 54

Chapter 4: My model

4.1 Equal temperaments: Why 22TET is ideal 55

4.2 Superpyth 57

4.3 Pajara 60

4.4 Porcupine 68

Conclusion 75

References Cited 77
 i

List of Examples

Example 2.1 Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello, Op 10, First Movement, mm. 270-76 33

Example 2.2 Schubert, Overture to Die Zauberhalfe, opening Andante 33

Example 2.3 The Girl from Ipanema, bars 5-6 34

Example 3.1 Skinner’s Example 3.23 42

Example 3.2 Skinner’s Example of the interval cycle derived from the bass line in bars 2-3 of

Movt. 5, Allegro risoluto 43

Example 3.3 Skinner’s Example 5.15 51

 ii

List of Tables

Table 2.1 August[6], Dominant[7] and Diminished[8] with respect to 12TET in the 7-limit 27

Table 3.1 Balzano’s ratios for 20edo 53

Table 3.2 Improved ratios for 20edo 55

Table 4.1 5-limit, 7-limit and 11-limit Badness of ETs 58

Table 4.2 Error of 11-limit intervals of 22TET 61

Table 4.3 Suprapyth[22] in 22TET 62

Table 4.4 Pajara[22] in 22TET 64

Table 4.5 Porcupine[22] in 22TET 71

 iii

Glossary

_edo: Equal division of the octave into _ steps. When radical numbers are used to express the ratios
of some or all of its intervals _edo becomes _TET.

_TET: Temperament in which the octave is divided into _ equal steps. See ‘temperament’.

Albitonic: Diatonic-like. An MOS or MODMOS scale of similar size to the diatonic scale may be

treated as albitonic.

c: Cents. One cent is one hundredth of a semitone of 12TET, so 1200 cents make an octave.

Chroma: Generalised chromatic ‘semitone’, the difference between the small and large steps of a

scale.

Comma: Small interval in just intonation that occurs between two intervals of similar pitch.

Comma pump: A progression that leads a comma away from where it began.

DE: Distributionally Even. A Scale is said to be DE if it has maximum variety 2; that is, each class of

interval (“seconds”, “thirds”, and so on) contains no more than two specific intervals.

Edo: Equal division of the octave. When radical numbers to express the ratios of some or all of its

intervals an edo becomes an ET.

ET: Equal Temperament. Temperament in which in which every pair of adjacent notes has an

identical frequency ratio – the octave divided into a series of equal steps. See ‘temperament’

Haplotonic: Pentatonic-like. A scale of similar size to the pentatonic scale may be treated as

haplotonic.

Interval-Class: Class of interval with respect to a scale, i.e. “second”, “third”, etc .
 iv

JI: Just Intonation. Any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of small

whole numbers.

Limit: Refers to prime-limit. See ‘prime-limit’.

MODMOS: Modified Moment of Symmetry. A scale constructed by the modification of a step of an

MOS scale by a chroma.

MOS: Moment of Symmetry. Refers to scales that constructed by stacking an interval – the

‘generator’ – and reducing to with the period of repetition wherein there are two step sizes. MOS

scales are DE.

Odd-limit: An interval belongs to p prime-limit, if and only if it the odd numbers in the ratio that

described it are of size less than or equal to p.

Parsimonious: A triad which exhibits optimally smooth voice-leading in Neo-Riemannian

transformations is said to be parsimonious.

Prime-limit: An interval belongs to p prime-limit, (also denoted p-limit) if and only if it can be

factored into primes (with positive or negative integer exponents) of size less than or equal to p.

Regular Temperament: A Temperament in which each frequency ratio is obtainable as a product of

powers of a finite number of generators, or generating frequency ratios.

Temperament: A system of tuning which slightly compromises the pure intervals of just intonation in
order to meet other requirements of the system. Radical numbers express the ratios of some or all
of its intervals.

Triad-Class: Triad of the same interval-classes, i.e. major and minor triads are of the same triad-class

in the diatonic scale.

 v

Acknowledgements

Thanks go out to my supervisor Dr. Chris Tonkin for keeping me on track, Paul Erlich and others in

the Xenharmonic Alliance – Mathematical Theory Facebook group for answering any questions I had

and for inspiring my research, and to my friends and family for letting me discuss my research with

them when they may not understand it or see the point in it.
 vi

Abstract

This paper attempts to develop a new model for microtonal music. After an exploration of the

historic and modern use of 12TET the features that give rise to successful models for pitch structure

are deduced. Existing models for microtonal music, including those of Partch, Balzano, Blackwood

and Sethares, Plamondon and Milne are critically analysed for their strength, practicality and

thoroughness, along with the quarter-tone music of Hába, Ives and Wyschnegradsky. No model is

found to be of the same strength, practicality and thoroughness of the historic and current use of

12TET. After deducting that 22TET is the most appropriate platform for such a model, a model for

microtonal music is detailed. The resulting model is seen to be just as strong as use of 12TET, and

more varied, with several scales of different consonances available.

 1

Chapter 1: Introduction and literature review

1.1 Introduction

‘Strictly speaking... 'microtonal' refers to small intervals. Some theorists hold this to designate only

intervals smaller than a semitone... while many others use it to refer to any intervals that deviate

from the familiar 12-edo scale...’1 Microtonal music is much older than non-microtonal music –

music in 12TET2 (or 12-edo),3 and enjoys much more widespread use, where all cultures, including

western culture, venture outside of 12TET. In India and in the East, more complex intervallic systems

are in theoretical and practical use.4 In Indonesia and Africa intonation varies greatly across different

places and different ensembles.5 The intonation of the ancient Greeks varied over time and place

and was extensively written about.6 In the west only keyboard and fretted instruments adhere

strictly to 12TET where otherwise, with homophonic music, from the 12TET basis intervals are tuned

to just intonation (JI).7

12TET can be seen to represent JI through a process of tempering. In the Renaissance it was

discovered that the interval resulting from four stacked fifths was tuned flat by choirs, so that it

1
Joe Monzo, ’Microtone/Microtonal’, Tonalsoft Encyclopaedia of Microtonal Music-Theory (n.d.). Available
from: http://tonalsoft.com/enc/m/microtone.aspx. Accessed on June 5, 2014.
2
Twelve tone equal temperament. A temperament infers mappings of frequency ratios where an ‘edo’ does
not.
3
Twelve equal divisions of the octave.
4
Mykhaylo Khramov, ‘On Amount of Notes in Octave’, Journal of the ITC-SRA, 25 (December 2011): 31–37.
Hormoz Farhat, ‘The Dastgah Concept in Persian Music’ (Ph.D Thesis, University of California, Los Angeles,
1965), pp. 7-18.
5
Colin McPhee, Music in Bali (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966), pp. 36-55. Available from: JSTOR.
Accessed on 12 June 2014.
Andrew Tracey, ‘The Scales of Some African Musical Instruments (As Measured in the Field at the Time of
Recording)’, pp. 94-111. Available from: http://www.anaphoria.com/SndofAfra.PDF. Accessed on June 5, 2014.
6
Ptolemy’s ‘Harmonics’ details tetrachords attributed to Pythagoras, Archytas, Eratosthenes Didymos and
himself. This topic is discussed in detail in
John H. Chalmers, ‘Divisions of the Tetrachord: A Prolegomenon to the Construction of Musical Scales’ (Frog
Peak Music, 1993), pp. 10-13.
7
‘Just-intonation is a system of tuning based on notes whose frequencies have small-integer rational
relationships (examples: 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 3:2, 4:3, 5:4, 6:5, etc.), or relationships which are so close in size to
small-integer ratios that they are audibly indistinguishable from it. Abbreviated as "JI"’.
– Joe Monzo, ‘Just Intonation’, Tonalsoft Encyclopaedia of Microtonal Music-Theory (n.d.). Available from:
http://tonalsoft.com/enc/j/just.aspx. Accessed on June 5, 2014.
 2

became equal to the fifth partial of the harmonic series, a greater consonance than the

‘Pythagorean’8 major third. This led to the discovery and extensive use of Meantone temperament,

discussed by many theorists,9 where each fifth is flattened (tempered) so this can be achieved. Due

to an increased desire for more expansive modulation, fifths were eventually tempered back

towards pure representation, so that twelve fifths were equated with seven octaves. A closed one

dimensional system – 12TET – results, where endless modulation is possible. Major thirds then,

whilst still seen to represent the 5th partial, are nearly as sharp of it as they were when it was

considered a dissonance.10 As 12TET became a popular tuning in western music, many theorists and

musicians, displeased by its sharp thirds, proposed alternatives.11 Their proposals, discussed below,

did not influence standard tuning practices. My research considers these proposed alternatives and

the models for their use, rating their practicality, thoroughness and strength, leading to a discussion

of 22TET. It will be shown that in 22TET a stronger, more thorough and more practical model is

possible.

1.2 Literature Review

Historical Literature

In Ancient Greece and in the Western Renaissance much was written on the topic of musical tuning.

The Greeks discussed divisions of the tetrachord and western theorists discussed divisions of the

8
‘An adjective describing the construction of a scale or musical system by successions of 3/2's (just "perfect
nd
fifths").’ – Harry Partch, Genesis of a Music: An Account of a Creative Work, its Roots and its Fulfilments, 2
edn (New York: Da Capo Press, 1974), p 75.
9
Namely: Salinas, Zarlino, Vicentino, Huygens and others. The connection between Meantone systems and
multiple divisions was also discussed by these theorists. ie. Salinas discussed the connection between 1/3-
comma meantone and 19TET, Zarlino advocated the use of 2/7-comma Meantone with 19 tones (where other
theorists have likened it to 50TET) and Vicentino and Huygens advocated 1/4 –comma Meantone, noting its
similarity to 31TET. 1/5-comma Meantone was discussed by Saveur. 2/7-comma and 1/4-comma Meantone
were used for the tuning of organs in the Renaissance whereas in the Baroque 1/5-comma was more common.
– J. Murray Barbour, Tuning and Temperament: A Historical Survey (East Lansing: Michigan State College Press,
1951), pp. 25-44, 107-127.
10
Joe Monzo, ‘12-Tone Equal-Temperament’, Tonalsoft Encyclopaedia of Microtonal Music-Theory (n.d.).
Available from: http://tonalsoft.com/enc/number/12edo.aspx. Accessed on June 5, 2014.
11
Including 31TET, as mentioned above.
 3

octave, just intonations and Meantone temperaments in the departure from the Pythagorean tuning

of the Middle Ages.12 After the Renaissance, tuning became less of a focus among scholars.

A summary of historical literature can be found in Professor Barbour’s 1951 book ‘Tuning and

Temperament: A Historical Survey’.13 The book plots the history of the development of tunings and

temperaments in Western Art Music, including just intonations, Meantone temperaments, well

temperaments and multiple divisions and well as a discussion of the development of 12-tone equal

temperament. Although clearly biased towards 12-TET, against which he compares all tunings and

temperaments, his chapter on multiple divisions (of the octave) is very thorough and includes a

description of 22TET along with many other equal temperaments.

John Chalmers’ 1993 book ‘Divisions of the tetrachord: a prolegomenon to the construction of

musical scales’ provides the most complete discussion of tetrachords available. Discussed in detail

are the tetrachordal systems of Ancient Greece and mathematical processes that produce modern

tetrachords and related musical structures, including those by Fokker, Wilson, Partch and

Schlesinger. Chalmers aims not to ‘reconstruct the lost musical culture of ancient Greece’, but to

‘assist the discovery of new musical resources’.14 All of the tetrachords discussed throughout are

presented in a catalogue at its close, along with a description of their discovery and/or use. Many

tetrachords described can be well-approximated in 22TET, and can be related to the scales of regular

temperaments, where the use of these temperaments in 22TET forms the basis of my model.

31TET and the Generalisable Keyboard

Modern literature in the topic of tuning systems can be seen to begin with Bosanquet in 1868. In his

treatise15 Bosanquet defines ‘regular systems’ and ‘regular cyclic systems’, classifying them as either

12
Barbour
13
Ibid.
14
Chalmers., xiii.
15
R.H.M. Bosanquet, An Elementary Treatise on Musical Intervals and Temperament (London: Macmillan and
Co., 1876).
 4

positive or negative, depending on the size of their perfect fifths.16 He advocates the use of a

temperament later named ‘schismatic’, and of the harmonic seventh, detailing a method for their

use on a keyboard of his design and in composition. His treatise closes with such a composition,

exploiting the outlined theory, along with an analysis and description.

Shortly after his completion of his Treatise Bosanquet briefly discusses the Hindoo system of 22

s’ruti’s, 22TET, and their relation.17 He builds on the theory from his treatise, extending positive

systems to higher orders. From taking the (unequal) s’rutis to be of equal size, a regular cyclical

positive system of second order with excellent major thirds results. Bosanquet is of the opinion,

however, that 22TET’s fifth is too sharp (7.14c) for western ears. He mentions not 22TET’s

approximation of the 7th partial (which at 11.18c sharp we can assume he would deem too sharp), or

the better approximated 11th partial. Generalising this result and looking elsewhere he discovers

that 34TET contains excellent approximations of the fifth and major third.

Bosanquet’s generalisable keyboard design was largely forgotten for a number of years. The next

generalisable keyboard was to appear in 1950, the design of music theorist Adriaan Fokker. Upon

discovery of the writing of Huygens on 31TET, its connection to ¼-comma Meantone and its

excellent realisations of the 5th and 7th harmonics18 and of Euler on 7-limit JI, Fokker makes a case for

the use of 31TET as a useful approximation to 7-limit JI and Euler’s genus as well as ¼-comma

Meantone. Many composers followed Fokker’s work, and a number of works for 31TET were written

16
Positive systems include Pythagorean intonation, 17TET, 29TET, 41TET and 53TET. Negative systems include
Meantone temperament, 19TET, 31TET and 43TET.
17
R.H.M. Bosanquet, ‘On the Hindoo Division of the Octave, with Some Additions to the Theory of the Higher
Orders’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 26/179-184 (1876): 372-384. Available from: Internet
Archive. Accessed on 21 November, 2013.
18
Huygens, along with Tartini, claimed that the ratios of the 7th harmonic were consonances, in no need of
preparation or resolution, but most contemporaries disagreed. Tartini discussed more of possible harmonic
and melodic use of the natural seventh then did Huygens – Adriaan Fokker, ‘On the Expansion of the
Musician's Realm of Harmony’, Huygens-Fokker Foundation (1967). Available from: http://www.huygens-
fokker.org/docs/realm.html. Accessed on 5 June, 2014.
 5

for use on his organ.19 From Fokker’s model for composition in 31TET, Siemen Terpstra developed

his own a number of years later.

Terpstra, after consideration of the work of Huygens and Fokker, became a later advocate of 31TET.

After first publishing ‘An Arithmetical Rubric attending the distribution of `best' multiple-divisions’,20

in 1993, showing 31TET to be one of these ‘best’ multiple divisions, Terpstra looked ‘Toward a

theory of Meantone (and 31-ET) harmony’.21 His theory was more involved than any previous theory

for microtonal divisions, but remained ignorant of other temperaments expressible in 31TET. With

consideration of subsequent articles in ‘An integrated colour-code for microtonal guitar fret-boards’

(1998),22 ‘The set of neutral diatonic modes’23 (2010), ‘On dominant substitutions’24 (2010), and ‘On

chord progressions’25 (2011), Terpstra’s theory can be seen as a complete model for the use of

31TET. The focus is still mainly on Meantone temperament, but with ‘The set of neutral diatonic

modes’ one other temperament – namely ‘Mohajira’ temperament26 – is considered.

19
Anton de Beer, ‘The Development of 31-Tone Music’, Sonorum Speculum, (Spring 1969): 3-16. Available
from: http://www.huygens-fokker.org/docs/beerart.html. Accessed on June 5, 2014.
20
Terpstra, Siemen, ‘An Arithmetical Rubric Attending the Distribution of `Best' Multiple-Divisions’, Huygens-
Fokker Foundation, (1993). Available from: http://www.huygens-fokker.org/docs/terpstra.html. Accessed on
June 5 2014.
21
Siemen Terpstra, ‘Toward a Theory of Meantone (and 31-ET) Harmony’, Huygens-Fokker Foundation (n.d.).
Available from: http://www.huygens-fokker.org/docs/terp31.html. Accessed on 5 June, 2014.
22
Siemen Terpstra ‚ ‘An Integrated Colour-Code for Microtonal Guitar Fretboards’, Huygens-Fokker Foundation
(1998). Available from: http://www.huygens-fokker.org/docs/terpgit.html. Accessed on 5 June, 2014.
23
Siemen Terpstra, ‘The set of neutral diatonic modes’, Huygens-Fokker Foundation (2010). Available from
http://www.huygens-fokker.org/docs/terpstra_modes.html. Accessed on 5 June, 2014.
24
Siemen Terpstra, ‘On Dominant Substitutions’, Huygens-Fokker Foundation (2010). Available from:
http://www.huygens-fokker.org/docs/terpstra_domsubs.html. Accessed on 5 June, 2014.
25
Siemen Terpstra, ‘On Chord Progressions’, Huygens-Fokker Foundation (2011). Available from:
http://www.huygens-fokker.org/docs/terpstra_chord_progressions.html. Accessed on 5 June, 2014.
26
Mohajira temperament, under Regular Temperament Theory, is generated by half of a fifth, taken to be 11/9
where therefore 243/242 is tempered out. Essentially it is the 11-limit extension of Meantone by halving of the
generator, amounting to ‘Meantone with quartertones’
– Gene Ward Smith, ‘Meantone Family’, The Xenharmonic Wiki (2010). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Meantone+family. Accessed on 5 June, 2014.
Mohajira was conceived as a regular temperament capable of approximating eastern scales, and can also be
tuned to 24TET (quartertones). The common ‘rast’ mode of the east is a 1-MODMOS of the 7-note Mohajira
MOS (Mohajira[7]).
 6

19-Tone Equal Temperament

Joseph Yasser, in his book, ‘The Theory of Evolving Tonality’27 advocates an ‘evolution’ first to 19TET,

then to 31TET and later to 50TET. Yasser postulates that the historical use of the pentatonic scale led

to its housing in the diatonic scale, and finally to the housing of the diatonic scale in the chromatic

that we observe in 12TET. He speculates that the pentatonic scale evolved initially from an

‘infradiatonic’ scale of three tones28 by the addition of two tones, and that music would evolve not

too long after his writing of the book, to the use of the ‘supradiatonic’ scale29 within the ‘hyper-

chromatic’ 19TET. Yasser’s theory is therefore rather speculative at best, though certainly interesting

and profound. His consideration of consonance and dissonance in his ‘supradiatonic’ system is not

what one would expect, not considering JI, where most theorists today believe consonance to be

dependent on JI.30 Yasser’s model, along with advocations of 19TET by Ariel and Kornerup, are

critically evaluated by theorist Joel Mandelbaum.

In his 1961 PhD dissertation, Mandelbaum explores 19-tone equal temperament within the context

of multiple divisions of the octave.31 An extended literature review on multiple divisions begins this

dissertation. This is followed by a critical analysis of the theory of the more recent advocates of

19TET, Yasser, Ariel and Kornerup, assisted by the study of a personal letters. Concluding his

dissertation, a short chapter presents his own theory for 19-tone equal temperament (along with a

composition and analysis), which can be seen to improve on that of Yasser, Ariel and Kornerup, but

still does not treat 19TET harmonically in non-diatonic scales.

27
Joseph Yasser, A Theory of Evolving Tonality (New York: Da Capo Press, 1975).
28
The three tones are the tonic, along with the perfect fourth, and the perfect fifth. This scale is described by
Regular Temperament Theory as Meantone[3], but equally well by Pythagorean[3], resulting from stacking two
pure fifths.
29
This scale is described by Regular Temperament Theory as ‘Meantone[12]’
30
Joel Mandelbaum, ‘Multiple Division of the Octave and the Tonal Resources of the 19-tone Equal
Temperament’ (PhD Thesis, University of Indiana, 1961), pp. 299-304.
31
Ibid.
 7

Miscellaneous Modern Models for Microtonal Music

Modernist composers Hába, Wyschnegradsky, Ives and Carrillo (of ‘The Thirteenth Sound’), among

others, experimented with the division of the semitone, resulting in divisions of the octave into 24,

36, 48, 72 and 96 tones. Busoni uses an evolutional approach in proposing 36edo, but is not known

to have produced any sixth-tone compositions. Whereas Navarro praises 72edo for its close

approximation to intervals of 11-limit JI, Hába celebrates instead its inclusion of 12, 18, 24 and 36

equal divisions of the octave. In his quarter tone compositions Hába uses as his fundamental chord

the ‘neutral seventh’, and Wyschnegradsky makes use of a scale generated by 24edo’s very accurate

approximation of 11/8. Approaches by these composers are mostly atonal, but often combine and

contrast aspects of tonal music with microtonal intervals, chords and scales.32 The quarter-tone

music of Hába, Wyschnegradsky and Ives is discussed in depth in the PhD dissertation of Miles

Skinner,33 and compositional methods of Hába and Wyschnegradsky are discussed in an article by

Julia Werntz.34

In his book, Genesis of a Music, Partch gives an overview of music philosophy and tuning, an auto-

biography, a critical analysis of existing musical models and the presentation of one of his own,

detailing many weird and wonderful instruments he has constructed to play his music. His theory of

JI has largely influenced the way musicians describe and conceive of it today. Partch’s system,

though resulting in many perfectly tuned intervals and chords, carries the restriction that

modulation, and even transposition, is impossible.35 His 11-limit tonality diamond can however be

well approximated in 22TET (as well as in 31edo, 58edo, 72edo and 87edo), a much more simple

32
Ibid., pp. 135-168.
33
Miles Skinner, ‘Toward a Quarter-Tone Syntax: Selected Analyses of Works by Blackwood, Hába, Ives, and
Wyschnegradsky’ (PhD Dissertation, University at Buffalo, 2006). Available from:
http://www.tierceron.com/diss/. Accessed on 10 September, 2014.
34
Julia Werntz, ‘Adding Pitches: Some New Thoughts, Ten Years after Perspectives of New Music's "Forum:
Microtonality Today"’, Perspectives of New Music, 39/2 (2001): 159-210. Available from: JSTOR. Accessed on
10 March, 2014.
35
Partch.
 8

system than his 43-tone scale, allowing unrestricted modulation and transposition. Though Partch’s

work was influential, his system was taken up wholly only by a few composers.

Balzano, in ‘The Group-Theoretic Description of 12-fold and Microtonal Pitch Systems’,36 argues ‘for

another way of assessing the resources of a pitch system, one that is independent of ratio concerns

and that considers the individual intervals as transformations forming a mathematical group.’37 This

assessment leads him to divisions of the octave into 20, 30 and 42 tones, at odds with the divisions

historically arrived at from acoustic considerations. He goes on to define diatonic scale analogues in

those divisions. A nine note scale generated by the ‘pseudo-fourth’ of 20edo – 9 steps of 20edo – is

developed, displaying similar properties to the diatonic scale of 12edo, along with a system of

accompanying chords and modes. The 9 note scale is also the ‘Generalized Diatonic’ scale of

Rothenberg,38 and in ‘Generalized Diatonic and Pentatonic Scales: A Group-Theoretic Approach’,39

Zweifel argues that it is better seen as a ‘pentatonic’ analogue, the 11 note scale of the same

generator a better diatonic scale. Balzano lists ratios well approximated in 20edo, but the absence

of 3/2 and 5/4 from this list diminish the value of 20edo for musical composition from an acoustical

perspective, 19edo and 22edo proving much stronger in this regard.

In his paper ‘The Structure of Recognisable Diatonic Tunings’, Blackwood develops a mathematical

definition of recognisable diatonic tunings generated by octaves and fifths;40 his theory is similar to

that of Bosanquet, where rather than of positive and negative order Blackwood speaks of values of

‘R’, the ratio of the large step to the small step of the diatonic scale. ‘Recognisable diatonic tunings’

are defined as those in which the fifth is between 4/7 and 3/5 octave, corresponding to R values

36
Gerald J. Balzano, ‘The Group-Theoretic Description of 12-fold and microtonal pitch systems’, Computer
Music Journal 4/4 (1980): 66-84. Available from: JSTOR. Accessed on 3 October, 2014.
37
Ibid., p. 66.
38
‘Hans Straub, ‘20edo’, The Xenharmonic Wiki (2008). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/20edo. Accessed on 18 October, 2014.
39
Paul F. Zweifel, ‘Generalized Diatonic and Pentatonic Scales: A Group-Theoretic Approach’, Perspectives of
new music 34/1 (1996): 140-161. Available from: JSTOR. Accessed on 3 October, 2014.
40
Easley Blackwood, The Structure of Recognizable Diatonic Tunings (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1985).
 9

between 1 and infinity, and the appropriateness of these tunings for the performance of western

music is discussed. As Blackwood rates these tunings on their appropriateness in realising music of

the common practice period, he requires that the ‘structural major third’41 be the best major third,

and as such only deems Meantone systems ‘acceptable’. Blackwood also argues that (5-limit) just

intonation and equal temperaments such as 22ET and 53ET that well approximate it are

inappropriate for the performance of much existing music, and that the 7th and 17th partials, but not

the 11th or 13th may be useful in extended JI. Whilst writing this paper, he composed a series of

etudes, one in each equal temperament from 13 to 24.42

In his 1991 paper, ‘Modes and chord progressions in equal tunings’, Blackwood describes his

methods in composing in 15, 16, 17 and 19 tone equal temperaments.43 Blackwood intends that

readers may from his example learn a useful way to approach composition in these systems, but

they may also be influenced by personal opinions presented along the way. The non-diatonic

systems Blackwood discovers in 15TET44 and his method for their combined use becomes a focus of

the paper. In 16TET, Diminished temperament is described, available in 12TET as the octatonic or

diminished scale and in 17TET and 19TET only diatonic uses are described.

In his 1998 paper,45 tuning theorist Paul Erlich argues that after a progression from 3-limit music of

the Middle ages to the 5-limit music of the common practice period, an expansion to the 7-limit

would be an appropriate next step, though one unattainable within the diatonic system. Erlich

follows with a deduction of the properties of the diatonic system, aiming to find a scale with these

41
Rudolf A. Rasch, ‘Relations between Multiple Divisions of the Octave and the Traditional Tonal System’,
Journal of New Music Research 14/1-2 (1985): 77. Available from: Taylor & Francis Online. Accessed on 9
March, 2014.
42
Mark Lindley and Ronald Turner Smith, [Review of the book The Structure of Recognizable Diatonic Tunings,
by Blackwood, Easley], Music and Letters, 70/2 (1989): 238-240. Available from: Oxford Journals. Accessed on
5 June, 2014.
43
Easley Blackwood, ‘Modes and Chord Progressions in Equal Tunings’, Perspectives of New Music, 29/2
(1991): 166-200. Available from: JSTOR. Accessed on 9 March, 2014.
44
Described by Regular Temperament Theory as Augmented temperament, available as the hexatonic scale in
12TET, Hanson temperament, available also in 19TET and 53TET, and a temperament not previously
discovered that now carries his name.
45
Paul Erlich, ‘Tuning, Tonality and 22-Tone Temperament’, Xenharmonicon, 17 (1998): 12-40. Available from:
Available from: http://www.anaphoria.com/secor17puzzle.PDF. Accessed on 21 November, 2013.
 10

properties, but with 7-limit harmony at its core. After a scale is indeed found (within 22 tone equal

temperament) Erlich presents a system for the 10-note scale’s use and discusses its connection to

Indian classical music. This scale is among many systems available in 22TET, the others lying outside

the scope of Erlich’s paper.

Regular Temperament Theory

Erlich’s 2006 ‘Middle Path’ paper46 is a description of Regular Temperament Theory as developed by

Breed, Smith and himself, filling the gap between equal temperaments and just intonation. Regular

temperament theory is the generalisation of the properties of Meantone temperament, leading to

new systems defined in the paper. Erv Wilson’s Moment of Symmetry scale theory is adopted by

Regular Temperament Theory to describe useful scales resulting from regular temperaments, a

generalisation of the pentatonic, and diatonic scales we are familiar with. Though many systems are

described, methods for the use of these systems though lie outside the scope of the paper. Though

this theory had not been published before this paper, many theorists had followed and contributed

to its development on the online tuning lists and after the theory was deemed to be somewhat

complete in 2006 many articles detailing its use were published. One such article is by theorist

George Secor.

17edo has not yet been mentioned in this review, due to the fact that, up until Secor in the early

2000’s, it had largely been ignored by western tuning theorists. Secor’s 2006 Xenharmonicon article

‘The 17-tone Puzzle — And the Neo-medieval Key That Unlocks It’47 describes melodic and harmonic

possibilities in 17 tone equal temperament of his discovery. After opening with a speculative

alternative history leading to Neo-medieval music in 17TET, Secor describes Neo-medieval cadences

discovered in his collaboration with specialist Margo Schulter. The focus of the paper becomes his

46
Paul Erlich, ‘A Middle Path between Just Intonation and the Equal Temperaments Part 1’, Xenharmonicon,
18 (2006): 159-199. Available from: http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/paperspdf/Erlich-MiddlePath.pdf. Accessed
on 21 November, 2013.
47
George Secor, ‘The 17-tone Puzzle — And the Neo-medieval Key That Unlocks It’, Xenharmonicon, 18 (2006):
55-80. Available from: http://www.anaphoria.com/secor17puzzle.PDF Accessed on 21 November, 2013.
 11

development of a 17-note well temperament but the paper also references Wilson’s MOS scale

theory as well as Regular Temperament Theory, presenting two resulting scales available in 17edo.

In the same year again, Milne, Sethares and Plamondon proposed a model based on Regular

Temperament Theory and Sethares’ research on spectrum and timbre.48 Their model is complete,

detailing theory, composition, instruments and performance; however the only instrument capable

of their system is the ‘thummer’; an electronic generalised isomorphic keyboard of Plamondon’s

design. Their system can be seen of as a generalisation and extension of that of Bosanquet, from

whom the generalised keyboard originated.

Since the 1980s, most consideration of music tuning has occurred in on-line forums. The tuning lists,

where Regular Temperament Theory was developed have since lost much of their traffic to

equivalent facebook groups The Xenharmonic Alliance II,49 and The Xenharmonic Alliance –

Mathematical Theory. It is on this second group that extensions to Regular Mapping Theory and

related theory are today being discussed and developed. Discoveries from these forums are

published on The Xenharmonic Wiki and on Joe Monzo’s Tonalsoft Encyclopaedia of Microtonal

Music-Theory.

48
Andrew Milne, William A. Sethares and James Plamondon, ‘X_System’, (Thumbtronics Inc., 2006). Available
from: http://www.thummer.com/ThumTone/X_System.pdf. Accessed 24 May, 2014.
49
‘The Xenharmonic Alliance’ facebook group was abandoned due to technical issues and the members moved
over to its replacement group, ‘The Xenharmonic Alliance II’.
‘Xenharmonic’ is a term coined for by microtonal theorist Ivor Darreg, meaning ‘strange harmony’, and also
‘inviting’. The term was adopted by followers of Darreg’s research, along with the research of other theorists
mentioned in this review, as a name for their movement.
 12

1.3 Conclusion

Use of 12TET is not limited to Meantone temperament, also utilising scales, progressions and

relationships from other regular temperaments, particularly in music of the Romantic period and in

jazz. No existing model for microtonal music focuses on generalising this property of 12TET into

other equal temperaments. Within one ET can exist many different musical systems, working off

each other to allow the full exploitation of the resources available, in a coherent, logical system.

Chapter 2 explores the historic and current use of 12TET, aiming to deduce what makes this system

successful. Chapter 3 then critically analyse models of microtonal music by Partch, Balzano,

Blackwood and Sethares, Milne and Plamondon, and the quarter-tone music of Hába, Ives and

Wyschnegradsky, with respect to what is found in Chapter 2. Chapter 4 develops a model for

microtonal music based on what if found in Chapters 2 and 3. It is shown that 22TET is the most

appropriate ET for use with such a model. Ultimately my research explores the exploitation of the

many regular temperaments of 22TET, with ultimate aim to develop a stronger, more practical and

thorough model for microtonal music in theory, composition, cognition and performance.
 13

Chapter 2: 12TET and how we use it

This chapter describes the use of the diatonic scale in Western music along with other systems

available in 12TET including the octatonic and hexatonic scales.

2.1 Introduction: Tonality

Arguably for music to be understood upon listening, musical language needs structure the same way

spoken language does. There are many ways to provide structure in music. This paper focuses only

on the use of pitch as a means of providing structure, ignoring rhythmic and other techniques. In

order to develop a successful means for the structural organisation of pitch, the most successful

model for pitch organisation in Western Music to date – tonality – is first considered, before its

properties are generalised.

Dmitri Tymoczko suggests that tonality, or tonal cohesion, can be achieved through conjunct

melodic motion, acoustic consonance, harmonic consistency, limited macroharmony add centricity.50

A system utilising all of these features is likely to feature a scale of a limited number of notes,

functioning as a ‘macro harmony’51 that subsumes like, consonant chords, one of its pitches

functioning as the ‘tonic’. Tymoczko suggests that we know from listening experience that ‘scale

based melodies are easier to remember than nonscalar melodies,’52 and we know that there is a

limit on the amount of notes that can be held in short term memory. This generalised idea of

tonality surfaces in Western music most commonly as the tonal system based on the diatonic scale

and its major and minor chords, but other systems in Western music can also be described therefore

as ‘tonal’.

50
Dmitri Tymoczko, A Geometry of Music: Harmony and Counterpoint in the Extended Common Practice,
(Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 4.
51
Ibid., 6.
52
Ibid.
 14

Tonal music of the common-practice period makes reference to the diatonic scale, and the

interrelationship of chords in such music adheres to a hierarchical system with the tonic to dominant

relationship at its heart. It is mapped into the minds of Westerners, enabling easy navigation upon

listening to such music. It should be possible to build these maps with systems of similar structural

integrity and cohesion. After looking at the diatonic and other scales of 12TET which have been used

in Western music, these systems will be explored.

2.2 The diatonic scale and MOS scale theory

Described in Plato’s ‘Timaeus’, the ‘Pythagorean’ tuning of the diatonic scale is by a series of perfect

fifths (or fourths).53 Stacking fifths (which were described first by Pythagoras as the frequency ratio

3/2) and reducing to notes within an octave, several points are reached wherein the resulting ‘scale’

consists of two, rather than three step sizes. Occurring first after one and the two fifths are stacked,

this next occurs in scales of five notes, the pentatonic scale; seven notes, the diatonic; and then

twelve notes, the chromatic scale. This process is shown below.

One fifth: 1/1 3/2 (2/1) steps of 3/2, 4/3

Two fifths: 1/1 9/8 3/2 (2/1) steps of 4/3, 9/8

Three fifths: 1/1 9/8 3/2 27/16 (2/1) steps of 4/3, 32/27, 9/8

Four fifths: 1/1 9/8 81/64 3/2 27/16 (2/1) steps of 32/27, 9/8

Five fifths: 1/1 9/8 81/64 3/2 27/16 243/128 (2/1) steps of 32/27, 9/8, 256/243

Six fifths: 1/1 9/8 81/64 729/512 3/2 27/16 243/128 (2/1) steps of 9/8, 256/243

The Pythagorean diatonic scale will be more familiar to you expressed in ‘major’ mode, wherein five

fifths are stacked above the tonic, and one below:

1/1 9/8 81/64 4/3 3/2 27/16 243/128 (2/1)

53
Chalmers, p. 4.
 15

The steps are laid out as TTsTTTs, where ‘T’ is a tone of 9/8 and ‘s’ a semitone of 256/243.

The same table is shown below with respect to interval names of the diatonic scale, where ‘M’ is

major, ‘m’ minor and ‘P’ perfect.

One fifth: P1 P5 P8 steps of P5, P4

Two fifths: P1 M2 P5 P8 steps of P4, M2

Three fifths: P1 M2 P5 M6 P8 steps of P4, m3, M2

Four fifths: P1 M2 M3 P5 M6 P8 steps of m3, M2

Five fifths: P1 M2 M3 P5 M6 M7 P8 steps of m3, M2, m2

Six fifths: P1 M2 M3 A4 P5 M6 M7 P8 steps of M2, m2

Erv Wilson has formalised and generalised this type of scale construction with his ‘Moment of

Symmetry’ scale theory. The perfect fifth of the diatonic scale is named the ‘generator’ and the

octave the ‘period’ at which the scale repeats. The octave also functions as the ‘interval of

equivalence’ where octave transposition in tonal music does not change a note’s identity. A scale

constructed by generator and period in which there are only two step sizes is referred to as a

‘Moment of Symmetry’ or an MOS scale. The alternate step sizes are referred to as large (L) or small

(s), where the major scale is then LLsLLLs. As the MOS scales generated by the fifth with octave

period – the pentatonic, diatonic and chromatic scales – have been so important in music not only of

the West but throughout the East, something is to be said of MOS scales. Accordingly exploration of

pitch systems outside of 12TET in Chapters 2 and 3 will consider MOS scales.

An infinite number of possible MOS scales exists whose relative usefulness may be judged by their

size and by their acoustic value. Though Wilson originally only described MOS scales with a period of

an octave, they may have any period. Such scales have also been labelled ‘Distributionally Even’
 16

(DE). A Scale is said to be DE if ‘it has maximum variety 2; that is, each class of interval (“seconds”,

“thirds”, and so on) contains no more than two specific intervals’.54

MOS scales of a similar size to that of the diatonic scale have been proven useful for scalic writing.

When given a ‘diatonic’ like function, these have been labelled ‘albitonic’ scales, after the white

notes of the piano with which the diatonic scale has been associated. MOS scales of similar size to

the pentatonic scale have received the label of ‘haplotonic’, and scales of chromatic size have

retained the name ‘chromatic’. MOS scales of significantly larger size than chromatic scales of the

same family have historically been described as ‘hyperchromatic’.55

The diatonic scale forms the reference from which the notation system and interval naming systems

of Western music are based, notes from outside of the scale indicated with sharp (‘♯’) and flat (‘♭’)

signs. As a result of the MOS construction of the diatonic scale, each generic interval may come in

two sizes.56 In the case of seconds, thirds, sixths and sevenths the smaller of each generic interval

(from this point onwards, generic intervals will be referred to as ‘interval classes’57) is labelled

‘minor’ and the larger ‘major’. Labelling differs for fourths and fifths. Six out of seven fifth within the

diatonic scale labelled ‘perfect’ and the remaining smaller fifth ‘diminished’. Similarly, the larger

fourth is labelled ‘augmented’. Only in 12TET, where all semitones are the same size, are the

augmented fourth and the diminished fifth the same size. This interval is labelled the ‘half-octave’

and is present in all divisions of the octave into an even number of notes. In such systems scales that

54
Keenan Pepper, ‘Distributional Evenness’, The Xenharmonic Wiki (n.d.). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Distributional+Evenness. Accessed on 25 October, 2014.
55
Gene Ward Smith, ‘Chromatic Pairs’, The Xenharmonic Wiki, (2011). Available from:
shttp://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Chromatic+pairs. Accessed on 30 October, 2014.
56
As such, MOS scales demonstrate Myhill’s Property.
57
There are two definition of ‘interval class’. In set theory, interval class refers to all octave (or other period in
a general case) inversions and transpositions of an interval. Scala, however referred to the generic interval as
‘interval class’. This definition is more appropriate for the scope of my paper and will thus be adopted.
– Gene Ward Smith, ‘Interval Class’, The Xenharmonic Wiki (2010). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Interval+class. Accessed on 25 October, 2014.
 17

repeat at the half-octave exist, where this then is their period.58 The scale generated by the perfect

fifth with such a period in 12TET is common to 22TET and will be discussed in Chapter 4.

In Pythagorean intonation semitones may be ‘diatonic’ (the small step of the diatonic scale), or

‘chromatic’ (lying between the alternative step sizes of each interval-class)59. A note raised by a

chromatic semitone (also labelled ‘chroma’) is preceded in notation by a sharp, and a note lowered

by a chroma, by a flat. These labels can be generalised for any albitonic scale and will be used

throughout this paper.

Scales generated by the pure fifth are called ‘Pythagorean’. A Pythagorean scale of n notes is

referred to as Pythagorean[n], so that the Pythagorean diatonic scale is Pythagorean[7], the

pentatonic, Pythagorean[5] and the chromatic Pythagorean[12]. ‘Modal UPD notation’60 extends this

notation to specify the mode of the scale, where the number of chroma-positive generators61 above

the tonic is given, followed the number below the tonic. For example, the Pythagorean major scale:

TTsTTTs, given above is labelled Pythagorean[7] 5|1, and in Lydian mode, TTTsTTs: Pythagorean[7]

6|0. From this label we can see that Pythagorean[7] 6|0 is the most ‘major’ mode, where every

interval-class is of the larger variety and Dorian mode: TsTTTsT, Pythagorean[7] 3|3 is symmetric.

Explanation of the major scale and its modes, including the natural minor scale has been provided,

but what of the harmonic and ascending melodic minor scales? Consisting of a third step size, the

augmented second, these scales are clearly not MOS. We understand that the harmonic minor scale

is a natural minor scale with a raised seventh, so we know that modifying the MOS scale

Pythagorean[7] 2|4 by raising the 7th by a chroma leads to the Pythagorean harmonic minor. The

58
The octave would most likely remain the interval of equivalence.
59
In Pythagorean intonation this diatonic semitone was named ‘limma’ by the Ancient Greeks, and the
chromatic semitone the ‘apotome’.
60
Mike Battaglia, ‘Modal UDP Notation’, The Xenharmonic Wiki (2011). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Modal+UDP+Notation. Accessed on 25 October, 2014.
61
A chroma-positive generator for a scale is the generator expressed such that generators above the tonic
(positive generators) reach the major interval sizes of the interval classes. Inversions of generators about the
period are equivalent but for a change of sign, and generate an ‘upside down’ version of the same scale, where
intervals of all interval-classes are of alternative size. For example, 4/3 would generate the same scales as 3/2,
but 3/2 is the chroma positive generator. 4/3 though is the chroma-positive generator for the pentatonic scale.
 18

harmonic minor is thus labelled Pythagorean[7] 2|4 7, and is an example of a ‘MODMOS’ – a

Modified Moment of Symmetry scale,62 formed by modifying a note of an MOS scale by a chroma.63

The ascending melodic minor can be arrived at by raising the seventh of Dorian mode, or by

flattening the third of Ionian mode (the major scale). Hence the ascending melodic minor scale in

Pythagorean intonation can be described in UPD notation as Pythagorean[7] 3|3 ♯7 or as

Pythagorean[7] 5|1 ♭3. Modes of these MODMOS are very important in jazz music. MODMOS

sacrifice regularity, simplicity, and in the case of the two described above, consonance,64 for

particular melodic or harmonic qualities or additional ‘interest’. A MODMOS that does not sacrifice

consonance is considered in Chapter 4.

Apart from being MOS (or equivalently DE) the diatonic scale possesses many other properties that

allow its success. In his paper ‘Tuning, Tonality and 22-Tone Temperament’, Paul Erlich lists the

properties he attributes to the diatonic scale, in order for them to be generalised. His list includes:

(0) Octave equivalence:

There is a basic scale (a subset of the tuning) which repeats itself exactly at the octave, extending
infinitely both upwards and downwards in pitch.

Octave similarity is universally perceived, even by some animals

(1) Scale structure:

(Version a - distributional evenness): The basic scale has two step sizes, and given these step sizes, the
notes are arranged in as close as possible an approximation of an equal tuning with only as many
notes per octave as the basic scale.

(Version b - tetrachordality): The basic scale has a structure emphasizing similarity at the [perfect
fifth]. In particular, there is a "tetrachordal" structure, that is, within any octave span, the pattern of

62
Mike Battaglia, ‘MODMOS Scales’, The Xenharmonic Wiki (2011). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/MODMOS+Scales. Accessed on October 25, 2014.
63
By raising the seventh by a chroma we are replacing the note reached by -2 generators by the note reached
by 5 generators, moving the note up 7 generators, where we understand the interval formed by stacking 7
fifths is equivalent to a chroma displaced 5 octaves upwards
64
If we consider the diatonic scale in Meantone temperament, consonance is lost as a major triad is replaced
with an augmented triad, and a minor for a diminished. Meantone temperament and its triads will be
described later in this Chapter.
 19

steps within one approximate 4:3 are replicated in another approximate 4:3, with the remaining
“leftover” interval spanned using patterns of step sizes (often just one step) found in the
"tetrachord.” This scale defines the "key" or "mode"; the set of unaltered pitches used in any section
of a composition.

(2) Chord structure:

There exists a pattern of intervals (defined by number of scale steps, not specific as to exact size)
which produces a complete, consonant chord on most scale degrees. This condition provides for a
formal rule governing the origin and use of the consonant chords, so that they can become
recognized, after a reasonable period of exposure to the system, as the structural harmonies. Or, as
Krumhansl puts it, ‘If chord construction is determined in some principled way by scale structure,
65
then this further serves to maintain the tonal framework for encoding pitch information’.

(3) Chord relationships:

The majority of the consonant chords have a root that lies a [perfect fifth] away from the root of
another consonant chord.
This ensures the existence of simple chord relationships that could serve as the basis for
comprehensible chord progressions and modulations.

(4) Key coherence:

A chord progression of no more than three consonant chords is required to cover the entire scale.
This restriction should suffice to ensure that the sense of “key” or position within the scale is never
66
lost in the course of the music, and to allow a new key to be easily established.

Any scales which adhere to all of these properties we might suggest are capable of providing the

foundation for a structural system of pitch organisation as effective as the system of functional

harmony built upon the diatonic scale.

‘(2)’ results in the consistent harmony that Tymoczko attributes to tonal pieces and allows

consonance. ‘(3)’ allows chord progressions and modulations and ‘(4)’ allows the limited

macroharmony. Erlich’s features of the diatonic describe the way in which the diatonic scale, which

65
Carol L. Krumhansl, ‘General Properties of Musical Pitch Systems: Some Psychological Considerations’,
Harmony and Tonality, 54 (1987): 37.
66
Erlich, ‘Tuning, Tonality and 22-Tone Temperament’, pp. 5-6.
 20

Cohn refers to as ‘over-determined’,67 (meaning that it is special in its structural and acoustic

properties), provides a solid foundation for strong pitch relationships. Tymoczko’s features of

tonality can be achieved in a slightly less strict way, in scales not as over-determined as the diatonic

scale but systems that do fulfil all of Erlich’s properties are seen as particularly strong. Three such

scales can be found in 22TET, as will be discussed in Chapter 4. All scales discussed in this paper will

be assessed based on how well they adhere to Tymoczko’s and/or Erlich’s properties as a description

of their strength.

The chords of the diatonic scale that Erlich describes as ‘consonant’ are the major and minor triads

that can be found on all but one of its scale degrees. Three major, three minor and one diminished

triad falls on steps 1-3-5, 2-4-6, 3-5-7, 4-6-1 etc, ‘tertian’ chords of ‘triad-class’ 1-3-5. In the medieval

period, in which the diatonic scale is given Pythagorean intonation, only perfect fourths and fifths

(and therefore not the above chords) were considered consonant. The 3-limit68 Pythagorean tuning

was replaced with the familiar 5-limit69 tuning of the diatonic scale in the Renaissance such that

thirds and sixths were also considered consonant, through a process known as ‘temperament’.70

2.3 Regular temperaments

Pythagorean temperament is two-dimensional, the dimensions being the octave and the fifth

(primes 2 and 3 – hence ‘3-limit’). As we have seen, all intervals are formed from a combination of

fifths and octaves. It can be seen that the twelfth stacked fifth lands a very small interval (23.3c)

from the seventh octave and this interval has been labelled the ‘Pythagorean comma’. The size of

each fifth can be decreased by a twelfth of the Pythagorean comma so that twelve fifths equal

exactly seven octaves. By this process the comma is removed, understood to be ‘tempered out’, and

67
Richard Cohn, ‘Neo-Riemannian Operations, Parsimonious Trichords, and their “Tonnetz” Representations’,
Journal of Music Theory 41/1 (1997): 1-5. Available from: JSTOR. Accessed on 24 September, 2014.
68
Ratios of 3-limit JI consists only of multiples of 2 and 3, i.e. octaves and perfect fifths.
69
5-limit JI adds ratios of 5, i.e. just major thirds of 5/4.
70
Erlich, ‘Tuning, Tonality and 22-Tone Temperament’, p, 1.
 21

the fifths to be ‘tempered’. A one-dimensional system results, with one interval size, a twelfth of an

octave: the ‘equal tempered semitone’. This system will be familiar to you as 12TET, but this is not

how it was arrived at in Western culture.

It was observed in the 14th century that the interval of a diminished fourth in Pythagorean intonation

was more consonant than that of a major third. It better approximated 5/4, a much simpler interval

than 81/64, the Pythagorean major third.71 If we include 5/4 in our system then we have three

dimensions: 2/1, 3/2 and 5/4, or the primes 2, 3 and 5. This is 5-limit JI. The diatonic scale in 5-limit

JI: 1/1 9/8 5/4 4/3 3/2 5/3 15/8 (2/1)

can be constructed from the intense diatonic tetrachord of Ptolemy:

16/15 · 9/8 · 10/9

This scale is a three-dimensional system, with three step sizes rather than two: 10/9, the minor tone,

9/8, the major tone and 16/15, the (diatonic) semitone. The distance between 5/4 and 81/64, of

81/80 (21.5 cents) is called the syntonic or Meantone comma. It is also the difference between the

major and minor tones. As this comma is the difference between four stacked just fifths and the 5th

partial, it can be tempered out by reducing the size of the fifth by one quarter of the syntonic

comma. This is called Meantone temperament, or more specifically, ¼-comma Meantone

temperament.72 As the interval between the sizes of the two tones is tempered out, the tones

become of equal size (hence, ‘Meantone’), and we have a two-dimensional system again, where ‘5’

can be arrived at from ‘3’ and ‘2’.

71
Margo Schulter, ‘Pythagorean Tuning and Medieval Polyphony’, Early Music FAQ (1994). Available from:
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/pyth4.html. Accessed on 27 October, 2014.
72
Other flavours of Meantone were also theorised, where similar compromising were made, but where
neither 5 nor 3 remain pure. 1/3-comma Meantone flattens the fifth by one third of the syntonic comma. The
major third is then flat of 5/4 by the same amount and the minor third is a pure 6/5. 1/5-comma results in a
pure major seventh of 15/8 (and diatonic semitone of 16/15). 2/7-comma Meantone results in major thirds flat
by 1/7-comma, and minor thirds sharp by the same amount. Meantone temperament has scales of 5, 7 and 12
notes as Pythagorean temperament does, but afterwards they diverge, Meantone progressing to scales of 19,
and then 31 notes.
 22

Meantone[7] 5|1 can now be written as:

1/1 9/8~10/9 5/4 4/3 3/2 5/3~27/16 15/8 (2/1).

The wolf fifth that existed between 9/8 and 5/3 remains no longer; it has been tempered to give a

perfect fifth. Meantone[7], through the tempering out of the syntonic comma represents not just

the octave species73 of the intense diatonic, but also the Pythagorean and Didymos’ diatonic

tetrachords.74

In the Meantone system a wolf interval exists still as a diminished sixth between G ♯ and E♭.

Tempering such that this interval becomes also a perfect fifth leads again to the one-dimensional

system of 12TET, allowing complete freedom of modulation.

We look now at the diatonic tetrachord of Archytas:

28/27 · 8/7 · 9/8

of the three-dimensional JI subgroup 2.3.7, with steps of 8/7, 9/8 and 28/27. If we follow a similar

process, tempering out the difference between 8/7 and 9/8, namely 64/63, the Archytas comma, we

arrive an ‘eventone’ temperament, where fifths are raised such that fourth of them equal instead

the super major third, 9/7. This ‘eventone’ temperament has been labelled also as

‘Superpythagorean’ or ‘Superpyth’ temperament as the fifths are raised above their pure

representation in Pythagorean temperament.75

Superpyth[7] 5|1 is thus:

1/1 9/8 ~ 8/7 9/7 4/3 3/2 12/7 ~ 27/16 27/14 (2/1)

73
The octave species of a tetrachord is a 7-note scale consisting of two copies of the tetrachord and a 9/8
tone. – Chalmers, pp. 103-107.
74
The diatonic tetrachord of Pythagoras is 256/243 · 9/8 · 9/8. The diatonic tetrachord of Didymos is
16/15 · 10/9 · 9/8. – Chalmers, pp. 8-9.
75
Margo Schulter, personal communication.
 23

And this temperament also represents the Pythagorean diatonic tetrachord as well as:

49/48 · 8/7 · 8/7

the diatonic tetrachord of ancient Middle Eastern theorist Al-Farabi.76 Superpyth temperament is

particularly well represented by 22TET.

Pythagorean temperament, Meantone temperament and Superpyth temperament, 5-limit JI and

12TET are all regular temperaments as defined by the ‘Regular Temperament Mapping Paradigm’,77

which aims to generalise the properties of Meantone temperament. 2-dimensional temperaments

are defined by the Regular Temperament Mapping Paradigm, or ‘Regular Temperament Theory’

(RTT), in the same way MOS scales are: By generator and period. These are given ratios, and then

the commas tempered out complete the definition of the temperament, where 2-dimensional

temperaments can of course have generators other than the perfect fifth, and periods other than

the octave.

After the adoption of 12TET, Romantic works made use of some of the other two-dimensional

regular temperaments available in 12TET, mostly of Augmented and Diminished temperaments.

You will be aware that three major thirds stack to form an octave, as do four minor thirds. Both

these properties together are true only for 12TET. In Meantone temperament three major thirds

above C gives B♯, and four minor thirds above C gives D♭♭. We have learnt that B♯ is the same as C,

and D♭♭ is the same as C, true only of 12TET. The difference between B♯ and C, the lesser dieses of

128/125 and the difference between D♭♭ and D, the greater dieses of 648/625 are tempered out,

giving rise to the enharmonic equivalences that define 12TET.

76
Chalmers, p.11.
77
Erlich, ‘A Middle Path between Just Intonation and the Equal Temperaments Part 1’ pp. 159-199.
 24

Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition are necessarily scales that repeat at intervals that divide

the octave.78 Therefore included are the octatonic or diminished scale: 2121212179 and the six note

mode: 313131, defined by Cohn in lieu of the octatonic as the ‘hexatonic’ scale.80 The hexatonic

scale repeats every four semitones, at a major third, three times within the octave, and the

diminished scale every three, at a minor third, four times within the octave. These are scales of two

step sizes, and are clearly DE. As MOS scales we define them by generator and period. The periods of

the hexatonic and octatonic scales are a major and minor third respectively.81The most appropriate

generator for these scales is the perfect fifth.

Under regular temperament theory the octatonic or diminished scale is synonymous with

Diminished temperament, which reduces 5-limit JI to two dimensions by assigning the period the

ratio 6/5, and therefore tempering out the difference between (6/5)4 and 2: namely 648/625. Where

in UDP notation the ‘U’ and the ‘D’ stand for number of generators ‘up’ and ‘down’ respectively, ’P’

stands for the number of periods per octave, so the full label for the octatonic scale is

Diminished[8](4).82 The hexatonic scale is similarly defined as Augmented[6](3), where Augmented

temperament reduces 5-limit JI to two dimensions by equating the period to 5/4, and therefore

tempering out 128/125, the difference between (5/4)3 and 2. The Tcherepnin scale, another of

Messiaen’s limited modes of transposition, is defined under RTT as Augmented[9](3).

Meantone, Augmented and Diminished temperaments have been described so far as 5-limit

temperaments. Through the additional tempering out of a 7-limit comma, these temperaments can

be given a 7-limit description that can be applied to 12TET. Unlike 22TET and 31TET however, 12TET

is only slightly suggestive of 7-limit JI.

78
Scales like the diatonic scale, with octave period are available in 12 transpositions in 12TET. A mode of
limited transpositions is scale with less than 12 transpositions. If this scale is to be a mode of 12TET, it must
repeat at the octave. Then it will be available in 12/p transportations where it can be seen that ‘p’ is therefore
the number of periods per octave of the mode.
79
‘21212121’ here means that the 12 degrees of 12TET are dividing in the octaonic scale into 8 steps of 2,
followed by 1, followed 2... degrees of 12TET.
80
Cohn, p. 35.
81
Over a single period, the hexatonic scale is simply ‘31’ or ‘13’, and the octatonic is ‘21’ or ‘12’.
82
Battaglia, ‘Modal UDP Notation’.
 25

2.4 12TET in the 7-limit

Today a description of the chromatic scale in JI describes the tritone as 7/5 or its inverse, 10/7. 7/5

has long been seen as a possible tuning of the tritone, but 12TET and Meantone temperament have

both mainly been considered 5-limit temperaments. In 5-limit Meantone, the augmented fourth, a

tone above a major third, represents both 64/45 and 25/18, and the diminished fifth both 45/32 and

36/25. While the more complex 64/45 and 45/32 are closer to 600c than 7/5 and 10/7, the simpler

25/18 and 36/25, are still more complex than 7/5 and 10/7, as well as being further from 600c. We

can extend 12TET to the 7-limit (though with a large error) by tempering out 36/35, the septimal

quarter tone where 45/32 or equivalently 36/25, are tempered to be equivalent to 7/5.

The tritone in Meantone is the distance between the minor seventh and the major third of a

dominant chord. If the major third is taken to be 5/4, then the minor seventh can then represent

7/4, though 12TET, with a minor seventh 31c sharp of 7/4, does not represent it particularly well.

The dominant chord can then be seen as 4:5:6:7, a much less complex chord than the traditional

dominant seventh of 36:45:54:64. Many theorists, including Blackwood83 and Bosanquet, consider

4:5:6:7 the ideal tuning for the chord. Meantone can thus be extended into the 7-limit by tempering

out 36/35. The resulting temperament is called Dominant. As 64/63 is tempered out as well as

81/80,84 Dominant is both a Meantone and Eventone temperament, so it is the projection of the

Meantone and Superpyth (and Pythagorean) diatonic scales we have discussed so far into 12TET.85

Diminished and Augmented temperaments can similarly be extended to the 7-limit by tempering out

36/35. Diminished temperament retains its name86and Augmented temperament takes then name

‘August’.

83
Blackwood, The Structure of Recognizable Diatonic Tunings, p. 81.
84
81/80 x 64/63 = 36/35
85
The error of 12TET’s representation of the eventone diatonic scale is too large however for 12TET to
function as an eventone temperament. As the fifth is below pure, 12TET is a Meantone, not a
Superpythagorean tuning.
86
as it is the best extension of 5-limit Diminished temperament into the 7-limit
 26

The table below shows 12TET with consideration of the above tempering.

Degree cents Ratio August[6] Dominant[7] Diminished[8]

0 0 1/1 P1 P1 P1
1 100 15/14~16/15~21/20~27/25~28/27 m2 m2 m2
2 200 8/7~ 9/8 ~ 10/9 A1/d3 M2 M2
3 300 6/5 ~ 7/6 M2 m3 P3
4 400 5/4 ~ 9/7 P3 M3 m4
5 500 4/3 ~ 21/16 m4 P4 M4
6 600 7/5~25/18~64/45~10/7~45/32~36/25 A3/d5 A4/d5 P5
7 700 3/2 ~ 32/21 M4 P5 m6
8 800 8/5 ~ 14/9 P5 m6 M6
9 900 5/3 ~ 12/7 m6 M6 P7
10 1000 7/4 ~ 16/9 ~ 9/5 A5/d7 m7 m8
11 1100 28/15~15/8~40/21~50/27~27/14 M6 M7 M8
12 1200 2/1 P7 P8 P9

Table 1: August[6], Dominant[7] and Diminished[8] with respect to 12TET in the 7-limit

The table also shows the housing of the diatonic sized scales in 12TET, treating them as albitonic.

The chroma of August temperament is represented by two steps of 12TET, whereas in Dominant

(and therefore in Meantone) and Diminished temperaments the chroma is a single step.

Another comma exploited in 12TET lies between the septimal augmented fourth 7/5 and the

septimal diminished fifth 10/7. As discussed above, in 12EDO the diminished fifth is enharmonically

equivalent to the augmented fourth so the difference between 7/5 and 10/7, namely 50/49 is

tempered out. As a result of this, if we take the dominant seventh chord to be 4:5:6:7 the diminished

fifth of a dominant seventh chord can be transformed into the augmented fourth of another

dominant seventh chord whose root lies a tritone away. For example:

B♭ ---A♯

G-----F♯

E-----E

C-----C♯
 27

Paul Erlich’s Pajara temperament, based on this equivalency will be discussed in more detail in

Chapter 4. This equivalence is known as a tritone substitution and is well known to jazz musicians,

frequently exploited in jazz music. In a tritone substitution a dominant seventh chord can be

replaced with another whose root lies a tritone away, as the leading tone and guide tone (making up

the tritone) remain the same.87 Enharmonic equivalences and the chord progressions they allow are

features of ETs that have been exploited in 12TET, and should similarly be exploited in other ETs.

2.5 Chords progressions - comma pumps and neo-Riemannian

transformations

Having thus far studied scales and temperaments, we will now look at chords that feature in these

scales, and progressions that temperament allows.

The simplest triad within the compass of an octave that makes use of the 5-limit is the familiar major

triad 4:5:6. Triad-class 1-3-5 in Meantone[7] gives 4:5:6 chords as M3-P5 as well as 10:12:15 chords

as m3-P5. 10:12:15 is therefore defined as the ‘scalic minor’ of 4:5:6. If we invert the intervals of

4:5:6, placing 5:4 at the bottom rather than at the top, we arrive again at 10:12:15. 10:12:15 is

therefore also the intervallic inversion / minor of 4:5:6. 4:5:6 and 10:12:15 can be labelled the

‘characteristic’ or ‘base’ chords of Meantone[7]. The fact these chords are both a scalic and

intervallic major/minor pair makes them a strong base pair, as the relationships between the major

and minor chords strengthen the harmonic consistency of a system that uses these chords. As we

know that the 1-3-5 chords of the diatonic scale come as three major, three minor and one

diminished chord we can see that Erlich’s second property of a diatonic scale is fulfilled. We also

87
It is this tritone that is said to provide the energy of a dominant resolution, its notes resolving in contrary
motion by semitone.
 28

observe that these base chords can be used to form comprehensible progressions, fulfilling Erlich’s

third property.

The progression I-vi-ii-V-I:88

G--------A--------------- ---B---------C

E ---------- ------- F ------- G----------

C ------------------D ------------------E

I vib ii Vc Ib89

is very often exploited in Meantone temperament. This progression, moving from the tonic, down a

minor third via two common tones, and then through the circle of fifths via chord changes with one

common tone back to the tonic is a staple of functional harmony in Meantone temperament. If we

examine the progression in just intonation we observe the following:

3/2----- 5/3--------------- 15/8 ---160/81

5/4 ------------ 4/3 ----- 40/27 ---------

1/1 ------------ 10/9 ---------------100/81

I vib ii Vc Ib

We can see that through root movements of 5/3, 4/3, 4/3, 4/3, we end up at 80/81, a Meantone

comma below where we began. The tuning given below shows the penultimate and ultimate chords

we need:

88
All chords are ‘base’ or ‘characteristic’. Lower case roman numerals signify minor chords and upper case
signify major chords. The step class of the tonic of the chord corresponds to the number shown in roman
numerals.
89
‘b’ labels the chord as in first inversion, and ‘c’ labels the chord as in second inversion. Figured bass are not
used to designate inversion because inversions will later be considered of major chords in scales of 6, 8 and 10
notes in which figured bass inversions would either be different or not make sense. In either case it is simpler
to use lower case letters to describe inversion.
 29

3/2----- 5/3--------------- 15/8 ---- 2/1

5/4 ------------ 4/3 ------ 3/2 ---------

1/1 ----------- 10/9 ----- 9/8 ----- 5/4

I vib ii Vc Ib

This option results in a comma shift between chord ii and V.90 This chord progression does not return

to the same note unless the Meantone comma is tempered out. A progression that pumps a comma

in this way is called a comma pump, characteristic of a temperament when in that temperament it is

tempered out. Thus this progression is a ‘characteristic’ chord progression of Meantone

temperament, and one of the characteristic progressions of 12TET. Characteristic chords and

progressions will be considered in other temperaments throughout this paper.

We already know what root movements pump commas in Augmented and Diminished

temperaments. As they are most simply 5-limit temperaments we take 4:5:6 again to be the

characteristic major.91 In Augmented, the major chord appears on steps 1-3-4. The scalic minor of

4:5:6 is therefore 12:15:16. This chord is clearly not ideal.92 The intervallic minor 10:12:15 is found

on scale steps 1-2-4. It is a more appropriate minor, and so will be chosen as the characteristic

minor. As it is not the scalic minor, this scale fails Erlich’s second property. The Augmented system

then is not as strong a system as Meantone. Another issue with this system is that the scale does not

contain a dominant major or minor chord. Though it does not stand as well on its own, relationships

and progressions from Augmented temperament have been exploited in music in 12TET that also

makes use of the stronger diatonic scale.

In Diminished, the major chord appears on steps 1-4-6. Its scalic minor in then 15:20:24, which is the

second inversion of 10:12:15, the intervallic minor. This make for an interesting, though difficult

90
Comma shifts can be awkward and this description of shift of a Meantone comma in the Zarlino-Ptolemy 5-
limit JI diatonic scale has been use to the inadequacy of such a scale.
91
The augmented chord (a stack of periods) is not a good choice for a characteristic chord as it sits in all three
inversions at once and is its own scalic and intervallic minor.
92
It contains a semitone, a dissonant interval, between two of the tones.
 30

system, stronger than Augmented. Perhaps this goes somewhere as to suggest why Diminished is

more widely known and used than Augmented.

We now assemble characteristic chord progressions for Augmented and Diminished temperaments.

Augmented:

G----G♯ ---------- F♯♯ 3/2----25/16---------- -------375/256

E-----------D♯----D♯♯ 5/4-----------------75/64---- 625/512

C-----B----B♯--------- 1/1----15/16----125/128--------------

I IIIc Vb I (the roman numerals refer to steps of Augmented[6])

We can see already by our use of Meantone letter names that the Augmented chord progression

pumps the lesser dieses.93 In order to make use also of minor chords we can strengthen the voice

leading by placing minor chords in between the above major chords:94

G--------G♯----------- -F♯♯-----

E--------------D♯-------------D♯♯

C---B---------------B♯-------------

I iiic IIIc vb Vb i I

We can see there that there is most often more than one possible characteristic chord progression.

This latter progression was discussed by Cohn in his 1997 paper.95

Cohn’s paper aims to define, formalise and generalise the voice leading properties of the major and

minor triads. After Lewin,96 he defines three transformations in 12TET that lead from a major or

minor triad to a minor or major triad respectively, each in different inversions. The Parallel

93
In order to return to the same chord B♯ = C, D♯♯ = F and F♯♯ = G.
94
However then we are using chords of two different triad classes, so perhaps the original progression with
only major chords (or a similar progression with only minor chords) is a better candidate for the characteristic
chord progression.
95
Cohn, p. 33-35.
96
David Lewin, Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations, (Oxford University Press, 2007).
 31

transformation ‘P’ takes a major triad to a minor triad of the same inversion by lowering the third by

a semitone, and vice-versa. The Leittonwechsel or Leading Tone transformation ‘L’ shifts the root of

a major triad down a semitone, and acts on a minor chord by raising the fifth a semitone. The

Relative transformation ‘R’ moves the fifth of a major chord up a tone, wherein it becomes the root

of its relative minor chord, and the minor is transformed into its relative major via its root

descending by a tone.97

Repeated application of binary, ternary and quarternary ‘generators’ consisting of different

combinations of these transformations result in particular chord progressions. Major and minor

triads in 12TET are called ‘parsimonious’ because they allow optimally smooth voice-leading through

these chord changes to and from each other. This results from the fact that they exhibit minimal

disturbance from a symmetrical division of the octave.98

The characteristic progression for Augmented temperament defined above is identical to Cohn’s

<PL> cycle, where P transformations alternate with L transformations. Similarly the characteristic

progression of Diminished temperament, shown below, is identical to Cohn’s <PR> cycle:99

G---A--------------A♯--------------B♯------

E---------------F♯-------------F♯♯------------

C---------C♯------------D♯--------------D♯♯

I (ivc) VIIb (ii) V (viiib) III (vic) Ib100

97
Richard Cohn, ‘Introduction to Neo-Riemannian Theory: A Survey and Historical Perspective’, Journal of
Music Theory 42/2 (1998): 170-172. Available from: JSTOR. Accessed on 1 October, 2014.
98
Dmitri Tymoczko, ‘The Geometry of Musical Chords’, Science 313/5783 (2006): 72-74. Available from: JSTOR.
Acessed on 2 May, 2014.
99
Cohn, ‘Neo-Riemannian Operations, Parsimonious Trichords, and their “Tonnetz” Representations,’ p. 29.
100
Bracketed chords are not necessary to pump the comma, as the minor chords were in the case of
Augmented. These Diminished[8] chords are very confusing as a result of the fact that the minor triad that is in
the same triad class of the rooted major triad is not rooted. Both tonic and inversion names for minor triads a
very confusing. In this way Diminished is not as strong as logical and as a result not as strong a systems as
Meantone. The progression may more easily be described by neo-Riemannian transformations than by chords
of Diminished[8].
 32

Like the characteristic progressions of Meantone temperament, those of Augmented and Diminished

also only use the notes of their albitonic scales, Augmented[6] and Diminished[8].

Below are reductions of excerpts of the music or Brahms and Shubert provided in Cohn’s 1997

thesis, examples of these cycles, to which I have applied neo-Riemannian analyses as well as Roman

numeral analyses with respected to the scales they correspond to.101

Example 1: Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello, Op 10, First Movement, mm. 270-76

P L P L P L

Augmented[6]: I i V vb III iii I

101
Note that what is in Meantone labelled a minor triad in root position is in Diminished temperament a minor
triad in first inversion, this is because in the same triad class as the major chord in root position, the minor
chord is in Meantone’s second inversion.
 33

Example 2: Schubert, Overture to Die Zauberhalfe, opening Andante

102

R P R P R P R P

Diminished[8]:

vic III iiib Vc ii VIIb ivc I vib

Briginshaw103 also discusses an additional transformation, of David Lewin’s104 – the SLIDE, S in which

the tonic and fifth move by semitone and the third remains stationary. This transformation is similar

but opposite to the Parallel transformation, and can be found in jazz music. Briginshaw provides a

well known example of this in bars 5-6 of ‘The Girl from Ipanema’.

Example 3: The Girl from Ipanema, bars 5-6

105

As jazz music and much Romantic music also contain many seventh chords, this transformation was

generalised by AP Childs for tetrads. Six S transformation are possible, where two of the four notes

102
Cohn, ‘Neo-Riemannian Operations, Parsimonious Trichords, and their “Tonnetz” Representations,’ p. 35.
103
Sara BP Briginshaw, ‘A Neo-Riemannian Approach to Jazz Analysis’, Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate
Journal of Musicology 5/1 (2013): 57. Available from: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/notabene/vol5/iss1/5. Accessed on 1
October, 2014.
104
David Lewin, Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations, (Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 178,
227.
105
Briginshaw, p. 64.
 34

more by semitone in parallel, leading from major minor seventh chords to half-diminished seventh

chords and vice-versa.106

2.6 Conclusion

All scales defined above can be found in late-Romantic and jazz music and can exist together only in

12TET. The interrelation of these regular temperaments and their scales defines the harmonic and

more successful use of 12TET from the nineteenth century through to today. Their properties and

use in 12TET has been described. Later a system for 22TET based on this description of 12TET will be

developed. Next we look at pitch organisation outside of 12TET and comment, based on what we

have learnt about 12TET.

Before we do so, we must not forget the original and remaining critiques of 12TET: Its major thirds

are too sharp, and it does not adequately represent the 7-limit. It is as a result of the deficiencies as

well as a thirst for new possibilities that we look into the use of alternative systems.

106
Adrian P. Childs, ‘Moving Beyond Neo-Riemannian Triads: Exploring a transformational model for seventh
chords,’ Journal of Music Theory 42/2 (1998): 181-193. Available from: JSTOR. Accessed on 1 October, 2014.
 35

Chapter 3 – Outside 12TET

3.1 Introduction

In his ‘Middle Path’ paper, detailing regular temperaments, Erlich complains that most microtonal

music is seemingly split into two camps, just intonation (JI), and ETs, going on to explain the ‘middle

path’ of regular temperaments.107 In this chapter I will look at and analyse the most well known and

successful music and theory of both camps, as well as the recent model of Sethares, Miln and

Plamondon pertaining to the use of the middle path. Apart from 12TET, 24TET (the quarter-tone

system) has received the most attention from composers of any ET. Works by influential 20th century

composers of quarter tone music, Ives, Hába, Wyschnegradsky and Blackwood will be analysed,

along with Balzano’s system in 20edo. Firstly, the most influential composer of music in Just

Intonation, Partch will be discussed, along with those influenced by his work.

3.2 Harry Partch and just intonation

Partch’s model of music composition, detailed in his book Genesis of a Music, completely rejects the

use of temperaments, suggesting the replacement of the standard 12TET with an entirely new

system built on extended JI. Coming from outside of standard compositional practices, Patch was

unable to change this standard, however as his music was performed he was nonetheless

successful.108 It was, however, his theory that had more direct influence on contemporary thought

and the work of some contemporary composers. For American composers such as Lou Harrison, Ben

Johnston and James Tenney it was his new conceptual framework for pitch and tuning that

107
Erlich, ‘A Middle Path between Just Intonation and the Equal Temperaments Part 1’, pp. 159-199.
108
In the construction of instruments to play his music, the composition of music using his model and the
willingness of performers to play his instruments and his music.
 36

influenced their work more than the style of his music. Partch’s conception and description of JI has

greatly influenced JI theory, sparking a renewed interest in alternative tunings in America.109

Unhappy with the mistuning of intervals given by 12TET, Partch suggests using justly tuned intervals

from the harmonic series. Where 12TET is generally considered to approximate intervals built from

the harmonic series up to the fifth partial (some theorists suggest up to the seventh partial), Partch

suggests we look further, to the 11th partial. The intervals between the notes of the harmonic series

up to the 11th partial, (and their octave inversions) are called primary ratios. The complete list of

these ratios comprises the ’11-limit tonality diamond’, where ‘limit’ is short for ‘odd-limit’.

Secondary ratios lie between these primary ratios, and belong to the 11-prime-limit. Partch arranged

the 29 11-limit primary ratios in order. The resulting gaps in pitch110 are then filled in with secondary

ratios that Partch deemed appropriate, resulting in a relatively evenly spaced ‘sequence of [43] steps

of the monophonic fabric’.111

Though his choice to look no further than the 11-limit was completely arbitrary, he argues that ‘the

reasons why monophony proceeds to the 11-limit are basic and quite specific’.112 Some reasons are

harmonic, where Partch argues that ‘there can be little doubt that the number 7 is implied – though

very badly implied – throughout today’s musical thinking’,113 a further step to the next prime, 11

allows among other things the ‘highly intriguing’ new triad, 7:9:11. Others are historic, including the

prevalence of ratios within the 11-limit in Ptolemy’s tetrachord tunings,114 given in Chapter 2 above.

Partch’s earlier compositions, for instruments such as voice and strings, placed a very tall order on

the intonational accuracy of the players. Partch’s 43-note JI scale contains hundreds of different

intervals, and he expected these to be intoned exactly in-tune in order that the primary ratios be

109
Bob Gilmore, ‘The Climate since Harry Partch’, Contemporary Music Review 22/1-2 (2003): 15-17, 21-22.
Available from: Taylor & Francis Online. Accessed on 17 May, 2014.
110
such as between the ‘unity’ 1/1 and the smallest 11-limit primary ratio, 12/11.
111
Partch, p. 133.
112
Ibid., 123.
113
Ibid., 124.
114
Ibid., 123-127.
 37

perceived as consonances. Later music of Partch’s, mainly for tuned percussion, removes this

difficulty from the equation, but where the timbre of such instruments is often complex and in-

harmonic, and the decay often very fast, critics have questioned the need for such specific

intonation if the effect of the just tuning of these intervals will hardly be perceived.115

Where the intonational system of Partch contains hundreds of intervals to the octave, built from 5

prime intervals, 22TET contains only 22 intervals, multiples of a single interval of 54.5cents. The

reduction in dimensionality of the system greatly simplifies it. Where in today’s use of 12TET 5 and

sometimes 7-limit JI116 can be arrived at through ‘tuning’ of equal tempered intervals, 22TET is

consistent and accurate to the 11-limit, so that similar tuning of intervals from 22TET can allow the

intricacies of a 22 note 5-limit system such as that of North Indian classical music, 7-limit just

intonation scales, such as the 22-note scale of Ben Johnston, or an 11-limit system such as Partch’s

43-note scale.117 Where Partch considered his music also to be tied to old musical traditions such as

that of the Ancient Greeks, 22TET can provide useful approximation of many of these systems.

A further barrier to the success of Partch’s system as a standard is that it does not allow modulation

or transposition.118 Whilst Partch argues that this should not be seen as a bug, we must not forget

that the strong desire for free modulation in Western music is what led to ET, and this desire

remains today. If, as Partch suggests, any detuning of a consonant interval will render it dissonant,

then the tempering of intervals may not be worth the privilege of free modulation, but it is

understood that this is not the case. Therefore, a decrease in the dimensionality of Partch’s 5-

dimensional system to the one-dimensional system of ET greatly reduces the complexity of the

system and allows free modulation. If instruments of variable pitch are employed, the intonation

115
Gilmore, p. 20.
116
In the case of barbershop quartets, for example.
117
In the case of Partch’s scale however, as 22TET does not have 43 notes, some of the different intervals of
Partch’s scale are represented by the same note of 22TET, where the comma between them is therefore
tempered out. In 12TET we know that the difference between the 2 tones is tempered out, and both can be
expressed by tuning, so this is no problem.
118
Partch argues that any interval of his 43-tone scale may be taken as the tonic, but admits that many
intervals within the scale change as a result.
 38

need not be sacrificed, apart from when tempering leads to useful equivalences that can be

exploited in chord progressions. In JI, in order to return to the tonic, one must turn around and go

back from wherever they came from. Temperament allows one to travel forwards, away from the

unison, and through the curvature of pitch-space arrive back where they began.

3.3 X_System and temperament

A similar barrier to that of JI lies before the success of Sethares, Milne and Plamondon’s model,

‘X_System’. Their system, based upon RTT as described in Chapter 2 boasts of what can be gained by

the use of instruments with programmable variable pitch, where the pitch-space can be changed via

the use of software to any tuning of a 2-dimensional temperament. Pitch space is 2-dimensional, but

the infinite possibility of different tunings of these two-dimensions is not reduced and players of

instruments apart from Plamondon’s own would have trouble navigating the non-static grid. Their

model also suggests the use of timbre modification to match the tempering of the tuning being

used.119 Again, this interesting affect can be achieved only using the software of their design.

Where 12TET is used as a perceptual framework for A Capella ensembles, it is 5-limit JI that is

used.120 Where music is notated and taught in 12TET intervals such as the major and minor tone that

lie very close together are considered equivalent. In performance, however, real-time micro-tuning

ideally allows the correct interval to be intoned. With a tonal centre additionally held in the minds of

the performers pitch shift, due to comma pumps is avoided by appropriate mistuning of harmonic

and melodic intervals.121 Combining fixed pitch instruments with variable pitch instruments leads to

intonation problems that we have learned to deal with as best we can. Of course, in ETs that well

119
Milne.
120
Or 7-limit just intonation in the case of barbershop harmony.
121
In the case of barbershop harmony ensembles, a referral to the 7-limit table for 12TET will inform the
reader that there are many more assimilations, and that they often lie between less closely spaced intervals.
The notation and perception of the system is kept simple and one-dimensional, and singers learn to listen and
tune by a larger pitch distance to achieve consonance.
 39

approximate JI (such as 19TET, 22TET and 31TET), less pitch variation will occur and intonation will

be more accurate in general. Overall however, the more accurately an ET approximates JI, the larger

it becomes, allowing less useful conflations of two notes to the same pitch. As a result tonal-like

systems are less prevalent in larger ETs. Though slightly more complex systems have been described

in larger ETs122 this research will consider ETs only up to 31. Models for the use of 19TET and 31TET

have been well documented and will be discussed only briefly below.

For an in-depth analysis of models for the use of 19TET by Yasser, Kornerup and Ariel, refer to

Mandelbaum’s PhD thesis.123 Mandelbaum gives an interpretation of the JI approximations of each

degree of 19TET and lists all MOS scales of reasonable size available, not going further as to suggest

a harmonic use of the scales or an interpretation of them as temperaments. Terpstra, Huygens and

Fokker made use of 31TET mostly as an extended Meantone and as an approximation to Euler genus

of 7-limit JI, 124 not exploiting other scales of other temperaments that may be found in 31TET.

After 12TET, the ET that has received the most interest is 24TET. As it divides each semitone in half,

this system has been labelled the ‘quarter-tone’ system. 1906 saw the first published quarter-tone

122
Bosanquet showed that the diminished fourth of Pythagorean intonation well approximates the just major
third 5/4, tempering out the schisma, and designed the generalised keyboard for its use.
– Bosanquet, An Elementary Treatise On Musical Intervals and Temperament.
The resulting highly accurate temperament is known as Helmholtz (as it was also discussed by Helmholtz), or
Schismatic temperament.
– Gene Ward Smith, ‘Schismatic Family‘, The Xenharmonic Wiki, (2010). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Schismatic+family. Accessed 27 October, 2014.
Hanson described a temperament that now carries his name, with a minor third generator and an 11-note
MOS that can be well approximated in 53TET, 34TET and 19TET, along with a keyboard design for its use
– Larry A. Hanson, ‘Development of a 53-tone Keyboard Layout’, Xenharmonikon, 10 (1989): 68-85. Available
from: http://www.anaphoria.com/hanson.PDF. Accessed 27 October, 2014.
Ezra Sims, James Tenney, George Secor and Navarro wrote for the 11-limit accuracy of 72TET. Sims’ 18 note
scale of 72TET is uneven, essentially a subset of 11-limit JI.
– Ezra Sims, ‘Yet Another 72-Noter’, Computer Music Journal, 12/4 (1988): 28-45. Available from: JSTOR.
Accessed 26 May, 2014.
George Secor discovered a temperament supported by 41TET (another ET noted for its accurate perfect fifths,
also performing admirably in the 11-limit, as well as both 31TET and 72TET, called ‘Miracle temperament’,
who’s 21-note ‘Blackjack’ scale has seen some use from other composers. Secor detailed a ‘decimal’ keyboard
that may be used to play this temperament, where the 10-note MOS is treated as albitonic.
– George Secor, ‘The Miracle Temperament and Decimal Keyboard’, Xenharmonikon, 18 (2006): 5-15. Available
from: http://www.anaphoria.com/secormiracle.PDF. Accessed 21 November, 2013.
123
Mandelbaum, pp. 246-336.
124
Beer, pp. 3-16.
 40

work, composed by Richard H. Stein and many other Modernist composers experimented with

quarter-tones in the 20th century, Alois Hába among the most prominent.

3.4 Hába

Skinner discusses three composition techniques Hába employs in his quarter-tone music, namely;

contrary motion between fields, ‘tone centricity’, and the use of the ‘int 2.5’ (5 degrees of 24TET: 2.5

12TET semitones), the interval between a major second and a minor third that divides a perfect

fourth. Hába considered 24TET to be composed of two fields, one consisting of the 12 standard

pitches, and the other of the 12 quarter tone pitches, and recommends the use of contrary motion

in the outer voices when crossing fields.125 Tonal centricity refers to where a ‘single tone governs the

harmony of an extended passage, without implying the harmonic functions or hierarchal

relationships that characterize tonality’.126 Oblique contrapuntal motion is used in passages

displaying tonal centricity. The notion of two fields of 24TET cannot be generalised to non

12nTETs.127 Where tonal centricity may well be a useful technique for arbitrary temperaments, I am

more interested in generalisations of a stronger system: Tonality. Hába’s use of int 2.5 (the note in

between a major second and a minor third) hints as such generalisations, but only to a small extent.

Movement V of his Suite für vier Posaunen in Vierteltonsystem, Op. 72 (1950) makes particular use of

int 2.5. The movement is in ternary form, (A-B-A’) in which the two ‘A’ sections are ‘not thematically

related, but rather use similar melodic and harmonic materials that contrast with those of the

middle ‘B’ section’.128 The melody of the A section, only 4 bars in length, comprises of pitches that

can be arranged into a series of 4 stacked int 2.5s. As int 2.5 divides the fourth, four stacked int 2.5s

give a minor seventh, and the octave is found a tone above. Skinner’s example is given below

125
Skinner, pp. 85-87.
126
Ibid., p. 87.
127
Ibid.
128
Ibid., p. 106.
 41

Example 4: Skinner’s Example 3.23

129

The resulting scale is a pentatonic MOS scale of Semaphore temperament (described under RTT),

Semaphore[5], comprised of 4 large steps of int 2.5 and one small step of int 2. Semaphore

temperament tempers out 49/48, the difference between 7/6 and 8/7 and as a result is not

complex, and quite inaccurate, where 22TET is much more accurate in the 7-limit than 24TET. 130

In the A’ section, this scale is extended by one generator (int 2.5) in either direction. An extension by

an additional 2 generators would have led to the next available MOS scale, Semaphore[9], which

could be used as an albitonic scale, where Semaphore[5] is haplotonic. The subminor triad, 6:7:9,

made up of int 2.5 and int 4.5, which Hába makes use of in the first movement of the quartet131 ,

along with the traditional major triad 4:5:6 used extensively throughout could be characteristic

triads, available as triad-class 1-3-6 in the 9 note albitonic scale. However in the 9-note scale the

major triad is only available on one scale degree, with the minor 6:7:9 available on six and

diminished chords of 1/(5:6:7) on the remaining two. As the scalic minor is not the intervallic minor,

This system is not as strong as Meantone. Intervallic inversions of the three 1-3-6 triads are available

129
Ibid., p. 105.
130
Gene Ward Smith, ‘Semiphore Family’, The Xenharmonic Wiki, (2011). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Semiphore+family. Accessed on 28 February, 2013.
131
other chords of the first movement are the major triad 4:5:6, the minor triad 10:12:15 and the neutral triad
18:22:27
 42

as 1-4-6 triads. As we have introduced the 5th partial to the temperament, we are in the full 7-limit,

tempering out 81/80, the Meantone comma, where 8 generators (four fourths) downwards gives

5/4.

Chords used in the A and A’ sections include major triads, and major triads with quarter sharp sixths,

these chords used in movements II and III also. If we interpret these chords as major triads with

three-quarter flat sevenths, then can see them as 24TET’s approximation of the major tetrad,

4:5:6:7. This chord though is not particularly well tuned in 24TET and since it is not spelt that way it

may not be wise to treat it as such. In Semaphore[9] these chords are available as on one scale

degree as major 1-3-6-8 tetrads,132 . The root of these chords lay on notes int 2.5 apart, beginning

this time on F quarter sharp.

Example 5: Skinner’s Example of the interval cycle derived from the bass line in bars 2-3 of

Movt. 5, Allegro risoluto

133

The B section consists of parallel minor chords, and does not make use of any particular scale.

Hába is not thought to be interested in completely avoiding tonality, making use of tonal

references.134 All movements from the quartet could be described as neo-tonal, with a tonic

analogue (or two in the case of movement IV) that grounds the movement, creating ‘a sense of

132
As 1-3-6-8 tetrads, Semaphore[9] provides 1 major tetrad of 4:5:6:7 (M3, M6, M8), 6 minor tetrads of
12:14:18:21 (m3, M6, M8. Not the traditional minor tetrad – the utonal minor of the major tetrad 4:5:6:7,
found on 1-4-6-8 as m4, M6, M8) and 3 diminished tetrads of 30:35:42:48.
133
Ibid., p. 107.
134
Christina Yik Man Tam, ‘Between the Tones: The Theory and Microtonal Works of Alois Hába’
(Ph.D diss., University at Buffalo, 2005), pp. 201-207.
 43

repose’.135 These tonic analogues of course give the piece ‘centricity’, one of Tymoczko’s five

features of tonality.136

As such, Hába hints at, but does not fully exploit the use of MOS scales and chords of Semaphore

temperament in 24TET for tonal cohesion. A more frequent use of MOS scales and the chords they

contain would aid the (tonal) cohesion of his work. Though similar chord types are used to some

extent – allowing harmonic consistency –and MOS scales are hinted at, the macroharmony is not

limited, due to many chord tones lying outside scales used.

It is difficult in using 24TET to avoid the separation of the notes of 12TET and the ‘quarter-tones’,

where quarter-tone intervals are treated as dischords or dissonances or used only for voice leading.

Quarter-tone composers, unable to escape this inherent dualism, must find ways to deal with it, or

to exploit it. Hába uses quarter-tone chords as for voice leading properties between functional

chords in movement IV of his trombone quartet, where no chords contain notes from both fields,

and frequently uses contrary motion in the outer parts to aid motion between the fields. Many

decades after Hába’s work, Easley Blackwood was completely unable to work past this separation.

3.5 Blackwood

Easley Blackwood, in the late 1980s attempted an exploration of all ETs from 13 to 24. The result is

his Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media, Op. 28 (1980-1981). As his intention in

each of these ETs was to use the most appropriate representation of the diatonic scale, he

understandably found 24TET to be very difficult,137 considering that its best diatonic scale is in

12TET. As Blackwood seems to judge the consonance of intervals on their likeness to intervals of

12TET, he finds the inclusion of notes from the other field very dissonant. As such he treats them as

135
Skinner, p. 88.
136
Tymoczko, A Geometry of Music: Harmony and Counterpoint in the Extended Common Practice, p. 4.
137
Easley Blackwood, liner notes for Blackwood: Microtonal Compositions, Cedille Records CDR018. Available
from: Dram Online. Accessed on 3 November, 2014.
 44

‘dischords’ which are to be resolved to dissonance or consonances of 12TET.138 Accordingly we look

elsewhere for alternate pitch structures in Blackwood’s work. Where Blackwood found 24TET to be

very difficult to compose in, he found 15TET to be the most likeable ET (between 13 and 24). It may

be argued that the reason Blackwood preferred 15TET over 24TET, is because he made use of

alternative MOS scales in 15TET, but not in 24TET.

With fifths of 720c, 15TET does not provide a ‘recognisable diatonic scale’.139 Where its major and

minor tones differ by an enormous 80c, Blackwood deems 15TET inappropriate for the tuning of

common-practice music using 5-limit JI. Though Blackwood finds 15TET’s 5-limit diatonic scale ‘badly

out of tune’,140 he disagrees with conventional wisdom in regards to the sharpness of the fifths,

finding them not too large.141 Blackwood accordingly seeks to use 15TET’s recognisable major and

minor triads in non-diatonic systems.

In ‘Modes and Chord Progressions in Equal Tunings’, Blackwood first discusses 15TET’s five-note

circle of fifths. As five fifths of 720c make three octaves, the circle of fifths closes at five. Its notes,

recognisable as the pentatonic scale, subsequently divide the octave into five equal parts, each 240c

interval functioning ambiguously as either a tone or a minor third. Diatonic semitones then sound as

unisons, leading to 15TET’s identity as an unrecognisable diatonic tuning. Blackwood describes a

progression where major or minor chords follow the circle of fifths, arriving back at the tonic after

five. Noting that 15TET can be thought of as three intertwined 5TETs, Blackwood describes a ten-

note symmetrical mode that uses two of the three.142 This scale has been named after Blackwood,

and the regular temperament that defines it is considered Blackwood temperament under RTT. The

10 note scale is an MOS scale, with a period of a fifth of an octave and a generator of 3/2.

Accordingly it consists of five steps of 80c and five of 160c. Blackwood’s chord progression above,

138
Ibid., pp. 46-47.
139
Blackwood, The Structure of Recognizable Diatonic Tunings, p. 197.
140
Blackwood, ‘Modes and Chord Progressions in Equal Tunings’, p. 189.
141
Ibid., p. 186.
142
Ibid., pp. 188-193.
 45

with all major or all minor triads may be an appropriate characteristic chord sequence, as the

Blackwood comma, the difference between 5 fifths and 3 octaves, 256/243, is tempered out, and

the progression uses all 10-notes of the scale and no others. Where 960c makes a good

approximation of 7/4, Blackwood temperament is naturally extended to the 7-limit, where it is called

‘Blacksmith’ temperament.143 We can take the major and minor tetrads 4:5:6:7 and 1/(4:5:6:7) to be

our characteristic chords in this case, and then a progression of five major or minor tetrads by circle

of fifths is still contained within the 10-note scale. As such this could sequence is an appropriate

characteristic progression for the full 7-limit. Blackwood does not make much use of 15TET’s 7-limit

possibilities. A 10-note scale which more accurately represents the 7-limit will be explored in 22TET

in Chapter 4.

Blackwood notes also the presence of the six-note symmetric scale (the hexatonic scale of Cohn144)

in 15TET. He details the progression of three major triads we recall from Chapter 2.145 Major and

minor triads are parsimonious in 15TET as in 12TET, so the characteristic progression of Augmented

temperament is equivalent in 15TET to a PR series of parsimonious voice leading. Blackwood

suggests that the absence of major seconds from the hexatonic scale results in its infrequent use of

late Romantic music as compared to the octatonic scale, and that similarly his decatonic scale is

more useful an organising force.146

Looking then at root progression by the 320c minor third, where the fifth of one chord becomes the

third of the next, Blackwood notes that unlike in 12TET the tonic is not reached after four chords,

but after the full fifteen. However, he finds that after seven the dominant is reached, whereupon the

tonic can be resolved to via a traditional perfect cadence.147 This progression then tempers out the

143
Herman Miller, ‘15edo’, The Xenharmonic Wiki, (2007). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/15edo. Accessed on 28 February, 2013.
Blacksmith temperament like Semaphore is not complex, but rather inaccurate. 15TET represents the 7-limit
more accurately than 12TET, but not as accurately as 22TET.
144
Cohn, ‘Neo-Riemannian Operations, Parsimonious Trichords, and Their “Tonnetz” Representations,’ p. 35.
145
Blackwood, ‘Modes and Chord Progressions in Equal Tunings’, p. 195.
146
Ibid., p. 196.
147
Ibid., p. 198.
 46

difference between seven minor thirds of 6/5, and the perfect twelfth, 3/1: the kleisma of

15625/15552. After each major chord of the progression to the dominant can be placed its parallel

minor resulting in a PL series until that point, a perfect cadence closing the progression. As both

progressions use all and only the notes of the 11-note MOS scale discovered by David Hanson, they

may be appropriate characteristic progressions for the 5-limit ‘Hanson’ temperament.148 Blackwood

notes also that in the complete fifteen chord progression by root movement of 6/5, when the fifth of

each chord becomes the third of the next, the top line consists entirely of all 10 notes of a mode of

his decatonic scale,149 an interesting relationship that warrants further exploration.

Where Blackwood has found ways in which he could establish non-diatonic tonality by the combined

use of several regular temperaments, to give direction to his chord progressions and structure to his

melody, he suggested they be used only sparingly, where the ‘out of tune’ diatonic scale and simple

tonal root movements be used for the majority.150 An analysis of his Suite for Guitar in 15-Equal

Tuning, Op. 33 (1991) reveals Blackwood to have followed this notion, using these scales and

progressions only rarely. Where Blackwood also uses the notes of 5TET as a chord, nearly 80 years

earlier Ives makes use of a similar 5 note chord, its notes almost but not quite equally dividing the

octave.

3.6 Ives

Phillip Lambert identifies a number of techniques generally characterising Ives’ music that can be

identified in his Three Quarter-Tone Pieces (1923-1924), including palindromes, symmetrical sets and

148
Named after its discoverer David Hanson, this accurate 5-limit temperament is available also in 19TET,
whose minor third is practically just. Blackwood noted that the progression I have described as characteristic
of the temperament is available also in 19TET. It is also available in the very accurate 5-limit ETs 34 and 53ET.
As well as Hanson’s 11-note scale which may be taken as albitonic due to the characteristic progression
exhausting its notes, an interesting 7-note MOS scale exists.
149
Blackwood, ‘Modes and Chord Progressions in Equal Tunings’, p. 198.
150
Ibid., p 197.
 47

interval cycles.151 Skinner additionally identifies Ives’ use of allusion to common-practice tonality.

We will first discuss Ives use of chords in his quarter tone works.

In 24TET not only the fourth, but the fifth can be split in half. The interval of half a perfect fifth is

known as a ‘neutral third’, as it lies between the major and minor third. Two stacked neutral thirds

gives a ‘neutral triad’. Ives believes the triad to offer only a ‘weak compromise’152 between major

and minor, sounding like a ‘consonant triad with its third out of tune... not suitable for quarter tone

composition.’153 The neutral triad is a very good approximation to the just chord 18:22:27, where the

neutral third is seen to represent both 11/9 and 27/22, which added together give a perfect fifth,

3/2. The difference between the two just neutral thirds, 352/351 is then tempered out. Taking the

neutral third as a generator and the octave as the period we arrive at Mohajira temperament, on the

2.3.11 subgroup.

Ives chooses instead the ‘neutral seventh’; 18:22:27:33, a neutral triad with another neutral third

above the fifth, as his primary sonority. Though he describes the chord as a seventh chord it is not

notated this way in his Three Quarter-Tone Pieces, notated instead as a chord with a three-quarter

sharp second and sixth. The perfect fifth above the neutral third strengthens the chord to my ear.

Skinner notes that the chord is ‘inversionally symmetrical in pitch space as well as pitch-class space’,

such that it is its own intervallic inversion.154

The chord Ives chooses to use as his ‘secondary’ sonority is the pentad crafted from stacking the

semi-fourth four times. This chord can also be thought of as all of Semaphore[5] as a chord, similarly

to how the major 6 9 chord of Meantone temperament can be thought as the pentatonic scale,

Meantone[5], as a chord. Ives uses those two chords in his Chorale along with another chord which

is a four-note subset of the ‘Semaphore pentad’ discussed above, seemingly not exploiting the

151
Philip Lambert, The Music of Charles Ives (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997).
152
Charles E. Ives, ‘Some Quarter-Tone Impressions,’ Ives: Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings, ed.
Howard Boatwright (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1961), p. 106.
153
Skinner, p. 118.
154
Ibid., p. 119.
 48

relationship between these two chords. Ives use of these chords follows his tendency to use

palindromes, symmetrical sets and interval cycles in his music.

Ives does not make use of any MOS scales in the piece, despite his use of Semaphore[5] and

Mohajira[4] as chords. Mohajira temperament gives a 7 note MOS scale of which the common Rast

scale of the Middle East is a MODMOS. Despite Ives’ use of this temperament’s seventh chord he

does not hint at use of its 7-note MOS. The Chorale can be seen to be in C, with C neutral seventh as

the tonic chord. The roots of the chords lay often on 1, 4 and 5 of the traditional C Major, an allusion

to common practice harmony. This reflects Ives’ opinion of quarter-tone harmony: ‘Why tonality as

such should be thrown out for good, I can’t see. Why it should be always present, I can’t see’.155

Skinner argues that though common-practice tonality is not used in these preludes, ‘they exploit

prolongations of a tonic chord to create a tonal effect’.156 This could be described simply as tonality

by assertion, a recognised neo-tonal technique, or as ‘centricity’ of Tymoczko’s five features of

tonality.157 Had Ives used scales generated by the semi-fourth and neutral third as well as chords, he

would have fulfilled the other four of these features. This is not to say that his piece is not adequate

because it is not tonal, but to say that if it were to fulfil more tonal features, it would be more

cohesive and easy to follow.

3.7 Wyschnegradsky

In his quarter-tone compositions Wyschnegradsky has progressed further than Ives and Hába in his

use of scale structures generated by quarter-tone intervals. Wyschnegradsky spoke highly of the

very accurate approximation to 11/8 available in 24TET. He found that stacking this interval, which

he refers to as the ‘major fourth’, leads to a 13 note scale of two step sizes, the quarter tone and the

semitone. Wyschnegradsky recognised structural similarities with the diatonic scale; namely, as the

155
Ives, p. 117.
156
Skinner, p. 143.
157
Tymoczko, A Geometry of Music: Harmony and Counterpoint in the Extended Common Practice, p. 4.
 49

diatonic scale can be partitioned into two transposisionally equivalent tetrachords, this scale can be

partitioned into two equivalent heptachords, and both scales are generated by the cycling of an

interval. As the scale contains 11 steps of a semitone, however, it is very reminiscent of the

chromatic scale. Thus he named his 13-note scale ‘diatonique chromatisée’. After Skinner, it will be

referred to as the Diatonisized Chromatic scale, or ‘DC-scale’.158 With a generator of a major fourth

of 11/8 at 550c and a period of an octave, this is an MOS scale. However, this scale is too large to be

considered albitonic, and not particularly harmonically useful.

Skinner quotes the eight properties of the diatonic scale, as described by John Clough, Nora

Engebretsen, and Jonathan Kochavi, in “Scales, Sets, and Interval Cycles: A Taxonomy,”159

demonstrating then how Wyschnegradsky’s DC-scale exhibits the first seven of these. The eighth

property, the ‘Balzano property’ is defined only for certain ETs, including 12 and 20 but not 24. MOS

scales (with a period of an octave) necessarily demonstrate five of these properties. 160 Properties

that may apply to any ET can then be reduced to whether the scale is an MOS, and then whether it is

‘maximally even’(A MOS is maximally even if the scales step sizes differ by a single step of the ET).

The major fourth and its inversion, ic 5.5 feature in simultaneous sonorities in Wyschnegradsky’s 24

Préludes dans l’échelle chromatique diatonisée à 13 sons, Op. 22 (1934, rev. 1960 and 1970). Skinner

identifies tetrads featuring ic 5.5 used throughout. In Prelude 14, Wyschnegradsky used the

following chord as a ‘tonic’:

158
Skinner, pp. 146-147.
159
John Clough, Nora Engebretsen, and Jonathan Kochavi, ‘Scales, Sets, and Interval Cycles: A Taxonomy.’
Music Theory Spectrum 21.1 (1999): 74-104.
160
We understand them already to be ‘generated’ and ‘distributionally even’. They are also ‘deep’, where,
‘every interval class found within the scale occurs a unique number of times’, ‘well-formed’, where ‘each
generating interval spans a constant number of scale-steps’, and demonstrate the ‘Myhill property’, where
‘each generic interval occurs in exactly two specific sizes’. As the scales step sizes differ by a single step of the
ET, they are ‘maximally even’. ‘Diatonic scales’ occur only in ETs divisible by 4. A maximally even scale is
‘diatonic’ if the cardinality (size) c of ET it’s in is two less than twice as many steps as the scale.
– Skinner, p.
 50

Example 6: Skinner’s Example 5.15

161

In JI this chord may be described most simply as 11:13:16:19. It can thus be seen that in

Wyschnegradsky’s DC-scale, as well as in the diatonic scale, the tonic chords are generated by a cycle

of scale-steps (triads in the diatonic scale are generated by a cycle of two scale-steps (thirds), and

Wyschnegradsky’s tonic tetrad by three scale-steps). In both cases the triads are maximally even

within the scale.162 These properties ensure good voice leading between triads. As major and minor

triads in 12TET are maximally even within the chromatic scale also, they allow maximally smooth,

‘parsimonious’ voice leading, as described by Cohn.163 Skinner generalises Cohn’s neo-Riemannian

transformations for this tetrad, finding an appropriate minor chord and transformations between

major and minor tetrads that feature optimally smooth voice leading, by steps of a quarter-tone of a

semitone.

Skinner suggests that ‘we could therefore conclude that it is at least theoretically possible for music

to be composed with the DC-scale to support chord progressions prolongations analogous to those

we find in the common-practice tonal repertoire’,164 noting several examples in Wyschnegradsky’s

24 Préludes that could be ‘interpreted as prolongation of a tonic chord’ by use of ‘conventional tonal

techniques, such as passing-tones, neighbour-notes, voice exchanges, arpeggiations, and unfolding’

161
Skinner, p. 165.
162
Ibid., pp. 163-168.
163
Cohn, ‘Neo-Riemannian Operations, Parsimonious Trichords, and Their “Tonnetz” Representations’, pp. 1-3.
164
Skinner, pp. 168-169.
 51

over short spans of music. Prolongations over long periods of music also occur, but Skinner argues

that ‘ambiguities created by shared pairs of common tones in circle of fourths chord progressions

make it difficult to establish a case for harmonic syntax based on anything resembling the traditional

opposition between dominant and tonic.’165

Like Balzano’s system in 20edo (20 equal divisions of the octave166), Wyschnegradsky’s boasts

structure equivalent to that of the diatonic scale, generated by the interval one step from the half

octave, the ‘psuedo-fourth’. Though Wyschnegradsky is aware of the generating interval as an

accurate representation of 11/8, he did not write of the harmonic interpretation of other intervals.

Also like Balzano, then, his system is built without regard to acoustic consonance. Unlike that of

Balzano though, Wyschnegradsky’s tonic chord does have a simple JI interpretation. The 2.11.13.19

subgroup it lies in, though, lacks familiar and strong consonances; hence it is not a strong tonal-like

system.

3.8 Balzano

Balzano sought to generalise the algebraic properties of the diatonic scale, finding a candidate for a

scale sharing those properties in 20edo. Euler produced a 2D map of triads in 5-limit JI-space – the

Tonnetz, which when reinterpreted in 12TET, demonstrates also the algebraic properties of the

diatonic scale in 12TET. Cohn noted the extraordinary ‘over-determined’ properties of 12TET with

regard to consonance and algebraic properties, leading to parsimonious voice leading between

consonant triads.167 If Balzano’s system is to stand against the diatonic system in 12TET, its harmonic

165
Skinner, p. 160.
166
Though Balzano quotes a possible harmonic interpretation of his scale, his system is developed
‘independent of ratio concerns’ instead considering ‘the individual intervals as transformations forming a
mathematical group’. As such, his 20 equally spaced steps to the octave are not a ‘temperament’, but simple
an ‘equal division of the octave’ – ‘edo’. An ET is an edo with harmonic identities mapped to its steps.
167
Cohn, ‘Neo-Riemannian Operations, Parsimonious Trichords, and Their “Tonnetz” Representations’, pp. 1-5.
 52

interpretation (its consonance) should be of a similar standard. Balzano himself gave a possible

harmonic interpretation of its scale. This will now be put under scrutiny.

Upon examining Bolzano’s table:168

Table 2: Balzano’s ratios for 20edo

It is immediately apparent that the simplest and therefore most consonant ratios, (spanning less

than the half-octave) upon which the familiar major and minor triads are built, namely 4/3, 5/4 and

6/5, are absent. These are present as 12TET in 24TET of course. 7/4 at least is present and other

ratios of 3 and 5 are also included. If 20TET is to be a closed ET, then 3/2 and 5/4 must be present, as

it is possible to add and subtract intervals, multiplying and dividing their ratios until the identities are

reached. In an attempt to do as such we find that Balzano’s ratios are inconsistent.169

168
Balzano, p. 81.
169
As 8/7 is 4 steps, 7/4 is 16 steps. 21/16 is given as 8 steps. As 21/8, at 28 steps is 3/2 above 7/4. We find
3/2 therefore at 28-16=12 steps. As 12 steps gives 720c, this is a rather sharp representation of 3/2. Further,
two 12 step intervals of 3/2 reduced an octave gives 9/8 at 4 steps, where we have 8/7. From this we know
that 28/27 is tempered out, however, Balzano gives 28/27 as 1 step! The 2.3.7 subgroup is in then reduced to
th
5edo, covering only a quarter of the notes. We seek next to find the 5 partial. We look at 32/25, the octave
inversion of 25/16, which two stacked 5/4 major thirds. Where 32/35 is given at 7 steps, 25/16 is found at 13
and 5/4 is absent. We look instead at 10 steps: 45/32. Dividing this interval by the tone 9/8 will give us 5/4. We
have found 9/8 to be at 4 steps, so 5/4 is at 10-4=6 steps. At 360c the 5/4 is even less satisfactory than 3/2.
 53

Balzano seemed unwilling to look beyond the 7-limit, for he failed to mention that 6 steps of 20edo

gives an extremely good approximation of 16/13. Leaving out partials 3 and 5, due to their poor

approximations, we can interpret 300c, common to 12TET, instead of 23/27 (Pythagorean minor

third) or 6/5 (Meantone minor third), as 19/16, which it approximates very well.170 16/15 is also well

approximated by 18 steps of 20edo.171 If we take the pseudo-fourth of 20edo to be 11/8, and 4 steps

to be 8/7, 5 to be 19/16, 6 to be 16/13 and 2 to be 16/15, we arrive instead at the following table in

the 2.7.11.13.15.19 subgroup:

Group element Ratio Other ratios Cents “Ideal” Cents

0 1/1 0 0
1 91/88 58.04 60
2 16/15 15/14, 14/13 111.73, 119.44, 128.30 120
3 182/165 195/176 169.77, 177.48 180
4 8/7 15/13 231.17, 247.74 240
5 19/16 13/11 297.51, 289.21 300
6 16/13 359.47 360
7 14/11 19/15 417.51, 409.24 420
8 64/49 120/91 462.35, 478.92 480
9 11/8 15/11, 26/19 551.32, 536.95, 543.01 540
10 128/91 590.65 600

Table 3: Improved ratios for 20edo

Worse, as 3/2 is 720c and 5/4 360, 6/5 lies also at 360c, 44c sharp! Our 5-limit major and minor thirds are now
neutral thirds and our 7-limit system has been reduced to 10TET. In 10TET the neutral thirds, more accurately
given at 11/9 or 16/13, generate the same 7-note neutral scale we discussed above. In this fascinating (but
inaccurate) system, Ives primary triad, the neutral seventh chord is also both a 5-limit major and minor
seventh chord!
170
Many theorists considered 19/16 to be to correct interpretation of the minor third of 12TET. Their
arguments include the greater accuracy with which 300c approximates 19/16, and the benefit of the minor
triad then, as 16:19:24, being ‘rooted’, like the major chord 4:5:6. As the fundamental on which the 5-limit
minor chord 10:12:15 sits is 5/4 below its tonic, if heard, which it may well be if justly tuned, due to linear
distortion, the chord becomes a major seventh chord 8:10:12:15, and this may be problematic for identity of
the minor triad and its root. Some theorists such as Partch and Hindemith consider a dual system in which the
‘root’ of the minor triad is actually its fifth, from which 5/4 and then 6/5 are stacked below, in an undertone
rather than overtone series. Partch’s Otonalities and Utonalaties are an extension to this idea. Some consider a
‘utonal’ chord to be equally as consonant as its otonal analogue, but several psychological experiments show
this not to be the case.
171
Though 15 is equal to the product of 3 and 5, the 3 and 5 identities needn’t be present.
 54

The absence again of 4/3, 5/4 and 6/5 demonstrates that 20edo is not a very consonant ET and, as

Balzano’s triads: group elements 0-5-9 and 0-4-9172 do not have simple JI interpretations in either his

inconsistent system or my own, we understand them to be dissonant.

3.9 Conclusion

Clearly, structures exist boasting algebraic and group-theoretic properties carried by the diatonic

scale in 12TET. Those described so far lack chords consonant enough for them to be as successful a

system. We have also shown, that as well as 12TET, ETs of 24, 20 and 15 allow several systems of

pitch organisation that can be described by RTT, but they don’t improve enough on the intonation of

12TET to warrant the increased complexity they posses. It is apparent that, where we set out in the

first Chapter to explore solutions with 5/4 better intoned in 12TET, none of these systems have that

to offer. In the next Chapter I show that 22TET is the most appropriate microtonal ET as it not only

improves the intonation of 5/4, but of JI in general, and pitch systems may be developed that make

use of those consonances.

172
Balzano, p. 75.
 55

Chapter 4 – My Model

4.1 Equal Temperaments – Why 22TET is ideal

MOS scales, regular temperament and comma pumps are available in any ET. In 22TET however,

they may make use of a variety of consonant chords and are not too complex. If we are to decide

which ET will be more valuable we can look at how well each ET approximates JI in various limits,

relative to step-size. While Western music today is considered to be 5-limit, some theory and

practice includes a 7-limit interpretation of dominant sevenths and tritones. We may seek more

accurate intonation of 5 and 7-limit JI so that these just intervals may more easily be accessed in

performance, resulting in less tuning issues. It may be fruitful also, as Partch has suggested, to look

further, into the 11-limit. The following table shows the ‘badness’ of ETs that have been mentioned

thus far in the 5, 7 and 11-(odd)limits, where badness is the error of the ET’s approximation to just

intonation multiplied by its complexity (size or cardinality).173

173
Given the best mappings for the primes, the highest error with which any interval of the tonality diamond is
approximated gives a useful measure of the tuning error of the ET. The complexity of an ET is simply
proportional to its size/cardinality. Multiplying error by the complexity, we arrive at a measure of the ‘badness’
of the ET. As in the 7-limit 20TET collapses to 10TET, we have included 10TET and not 20TET. In the 11-limit
(and in the 9-limit) 20TET has a maximum error of 62.40, larger than the maximum error of all of ETs on the
table apart from 10. If included in the table, 20TET would have the highest badness ratings in all limits.
 56

ET 10 12 15 19 22 24 31
Error of 3/2 (701.96c) 18.04 -1.96 18.04 -7.22 7.14 -1.96 -5.18
Error of 5/4 (386.31c) -26.31 13.69 13.69 -7.37 -4.50 13.69 0.78
Error of 7/4 (968.83c) -8.83 31.17 -8.83 -21.46 12.99 -18.83 -1.08
Error of 9/8 (203.91c) 36.09 -3.91 36.09 -14.44 14.27 -3.91 -10.36
Error of 11/8 (551.32c) 48.68 48.68 -8.68 17.10 -5.68 -1.32 -9.38
Max 5-limit error 44.35 15.65 18.04 7.37 11.64 15.65 5.96
5-limit badness 443.5 187.8 270.6 140.0 256.1 375.6 184.8
Max 7-limit error 44.35 33.13 26.87 21.46 17.49 32.52 5.96
7-limit badness 443.5 397.6 403.1 407.7 384.8 780.5 184.8
Max 11-limit error 74.99 52.59 44.92 38.56 19.95 32.52 15.34
11-limit badness 749.9 631.1 673.8 732.6 438.9 780.5 475.5
174

Table 4.1. 5-limit, 7-limit and 11-limit Badness of ETs

Where it was our aim to find system which both improves upon the accuracy of 12TET in the 5-limit

and to extend its harmonic base at least to the 7-limit, we refer to the above table in our search for

such systems. Our ET needs lower 5-limit error and 12TET. Where we can easily improve upon the 7

or 11-limit error of 12TET, to ensure that the extensions are effective and the increased complexity

adequately rewarded we further require that 7 or 11-limit badness of our ET be lower than of 12TET.

Both in the 7 and 11-limits we find 22TET, 31TET, 41TET and 53TET...

19TET looks to be an appropriate next step if we are only interested in the 5-limit. Looking outside of

the 5-limit however, 22TET seems more appropriate. Although 31TET looks very impressive in the 7-

limit, Paul Erlich has suggested that 31TET does not allow the use the full 7-limit in an albitonic scale

generated by the fifth.175 It can be shown that this is true for albitonic scales of 31TET of any

generator. 19TET, as well as 10TET and 15TET, similarly provides other temperaments which allow

174
According to this simple badness measure, in the 5-limit 19TET and 31TET are less ‘bad’ than 12TET, but
31TET only just. In the 7-limit 22TET and 31TET are less ‘bad’ than 12TET. In the 11-limit 31TET and 22TET
again improve upon 12TET, 22TET to a larger extent. 24TET has the highest badness in all limits.
175
Erlich, ‘Tuning, Tonality and 22-Tone Temperament’, pp. 2, 9.
 57

the use of the full 7-limit in the albitonic scale, but again the tuning of the 7-limit in these ETs is not

as good as in 22TET.

22TET may be used simply as an approximation to JI, equipped to consistently approximate the

works of Partch, La Mont Young and Johnston or the tetrachords of Ptolemy, al-Farabi and Archytas.

5-limit JI may be used, with the 5-limit diatonic scale of three step sizes. It is better though to exploit

the regularity that can be gained by the use of MOS scales of regular temperaments, and it will be

shown that three of these scales – Superpyth[7], Porcupine[7] and Pajara[10] allow tetrachordal

interpretations and provide alternative consonant chords that may be used in novel progressions.

The combination of these three systems in 22TET allows for a model just as strong as, and more

varied and interesting than the current and historic use of 12TET.

4.2 Superpyth

Superpyth temperament, discussed in Chapter 2, is very poorly in 12TET and very well in 22TET.

Whereas in Meantone the structural third (the third generated by 4 fifths) is the best 5/4, in 22TET

the structural third is instead a very good approximation to 9/7, where instead of 81/80, 64/63 is

tempered out. Where 31TET is practically equivalent to ¼-comma Meantone due to its very accurate

5/4,176 22TET is similarly related to ¼-comma Superpyth due to its very accurate 9/7. ¼-comma

Meantone is considered by many theorists to be the optimal Meantone, and similarly ¼-comma

Superpyth can be seen as optimal Superpyth. In can thus be seen that 22TET is an ideal platform for

Superpyth temperament.177 While most music from the common practice cannot be faithfully

represented in 22TET, the 2.3.7 just tuning of the diatonic scale that Superpyth provides was the

most common scale in Ancient Greek music for four centuries.178 It may be fruitful to treat the

176
This was discussed by Huygens.
177
Secor, ‘The 17-tone Puzzle – And the Neo-Medieval Key That Unlocks It’, p. 63.
178
Chalmers, p. 187.
 58

Ancient Greek 2.3.7 tuning of the diatonic scale with Superpyth temperament similarly to how the

familiar 2.3.5 tuning is treated in Meantone.

The diatonic scale of Superpyth temperament has the same structure as Pythagorean and Meantone

temperaments, but with different spacing. In 22TET the diatonic semitone of 54.5c is barely larger

than a quarter-tone, and the chromatic semitone is three times the size at 163.6c, 22TET’s minor

tone! As Superpyth is defined on the 2.3.7 subgroup, its characteristic chords must lay within that

subgroup. Taking 1-3-5 triads as characteristic chords, as before, we observe a minor triad of 6:7:9

and a major of 14:18:21.179 Characteristic chord progressions may be the same as in Meantone, but

for different tuning, and pumping 64/63 rather than 81/80. In opposition to Meantone, the minor

chord is much more consonant than the major chord in Superpyth so a characteristic progression

may be set in the minor rather than the major key and maximise the use of minor over major triads.

For example, ‘i-iv-VII-III-i’ is the characteristic chord progression of Meantone given in Chapter 2 in

the relative minor, beginning and ending on vi. It may be wise to resolve to minor rather than major

chords. We can visualise this progression in a 2.3.7 tonnetz, with axes of 3/2, 7/6 and 9/7 instead of

3/2, 6/5 and 5/4 as in the 5-limit tonnetz. A Superpyth comma pump in this 2.3.7 lattice looks exactly

the same as a Meantone comma pump in 2.3.5 and the same transformations may be identified,

with the same function within the diatonic scale.180 In 22TET the chroma is 3 steps and the tone is 4

so these transformations are not parsimonious, however the L transformation is very smooth,

involving movement by a single degree of 22TET.

The dominant 9 chord with no third – a minor triad with a fifth added below the tonic, representing

the just tetrad 4:6:7:9 – is particularly consonant in Superpyth also, and may feature in progressions.

If we wish to extend Superpyth to the full 7-limit we observe that 9 fifths upwards leads us to 22TETs

179
As well as three Major triads of 14:18:21 and three minor triads of 6:7:9, one diminished triad of 24:28:33 is
found within the diatonic scale. Seventh chords include two major sevenths of 14:18:21:27, one dominant
major-minor seventh of 28:36:42:49, three minor sevenths of 12:14:18:21, and one half-diminished seventh of
24:28:33:42.
180
I.e. P moves the third by a chroma, changing a chord from major to minor and vice-versa, L drops the root
of a major triad by a minor second and R raises the fifth of a major triad by a tone.
 59

second major third. At 382c, only 4c flat of 5/4, this major third is more accurate than that of 12TET,

and also 19TET. 22TET also houses rather accurate approximations of 11/8, at 6c flat. The following

table shows the error with which 22TET represents the intervals of the 11-limit tonality diamond

within half an octave.181

Interval Error
9/7 1.280
11/10 -1.368
5/4 -4.496
7/6 5.856
11/8 -5.863
4/3 -7.136
6/5 11.631
8/7 -12.992
12/11 12.999
9/8 14.272
7/5 17.488
10/9 -18.767
14/11 18.856
11/9 -20.135

Table 4.2. Error of 11-limit intervals of 22TET

22TET’s approximation of 11/8 can be reached by 6 fifths downward, leading to Suprapyth

temperament, extending Superpyth to the full 11-limit. The table below shows Suprapyth[22],

housed in 22TET. ‘Gens’ is short for generators, and show how many generators it takes to reach the

intervals. Intervals are labelled in terms of their function in the 7-note albitonic scale and the the

notes of the 12-note chromatic and 17-note hyperchromatic scales are numbered.

181
Hans Straub, ‘22edo’, The Xenharmonic Wiki (2007). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/22edo. Accessed on 18 October, 2014.
 60

The pentatonic scale is comprised of steps of 4 and 5 (degrees of 22TET), as 44545 and is the

maximally even 5-note scale in 22TET. The seven note scale is comprised of steps of 1 and 4 degrees,

where Superpyth[7] 5|1 is 4414441 and its chromatic scale 313113131311. A more even 12-note

chromatic scale may be found in Pajara temperament.

Suprapyth {55/54, 64/63, 99/98}182

Degree Cents Gens Ratio [7] [12] [17]

0 0 0 1/1 P1 0 0
1 54.55 -5 28/27~49/48~22/21~33/32 m2 1 1
2 109.09 -10 16/15 ~ 21/20 d3
3 163.64 7 10/9 ~ 12/11 A1 2
4 218.18 2 9/8 ~ 8/7 M2 2 3
5 272.72 -3 7/6 m3 3 4
6 327.27 -8 6/5 ~ 11/9 d4 5
7 381.82 9 5/4 A2
8 436.36 4 9/7 ~ 14/11 M3 4 6
9 490.91 -1 4/3 P4 5 7
10 545.45 -6 27/20 ~ 11/8 d5 6 8
11 600 -11/11 7/5 / 10/7 d6/A3
12 654.55 6 40/27 ~ 16/11 A4 6 9
13 709.09 1 3/2 P5 7 10
14 763.63 -4 14/9 ~ 11/7 m6 8 11
15 818.18 -9 8/5 d7
16 872.72 8 5/3 ~ 18/11 A5 12
17 927.27 3 12/7 M6 9 13
18 981.82 -2 16/9 ~ 7/4 m7 10 14
19 1036.36 -7 9/5 ~ 11/6 d8 15
20 1090.91 10 15/8 ~ 40/21 A6
21 1145.45 5 27/14~96/49~21/11~64/33 M7 11 16
22 1200 0 P8 12 17

Table 4.3. Suprapyth[22] in 22TET

182
The name of the temperament is proceeded by a description of the simplest basis of commas tempered
out. This basis mathematically defines the temperament.
 61

4.3 Pajara

Through a search for a diatonic-like scale that extends the properties of the diatonic scale to the full

7-limit Paul Erlich is lead to Pajara temperament in 22TET. Pajara temperament is generated by the

perfect fifth, with a half-octave period, and it is defined by the equivalency of 7/5 and 10/7 at the

half octave, tempering out 50/49. To this comma is added the tempering out of 64/63 as in

Superpyth temperament. As mentioned above, where 50/49 and 64/63 are tempered out, tritone

substitutions with 4:5:6:7 dominant chords may occur. Complete MOS scales are available in 10, 12

and 22 notes and Pajara temperament is available in 12,183 22, 34 and 56TET.184 In 12TET since the

albitonic scale of 10 notes (named ‘Decatonic’ by Erlich) is almost all of 12TET Pajara temperament

does not see much use apart from in tritone substitutions, though Erlich has suggested the

possibility that passages of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, which features the tritone, make use of the

scales and relationships of Pajara temperament.185

Pajara[22] in 22TET is shown below, with step-class names for the 10 note albitonic scale and its

pentachordal MOSMOS (explained below). Erlich takes 4:5:6:7, the major tetrad, and its intervallic

inversion 1/(4:5:6:7) (though in second inversion), the minor tetrad, to be the characteristic or base

chords.186 As in Superpyth, 11/8 can be found at -6 generators, tempering out 99/98. As the period

of Pajara is the half-octave, the fifth reduced by a half-octave – the interval of 109c – is also reach by

a single generator. At 105c, 17/16 is represented well by this interval, extended Pajara to

2.3.5.7.11.17 by tempering out 85/84. Thus 22TET’s semitone is also seen to represent 18/17, as well

as 16/15, 15/14 and 21/20. I have gone to the 17-limit in my description of Pajara despite my

promise to stay within in the 11-limit in order to explain the consonance of the minor tetrad.

183
12TET also is not particularly accurate in the 7-limit. It is not always considered a 7-limit ET and as such is
not considered by some theorists to support Pajara temperament.
184
Gene Ward Smith, ‘Diaschismic Family’, The Xenharmonic Wiki (2010). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/diaschismic+family. Accessed on October 30, 2014.
185
Paul Erlich, personal communication.
186
Erlich, ‘Tuning, Tonality and 22-Tone Temperament’, pp. 9-10.
 62

Pajara {50/49, 64/63, 99/98, (85/84)}

Degree Cents Gens Ratio [10] Pentachordal [12]/12TET

0 0 0 1/1 P1 P1 0
1 54.55 -5 25/24 ~ 28/27 ~ 22/21 A1 A1
2 109.09 1 16/15~15/14~21/20(~17/16~18/17) m2 m2 1
3 163.64 -4 10/9 ~ 11/10 M2 M2
4 218.18 2 9/8 ~ 8/7 (~ 17/15) m3 m3 2
5 272.72 -3 7/6 (~ 20/17) M3 M3 3
6 327.27 3 6/5 (~ 17/14) m4 m4 3
7 381.82 -2 5/4 M4 M4 4
8 436.36 4 9/7 ~ 14/11 ~ 32/25 m5 d5/A4
9 490.91 -1 4/3 M5 P5 5
10 545.45 5 27/20 ~ 48/35 d6/A5 d6/A5
11 600 0 7/5 ~ 10/7 (~ 24/17 ~ 17/12) P6 P6 6
12 654.55 -5 40/27 ~ 35/24 A6/d6 A6/d7
13 709.09 1 3/2 m7 P7 7
14 763.63 -4 14/9 ~ 11/7 ~ 25/16 M7 A7/d8
15 818.18 2 8/5 m8 m8 8
16 872.72 -3 5/3 (~ 28/17) M8 M8 9
17 927.27 3 12/7 (~ 17/10) m9 m9 9
18 981.82 -2 16/9 ~ 7/4 (~30/17) M9 M9 10
19 1036.4 4 9/5 ~ 20/11 m10 m10
20 1090.9 -1 15/8~28/15~40/21(~32/17~17/9) M10 M10 11
21 1145.5 5 48/25 ~ 27/14 ~ 21/11 d11 d11
22 1200 0 2/1 P11 P11 12

Table 4.4. Pajara[22] in 22TET

In the 10 note MOS scale – 3222232222 – tetrads of step-class 1-4-7-9 house the characteristic

chords. One scale contains four major tetrads of 4:5:6:7, four minor tetrads of 1/(4:5:6:7) (or

10:12:15:17 if we extend the temperament to the 2.3.7.11.17 subgroup), and two augmented

tetrads of 16:20:25:28. As the minor is both the scalic and intervallic minor of 4:5:6:7, and has a

simple JI expression in 10:12:15:17, this system is both strong and consonant.

Clearly since this scale has 10 notes it cannot be tetrachordal. However, Paul discovers that one

alteration of the scale leads to the ‘pentachordal’ MODMOS scale 3222223222. Where a pentachord

is defined as the division of 4/3 into 4 intervals, the scale is made of two identical pentachords of

3222, with 9/8 left over, itself divided into two steps of 2 degrees.
 63

The (generalised) octave species of the pentachord

16/15 · 15/14 · 21/20 · 10/9,

in dorian mode is labelled as Pajara[10] 4|0 (2) ♭6.

A 12 note MOS, 222221222221, is also available in Pajara temperament. Since we know 12TET

supports Pajara, Pajara[12] in 12TET is all of 12TET, therefore we know that Pajara[12] gives 22TET’s

best approximation of 12TET. Music in 12TET that does not pump other 5-limit commas such as the

Meantone comma or the greater of lesser dieses can be played in 22TET as Pajara[12].

By Cohn’s definition, major and minor triads in this system (and in any system of 22TET where 4:5:6

and 10:12:15 are the major and minor triads) are not parsimonious, though the use of P, L and R

transformations of these major and minor chords leads to smooth voice leading in any system that

approximates the major and minor triads with reasonable accuracy. P transformations are by 1

degree of 22TET, the chroma of Pajara[10], L by 2 degrees, the small step, and R by 3, the large step,

which at 165c is still smaller than the step R moves by in 12TET, so voice leading is arguably

smoother in 22TET than in 12TET, despite not being classified as parsimonious.

5-limit Pajara is known as ‘Diaschismic’, where the diaschisma, 2048/2025, the difference between

two tritones of 45/36 (a major third of 5/4 plus a tone of 9/8) and an octave, is tempered out. Where

it has been suggested that the tuning of Indian Classical music to a scale of 22 srutis can be explained

in terms of this system, it is also known as ‘Srutal’. We may traverse the 5-limit tonnetz using neo-

Riemannian transformations of major and minor triads found on steps 1-4-7. A characteristic

progression may emphasise similarity at the tritone, repeating at the tritone where progressions for

Augmented and Diminished temperaments repeat at their periods until an octave is reached. An

example of a characteristic progression in Pajara[10] (equivalently Srutal[10] or Diaschismic[10]) is as

follows:

I-iv-(VII)-xi-VI-x-(II)-v-I
 64

In 12TET in C Major this is:

C-e-(G)-b-F♯=G♭-b♭-(D♭)-f-C187 .

Only one chord of e and G and of b♭ and D♭ must be played. I prefer playing the e and the b♭. Both

chords of each pair may be employed for optimally smooth voice leading.

To complete a tetrad, a note is placed a ‘decatonic sixth’ above the third (‘decatonic fourth’) of a

triad. The sixth is always a P6 though, as it is the period, the half-octave. Therefore four major triads

become major tetrads, four minor triads become minor tetrads and two augmented triads become

augmented tetrads with no added complexity. We could then play the above progression with all

major and minor tetrads by adding the seventh (decatonic ninth) to form a characteristic progression

for tetrads. However with tetrads the 7-limit comma 50/49 may be pumped with many fewer

chords. It can also be seen that progressions involving tetrads have smoother voice-leading.

Given that the major tetrad comprises of intervals of 7-6-5-4 degrees, SLIDE transformations, under

Gollin’s Neo-Riemannian theory for tetrads would be parsimonious.188 In each transformation, two

notes move in parallel and two notes remain stationary. Instead of treating the half-diminished

seventh chord as the minor to the dominant seventh, as Gollin,189 Hook190 and Childs191 have done,

we can instead consider it a minor tetrad as in Pajara temperament, the minor 6 chord in 12TET. In

this way the major tetrad contains the major triad plus one extra note as before, but now also the

187
Capital letters signify major chords; lower case letters signify minor chords.
188
Hans Straub, ‘Xenoromantic Composition in 22edo’, Message 28641, Yahoo Group ‘Making Microtonal
Music’ (2012). Available from:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/makemicromusic/conversations/messages/28641. Accessed on 19
September, 2014.
It is worth noting however that where under Gollin’s and Child’s tetradic systems the half diminished seventh
is seen as the minor to the dominant seventh chord, as it is the intervallic inversion of a dominant seventh
chord, in Pajara the minor tetrad, the first inversion of a half diminished seventh chord is instead taken to be
the minor of the dominant seventh chord. Note also the two different meaning taken by ‘inversion’ in the
above sentence.
189
Edward Gollin, ‘Some Aspects of Three-Dimensional “Tonnetze”’, Journal of Music Theory 42/2 (1998): 195-
206. Available from: JSTOR. Accessed on 1 October 2014.
190
Julian Hook, ‘Uniform Triadic Transformations’, Journal of Music Theory 46 / 1/2 (2002): 111-114. Available
from: JSTOR. Accessed on October 1 2014.
191
Childs, pp. 181-193.
 65

minor tetrad is a minor triad with an added (major) sixth. Where the extra note is always a half-

octave above the third (decatonic fourth), we can label the transformations after their names for

triads, and visualise them on a 2-dimensional tonnetz. This model simplifies the 3-dimensional

models of Childs and Gollin.

The transformation of a major tetrad to a minor tetrad on the same tonic and of the same inversion

may be labelled P. In this transformation the third and seventh (decatonic fourth and ninth) move by

a single step of 22TET, the chroma of Pajara[10]. The inverse of this transformation, in which the

tonic and the fifth (decatonic seventh) move by a single step of 22TET and the decatonic fourth and

ninth remain stationary, transforming C7 to d♭6,192 may be labelled P’, after the P’ transformation of

Morris193 that takes C to d♭. This transformation was described in Chapter 2 as the Slide

transformation of Lewin, but there are six tetradic neo-Riemannian transformations which

demonstrate the same properties as the Slide transformation, modelled after them by Gollin and

labelled as such.

Similarly, where L took the C Major, root position triad to e minor in second inversion, in the case of

major and minor tetrads, L takes C7 in root position to e6 in third inversion. Where note changes are

by shortest path, both notes move by the small step: two degrees of 22TET. Where R took the G

major triad in root position to e minor in first inversion, in the case of major and minor tetrads R

takes G7 in root position to e6 in first inversion. Again, both notes move by the small step. As in the

diatonic scale, R and L transformations may be employed between chords within a single albitonic

scale, where as P and P’ transformations may be employed as a means of mode mixture or

modulation. It remains to define three tetradic, parsimonious transformations in 22TET.

One of these is different from all others in that it maps a major tetrad to a major tetrad and a minor

tetrad to a minor tetrad, does not have a parallel in triad transformations, and in which the notes
192 6
d♭ is a minor add major six chord, commonly referred to as a minor six chord.
193
Robert D. Morris, ‘Voice-Leading Spaces.’ Music Theory Spectrum 20/2 (1998): 175-208. Available from:
Oxford Journals. Accessed on 27 October, 2014.
 66

move in contrary motion rather than in parallel. This transformation is the tritone substitution,

transposing a chord up a tritone: the half-octave. As the half-octave is the period of Pajara, we know

that tritone substitutions are available on every note of an MOS scale. The tonic of a major or minor

tetrad moves up a small step, and the fifth moves down a small step. In set theory notation, the

transformation would be labelled as T11 in 22TET, transposition of 11 degrees, and T6 in 12,

transposition by 6 degrees of 12TET. As I wish to label transformation as in the tonnetz, non-specific

to ET, and generalisable to other sub-octave periods, I will label this transformation ‘T1/2’, for

transposition by the half-octave. Applying T1/2 twice leads back to the original chord, ie. T1/2T1/2 = I,

the identity transformation, as does applying any of the other transformations twice. There is no

T1/2’ transformation. R’ and L’ are similarly extended from their triadic function after Morris,

remaining non-parsimonious.194

When using major and minor tetrads, the comma pump above may be reduced to only two chords:

I9-VI9-I9, where T is applied twice, transposing up by tritone twice, tempering out 50/49. In 12TET in C

major this would read:

C7- F♯7= G♭7- C7.

194
Where R’ and L’ transformations are not parsimonious for triads in 12TET (and in 22TET), they are not
6
parsimonious for tetrads in 22TET. R’ however, transforming C7 into g , is parsimonious in 12TET, with E, G and
B♭ as common tones, the C moving by tone to D. In 22TET G would move up by a chroma (1 degree) and C by a
large step (three degrees). L’ is far from parsimonious in 12TET and 22TET, taking C to f. Hastily applied to
tetrads, these transformations no longer demonstrate the properties that lead to their descriptions, where It
may be more useful to redefine R’ and L’ for tetrads, as the inverses of the tetradic R and l operations. In this
6 6
case R’ would take C7 to b♭ , and L’ would take C7 to e♭ (and vice-versa). In both cases note changes occur by
small step. However, it can be seen that in this case L’=T1/2R=RT1/2 and R’=T1/2L=LT1/2. This is still a simple way
to describe the transformations that may tell us more about their function in Pajara temperament, so R’ and L’
may remain defined as there were in the case of triadic transformations, and will be for this paper. An avenue
for research may be to gauge the possible applicability of these transformations to late Romantic music of
12TET. The connection between these tetradic transformations and the existing triadic transformation they
are based upon may be allow a more useful way to analyse such music than existing models, as well as a great
way to approach composition in Pajara temperament!
 67

T1/2 may be applied anywhere along the progression, transposing by a period and skipping several

chords in the progression, e.g.

I9-iv9-(VII9)-xi9-VI9-x9-(II9)-v9-I9 C7- e6-(G7)-b6-F♯7=G♭7- b♭6-( D♭7)- f6- C7

(transformations L, R, L, L’, L, R, L, L’)

may be reduced to:

I9-iv9-x9-(II9)-v9-I9 C7-e6-b♭6-(D♭7)-f6- C7

(transformations L, T1/2, R, L, L’).

One may apply T1/2R=RT1/2 or T1/2L=LT1/2 as a single transformation as well, further shortening the

progression, e.g.

I9-x9-(II9)-v9-I9 C7- b♭6-(D♭7)-f6- C7,

(transformations L, T1/2R, L, L’)

where the bracketed chords may also be left out as before.

If we take the base chords to be tetrads in order to exploit the 7-limit, as suggested by Erlich, then

the ‘9’ superscripts are unnecessary, as each chord is assumed to have a ninth. In this case a triad

may be specified by a ‘no 9’ superscript. Taking tetrads as characteristic chords satisfies allows the

satisfaction of Erlich’s 4th property of a diatonic scale, ensuring that the macroharmony is covered by

a small number of consonant chords. All other properties are satisfied.

The chord progressions listed above are all available in Pajara[10] 2|2 (2): 2232222322, which may

be taken as the standard major scale. In his PhD dissertation, ‘A Computational Model of the

Cognition of Tonality’, 195 Andrew Milne arrives, through computational modelling of the cognition of

195
Andrew J. Milne, ‘A Computational Model of the Cognition of Tonality’ (PhD diss., The Open University,
2013).
 68

tonality, at the same major scale for Pajara[10], as well as the major and minor scales we have

defined above for Meantone/Superpyth. Milne defines Pajara[10] 1|3 (2): 2223222232 as his minor

scale. He also calculates the most appropriate final cadences in these scales, arriving at the familiar

perfect cadence for Meantone.196 In the Pajara minor scale, Milne arrives at cadences of

VII9 - i and II9 - i (V7 - i and ♭II7 - i with respect to the diatonic scale in 12TET),

where ♭II7 (II9) is the tritone substitution of V7 (VII9). Where Milne takes 5-limit triads as his base

chords, we will extend again to 7-limit tetrads. We then have ‘VII - i’ and ‘II - i’ as our strongest

cadences in the minor scale.197 Reversing the direction of these cadences, we define ‘v - I’ and ‘x - I’

(L’ and TL’) as our cadences for the major scale where the progressions above conclude with the v - I

cadence and x - I is its tritone substitution.

An additional system discussed by Milne is Porcupine temperament, wherein the familiar five-limit

major and minor triads are taken as base chords in my approach as well as his.

4.4 Porcupine

Porcupine is the most simple, accurate 5-limit temperament that cannot be represented in 12TET. It

has a natural and very simple 2.3.5.11 subgroup extension and further a useful full 11-limit

extension, where the whole 11-limit may be used in a single 7-note albitonic MODMOS. Porcupine

temperament has complete MOS scales of 7, 8, 15 and 22 notes198. It can be well represented in 15,

22, 37 and 59TET. 22TET gives 11-limit porcupine accurately, without too many notes, as it does with

Pajara and Superpyth.

196
Ibid., pp. 184-187.
197 9
Our penultimate chords remain unchanged, whereas our tonic chord would now be described as i in a
6
triadic basis and as i with respect to the diatonic scale in 12TET.
198
An incomplete MOS scale is an MOS in which the immediately larger MOS is of P more notes, where P is the
number of periods per octave, and has the same small step. E.g. Porcupine[2], [3], [4], [5] and [6], and
Pajara[4], [6], and [8] are incomplete MOS. Incomplete MOS will not be considered haplotonic, albitonic or
chromatic scales, instead seen only as subsets of the smallest complete MOS of higher cardinality.
 69

In the 5-limit 250/243 is tempered out, equating three minor thirds with two fourths. As a result, the

minor third, as opposed to the major third as with Meantone, is divided into two equal parts, three

of these making a 4/3 fourth. The interval that divides twice into a sharp minor third and thrice into

a flat fourth is the generator of porcupine temperament. In the 5-limit it represents a flat minor

tone, 10/9, and if prime 11 is added we see it approximates the 11-limit neutral tones 11/10 and

12/11. Thus 100/99 is tempered out (as well as 121/120). By equating two flat fourths (16:9) with a

harmonic seventh (7:4) as we did in Pajara and Superpyth, we include prime 7, tempering out 64/63,

for a full 11-limit temperament.199

The 7-note scale is more appropriate for an albitonic scale, and has enjoyed more use that the 8-

note scale has as such. The 15-note MOS can be thought of as a chromatic scale, and the 22-note as

hyper-chromatic. Porcupine [22] in 22TET is described in the table below.

Porcupine[7]’s minor fourth is the 11th harmonic, the minor fourth of Wyschnegradsky. As Porcupine

is at heart a 5-limit temperament though, we take as its characteristic chords the major 4:5:6 and

minor 10:12:15. With 1-3-5 triads in the 7 note MOS 4333333, similarly to in Meantone

temperament, the minor is both the scalic and intervallic minor.

199
Keenan Pepper, ‘Porcupine’, The Xenharmonic Wiki, (2011). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Porcupine. Accessed 28 February, 2013.
 70

Porcupine {55/54, 64/63, 100/99}

Degree cents Gens Ratio [7] [8] [15]

0 0 0 1/1 P1 P1 0
1 54.55 -7 81/80~25/24~36/35~45/44~33/32~22/21 A1 m2 1
2 109.09 8 16/15 ~ 21/20 ~ 35/33 d2 A1/d3
3 163.64 1 10/9 ~ 11/10 ~ 12/11 m2 M2 2
4 218.18 -6 9/8 ~ 8/7 M2 m3 3
5 272.72 9 7/6 d3/A2 A2/d4
6 327.27 2 6/5 ~ 11/9 m3 M3 4
7 381.82 -5 5/4 M3 m4 5
8 436.36 10 14/11 d4/A3 A3/d5
9 490.91 3 4/3 m4 M4 6
10 545.45 -4 36/25~27/20~15/11~11/8 M4 m5 7
11 600 -11/11 10/7 / 7/5 A4/d5 d6/A4
12 654.55 4 25/18~40/27~22/15~16/11 m5 M5 8
13 709.09 -3 3/2 M5 m6 9
14 763.63 -10 11/7 A5/d6 d7/A5
15 818.18 5 8/5 m6 M6 10
16 872.72 -2 5/3 ~ 18/11 M6 m7 11
17 927.27 -9 12/7 A6/d7 d8/A6
18 981.82 6 16/9 ~ 7/4 m7 M7 12
19 1036.4 -1 9/5 ~ 20/11 ~ 11/6 M7 m8 13
20 1090.9 -8 15/8 ~ 40/21 ~ 66/35 A7 d9/A7
21 1145.5 7 48/25~180/81~35/18~88/45~64/33~21/11 d8 M8 14
22 1200 0 2/1 P8 P9 15

Table 4.5. Porcupine[22] in 22TET

However, since the complexity of these triads in Porcupine is greater than in Meantone (it takes

more generators to reach a fifth in Porcupine) they appear less frequently than in Meantone. Again

similarly to Meantone, the remaining chord to fall on steps 1-3-5 can be understood as the

diminished chord. In Porcupine this chord occurs three times rather than once as in Meantone, and

it can be understood as the complex 11-limit otonal triad 15:18:22 rather than what we are more

familiar with in Meantone and Diminished temperaments. The diminished triad in first inversion:

9:11:15, is much less dissonant than in root position, so I recommend, as in Meantone, to aim to use

this chord in first inversion.

 71

Looking at the symmetric mode Porcupine[7] 3|3: 3334333, We can easily see this scale’s

tetrachordal nature. Porcupine[7] is the equidistant realisation the scale of Ptolemy’s equable

tetrachord

12/11 · 11/10 · 10/9

The Dorian mode of this tetrachordal scale, the only mode of Porcupine[7] containing both 4/3 and

3/2, I have taken to be the standard minor scale. The major scale, beginning on the fourth step of

the minor scale is then the 6|0 scale, the most major and the only mode housing a major second of

9/8. Milne arrives in his dissertation at the same major and minor scales.200

P transformations of base triads involve movements by 1 degree, the chroma, L by 2 degrees, the

dieses, and R by three degrees, the small step, so while R transformation can and should be used

within the albitonic scale, P and L transformation can lead reasonably far astray, something a

composer should be wary of, but seek to exploit.

In previously discussed systems, 3/2 has always been the generator, and regarded as the ‘dominant’.

We are now led to ask whether the generator is the dominant, or whether 3/2 is the dominant. In

Porcupine the generator is the minor tone or its inversion, where 3/2 is reached by 3 generators. The

traditional leading tone to tonic in a V to I progression is not available in Porcupine[7] as this interval

(16/15) is the dieses or diminished second of Porcupine[7], rather than the small step. This cadence

would be available only in a MODMOS such as Porcupine[7] 0|6 ♯7, which I have named the

‘harmonic major’ as it is serves a similar function to the harmonic minor of Meantone temperament,

where the seventh is raised to allow for a major dominant chord, a raised seventh leading to the

tonic providing smoother voice leading and a stronger sense of resolution.

If we take the dominant chord to lie a generator away from the tonic, then VII has more of a

dominant feel in the major scale then ii dim. Unfortunately though, neither chord shares a common

200
Milne, p. 186.
 72

tone with the tonic. From personal experimentation I have found that, if a note from the tonic chord

is added to VII to provide a common tone, scale degree 5 is the most pleasing. The dominant chord

in this case becomes VIIadd6, equivalent to v7, the seventh chord that naturally falls 3/2 above the

tonic. I find the resolution of this chord to I to be stronger than v7 to I in Meantone, perhaps as the

leading tone rises by a small step with this progression in Porcupine. Though V to I allows for a

stronger sense of resolution from the leading tone, the raised seventh does sound to me to be a

modified note, suggestive of its identity as such. Milne described cadences in the minor scale from ii,

III and III7.201

I find Porcupine[7] 3|3 ♯2 to be a useful and pleasing scale and have labelled it the ‘harmonic minor’.

Where in Meantone the minor scale may be melodic, harmonic or natural in different circumstances

within a single melody, I envisage a tonal system in Porcupine in which the major scale may has a

variable seventh degree and the minor mode a variable second. An additional benefit from these

MODMOS is how they affect the distribution of the different triad species.

The triads of the ‘natural’ major, 6|0, are as follows:

I ii dim iii dim iv dim v vi VII

And of the ‘natural’ minor, 3|3:

i ii III IV v dim vi dim vii dim

We can see that the three diminished triads are bunched up together. 202 Where Meantone

MODMOS decrease the number of consonant chords The Porcupine[7] MODMOS above only spread

them out.203 The triads of the harmonic major are:

201
Milne, p. 184.
202
As the diminished chord is rather dissonant, these chords should be dealt with carefully, in first inversion or
as a seventh chord, strengthened by a fifth above the minor third.
203
Mike Battaglia, ‘Porcupine Modal Harmony’, The Xenharmonic Wiki (2011). Available from:
http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Porcupine+Temperament+Modal+Harmony. Accessed on 3 December,
2013.
 73

I ii dim iii iv dim V vi vii dim,

and of the harmonic minor:

i ii dim III iv dim v vi dim VII.

The 5-limit comma tempered out in Porcupine – 250/243 – is the difference between three minor

thirds and two fourths. There are many possible progressions that will pump that comma. A

progression with all chord changes by common tone that sounds better to my ears than others is as

follows:

i – III – vii – II – vi – i

For vi to be minor, all notes of Porcupine[8] are used, but Porcupine[8], though an interesting scale

in its own right, is more difficult as an albitonic scale.204 If we wish to pump the comma using only

the notes of Porcupine[7], then ‘vi’ is a diminished triad and should be used in first inversion where

possible. The progression as written is situated in the natural minor mode. Another tetrad that can

be employed in Porcupine temperament is the ‘major 4’ chord where 11/8 is added to a minor triad.

In order to make good use of the full 11-limit within a single scale, the seventh of the major scale

may be lowered by a chroma, giving 7/4. This results in 22TET’s acoustic scale, where the acoustic

scale of 12TET, employed by Liszt, Bartok, Debussy and Stravinsky is 12TET’s best approximation of

the just scale

1/1 9/8 5/4 11/8 3/2 5/3 7/4 (2/1),

204
Porcupine[8] is treated as albitonic then the minor triad in the same class as the major in root position is in
the second inversion, as with Diminished[8], and we have seen issue with this in Chapter 2. Additionally,
diminished triads of Porcupine[8] are 6:8:9 chords, traditional suspended fourth chords.
 74

named ‘acoustic’ because of its inclusion of the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th partials of the harmonic

series.205 This scale contains the 11-limit sextad 8:9:10:11:12:14, a major 11 flat 7 chord of

Porcupine[7]. 22TET’s acoustic scale, as Porcupine[7] 6|0 ♭7 is a much better approximation of this

just scale.

The three consonant chords I, VII and vi of the major scale together make all the notes of

Porcupine[7]. We have seen that similarly to Pajara[10] and Superpyth[7] (and Meantone[7], but not

Augmented[6] or Diminished[8], as they are not tetrachordal206), Porcupine temperament fulfils all

of Erlich’s requirements for a diatonic scale. If we consider Pajara[10] to be available in 12TET, then

22TET still has one more scale available that satisfies these requirements than 12TET, each with

different characterise chords. Porcupine[7] and Pajara[10] are also maximally even in 22TET, where

Meantone[7], Pajara[10] and Diminished[8] are maximally even in 12TET.

Porcupine temperament is a completely novel temperament available in 22TET that has recently

found popularity amongst microtonal musicians. Other novel scales are available in 22TET, defining

other regular temperaments. In particular, Orwell and Machine temperaments make use of

augmented triads as their characteristic chords and as such voice-leading between characteristic

chords is smoother. Orwell’s augmented triads are all inversions of the same chord, of stacked 5/4’s,

the parsimonious trichord of 22TET, by Cohn’s generalised definition, and are available in a 9-note

albitonic scale. Machine’s 6-note scale is melodically interesting as it can be described as a major

scale that has been stretched to the extent that the major seventh is the upper tonic. Its triads are

hence stretched such that the major is Partch’s 7:9:11 triad and other chords of the triad-class its

inversions. The characteristic chords of both systems are relatively dissonant and as such these

systems though interesting are not as strong as Superpyth, Porcupine and Pajara.

205
The acoustic scale of Meantone is the fourth mode of the ascending melodic minor scale discussed in
Chapter 2, defined as Meantone[7] 6|0 ♭7 or Meantone[7] 4|2 ♯4. It is also known as the overtone scale, and
the Lydian dominant scale. Reflective of its interpretation as Meantone[7] 6|0 ♭7, it is also known as Lydian ♭7.
206
Augmented temperament also fails Erlich’s second property – a particular set of scale steps must be home
to the consonant chords.
 75

Conclusion

Through consideration of the above 2-dimensional temperaments in 22TET, in interaction with their

characteristic scales, chords and progression, I have developed a strong, thorough and practical

model for microtonal music, generalising the properties exploited in the current and historic use of

the diatonic scale of Meantone temperament. In 12TET, other systems may be used in addition to

the diatonic scale, but those systems are not as strong as the dominant Meantone-diatonic system.

In 22TET three systems equally as strong as the Meantone-diatonic system may be exploited. In

12TET each system has as its consonant chords the familiar major and minor triads, whereas in

22TET the three main systems make use of different consonant chords. As in 12TET, neo-Riemannian

transformations may guide movement across tonnetz, in order to modulate, pump characteristic

commas, and transition between regular temperaments. In consideration of important

characteristics outlined in chapters 1 and 2, use of 22TET in this way is thus not only a stronger,

more thorough, more practical and more interesting system than any existing model for microtonal

music, but is a more varied system than the current and historic use of 12TET.

How may it be employed? Where quarter-tone trumpets and flutes are commercially produced, we

know it is possible for all of 22TET to be available on wind and brass instruments. Guitars tuned to

22TET have already been produced, isomorphic keyboards have already been tuned to 22TET and

regular keyboards to Pajara[12]. I have built a recorder capable of intonating all notes of 22TET, and

have designs for mallet percussion instruments and trumpet in 22TET. I have also managed to sing in

22TET with accompaniment, and A Cappella in a choral setting, as have others, and string

instruments may retune appropriately.207 A number of logical options for notation exist, and the

207
Where strings are normally tuned (in Pythagorean intonation) to 1/1-3/2-9/4-27/8, the mistuning of 3/2 on
22TET would not allow this. As strings are tuned by eliminating beats, it is necessary to tune strings to
consonant, just ratios of each other. In 22TET the best tuned interval normally considered to be consonant is
5/4, but tuning all strings apart by 8/5 (5/4 is too small an interval) would create a total error of 13.49c
(compared to 5.87c as in 12TET). By tuning one a pair of strings 14/9 apart, the highest string will be exactly 2
octaves above the lowest string (as in 22TET two 5/4 major thirds and one 9/7 major third make an octave,
 76

choice of which to use will depend on whether Porcupine, Pajara or Superpyth temperaments are

more prevalent in use of 22TET. The notational system should be chosen after further research in

parallel to the design of a keyboard layout for mallet percussion as the current notational system

reflects the current keyboard layout. As did Partch, I will continue to build instruments for and

compose and perform in this system. As my model is not as separate to regular musical practice as

that of Partch I only hope that now, after being convinced of its virtue, others will join me.

tempering out the marvel comma, 225/224). 14/9 is possible too dissonant an interval to tune easily by ear.
Therefore 8/5 will be tuned pure. The 14/9 will be placed between the middle strings so that they are
arranged: 1/1-8/5-5/2-4 and it is instead of a pure 14/9 a pure 25/16, 7.7c sharp of 14/9. This error is
comparable to the error of 5.87 in 12TET. Alternatively if tuning by eliminating beats is not necessary, fifths
may be tuned to 709c as they may today be tuned to 700c or flatter in the case of Meantone tuning.
 77

References Cited

Balzano, Gerald J., ‘The Group-Theoretic Description of 12-fold and Microtonal Pitch Systems’,

Computer Music Journal, 4/4 (1980): 66-84. Available from: JSTOR. Accessed on 3 October, 2014.

Barbour, J. Murray, Tuning and Temperament: A Historical Survey (East Lansing: Michigan State

College Press, 1951).

Battaglia, Mike, ‘Modal UDP Notation’, The Xenharmonic Wiki (2011). Available from:

http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/Modal+UDP+Notation. Accessed on 25 October, 2014.

Battaglia, Mike, ‘MODMOS Scales’, The Xenharmonic Wiki (2011). Available from:

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