Marco Raaphorst wrote:
I would not say inspired, our western intervals are the same as the harmonics. They use exactly the same calculation rules. The only clever thing which was invented was equal temperament because harmonics are only equally related to one key, tone.
12 tone is perfect imo. But some might say, 24 is better. But you need equal temperament imo. And I love it. I hate a perfect fifth, which sound less funky than an "out of tune" equal temperament fifth.
Do you love it or do you hate it?!? [emoji6]
What you say is only true for Just Intonation. It is the only scale with intervals “the same as the harmonics”. That is, IF you’re talking about the early harmonics (harmonics are infinite, so at one point they would represent ANY interval you want!). Our modern equal tempered scale makes adjustments to these intervals and thus only the octave falls on the same frequencies as the natural harmonic series’ early harmonics.
Beyond that, it’s really only with electronic music where these tunings are ultra precise.
For example, when a choir sings, or a string orchestra plays (or brass or anything really) they naturally tune to the best “third” or “fifth” to fit the current key. Additionally, there will always be some pitch variation between instruments playing the same note, and there will never be absolute “perfect” intervals except with electronic instruments.
So looking at the history of tuning and scales, it’s likely that it’s only been recently (historically speaking) that the ideal of “precise” intervals has existed in practice, meaning the last few thousand years with the invention of the modern instruments we know today. And one could further argue that it’s only with electronic instruments that you can get so precise and stable with tuning as to precisely illustrate the differences between these scales/tunings.
Historically…
Pythagorean tuning was the first attempt at creating a 7 and 12 tone scale (and also the pentatonic), and was in use from the 6th century BC up through the 15-16th century AD. But it had such dissonant thirds (both minor and major) it caused music to be written far simpler than today’s music. It also had issues to deal with such as the Pythagorean comma and the wolf fifth.
Next up (late 6th century) were the first attempts at a more useful 7 and 12 tone scale (starting with Gioseffo Zarlino) using the perfect fifth and also adding perfect minor and major thirds.
All this eventually leads to the equal tempered scale, and you can read more about the lead up to this scale here (finally my freshman “History of Music” class has some practical application!).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_intonation
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