12 equal temperament

Twelve-tone equal temperament[a] is the musical system that divides the octave into 12 parts, all
of which are equally-tempered (equally-spaced) on a logarithmic scale, with a ratio equal to the
12
12th root of 2 ( √2 ≈ 1.05946). That resulting smallest interval, 1⁄12 the width of an octave, is
called a semitone or half step.

12-tone equal temperament chromatic scale on C,

one full octave ascending, notated only with sharps.
Play ascending and descending (help·info)

Twelve-tone equal temperament is the most widespread system in music today. It has been the
predominant tuning system of Western music, starting with classical music, since the 18th
century, and Europe almost exclusively used approximations of it for millennia before that. It has
also been used in other cultures.

In modern times, 12-TET is usually tuned relative to a standard pitch of 440 Hz, called A440,
meaning one note, A, is tuned to 440 hertz and all other notes are defined as some multiple of
semitones apart from it, either higher or lower in frequency. The standard pitch has not always
been 440 Hz. It has varied and generally risen over the past few hundred years.[1]

History

The two figures frequently credited with the achievement of exact calculation of twelve-tone
equal temperament are Zhu Zaiyu (also romanized as Chu-Tsaiyu. Chinese: 朱載堉) in 1584 and
Simon Stevin in 1585. According to Fritz A. Kuttner, a critic of the theory,[2] it is known that "Chu-
Tsaiyu presented a highly precise, simple and ingenious method for arithmetic calculation of
equal temperament mono-chords in 1584" and that "Simon Stevin offered a mathematical
definition of equal temperament plus a somewhat less precise computation of the
corresponding numerical values in 1585 or later." The developments occurred independently.[3]

Kenneth Robinson attributes the invention of equal temperament to Zhu Zaiyu[4] and provides
textual quotations as evidence.[5] Zhu Zaiyu is quoted as saying that, in a text dating from 1584,
"I have founded a new system. I establish one foot as the number from which the others are to
be extracted, and using proportions I extract them. Altogether one has to find the exact figures
for the pitch-pipers in twelve operations."[5] Kuttner disagrees and remarks that his claim "cannot
be considered correct without major qualifications."[2] Kuttner proposes that neither Zhu Zaiyu or
Simon Stevin achieved equal temperament and that neither of the two should be treated as
inventors.[3]
China
…
Early history
…
A complete set of bronze chime bells, among many musical instruments found in the tomb of
the Marquis Yi of Zeng (early Warring States, c. 5th century BCE in the Chinese Bronze Age),
covers five full 7-note octaves in the key of C Major, including 12 note semi-tones in the middle of
the range.[6]

An approximation for equal temperament was described by He Chengtian, a mathematician of

Southern and Northern Dynasties around 400 AD. He came out with the earliest recorded
approximate numerical sequence in relation to equal temperament in history: 900 849 802 758
715 677 638 601 570 536 509.5 479 450.[7]

Zhu Zaiyu
…

Prince Zhu Zaiyu constructed 12 string equal

temperament tuning instrument, front and back view

Zhu Zaiyu ( 朱載堉), a prince of the Ming court, spent thirty years on research based on the equal
temperament idea originally postulated by his father. He described his new pitch theory in his
Fusion of Music and Calendar 律暦融通 published in 1580. This was followed by the publication of
a detailed account of the new theory of the equal temperament with a precise numerical
specification for 12-TET in his 5,000-page work Complete Compendium of Music and Pitch (Yuelü
quan shu 樂律全書) in 1584. [8] An extended account is also given by Joseph Needham.[5] Zhu
12
obtained his result mathematically by dividing the length of string and pipe successively by √2
 24
≈ 1.059463, and for pipe length by √2,[9] such that after twelve divisions (an octave) the length
was divided by a factor of 2:

Similarly, after 84 divisions (7 octaves) the length was divided by a factor of 128:

Zhu Zaiyu has been credited as the first person to solve the equal temperament problem
mathematically.[10] At least one researcher has proposed that Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit in China
recorded this work in his personal journal[10][11] and may have transmitted the work back to
Europe. (Standard resources on the topic make no mention of any such transfer.[12]) In 1620,
Zhu's work was referenced by a European mathematician.[11] Murray Barbour said, "The first
known appearance in print of the correct figures for equal temperament was in China, where
Prince Tsaiyü's brilliant solution remains an enigma."[13] The 19th-century German physicist
Hermann von Helmholtz wrote in On the Sensations of Tone that a Chinese prince (see below)
introduced a scale of seven notes, and that the division of the octave into twelve semitones was
discovered in China.[14]

Zhu Zaiyu's equal temperament pitch

pipes

Zhu Zaiyu illustrated his equal temperament theory by the construction of a set of 36 bamboo
tuning pipes ranging in 3 octaves, with instructions of the type of bamboo, color of paint, and
detailed specification on their length and inner and outer diameters. He also constructed a 12-
string tuning instrument, with a set of tuning pitch pipes hidden inside its bottom cavity. In 1890,
Victor-Charles Mahillon, curator of the Conservatoire museum in Brussels, duplicated a set of
pitch pipes according to Zhu Zaiyu's specification. He said that the Chinese theory of tones knew
more about the length of pitch pipes than its Western counterpart, and that the set of pipes
duplicated according to the Zaiyu data proved the accuracy of this theory.
Europe
…

Simon Stevin's Van de Spiegheling der singconst c.

1605.

Early history
…
One of the earliest discussions of equal temperament occurs in the writing of Aristoxenus in the
4th century BC.[15]

Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo Galilei) was one of the first practical advocates of twelve-tone
equal temperament. He composed a set of dance suites on each of the 12 notes of the
chromatic scale in all the "transposition keys", and published also, in his 1584 "Fronimo", 24 + 1
ricercars.[16] He used the 18:17 ratio for fretting the lute (although some adjustment was
necessary for pure octaves).[17]

Galilei's countryman and fellow lutenist Giacomo Gorzanis had written music based on equal
temperament by 1567.[18] Gorzanis was not the only lutenist to explore all modes or keys:
Francesco Spinacino wrote a "Recercare de tutti li Toni" (Ricercar in all the Tones) as early as
1507.[19] In the 17th century lutenist-composer John Wilson wrote a set of 30 preludes including
24 in all the major/minor keys.[20][21]Henricus Grammateus drew a close approximation to equal
temperament in 1518. The first tuning rules in equal temperament were given by Giovani Maria
Lanfranco in his "Scintille de musica".[22] Zarlino in his polemic with Galilei initially opposed equal
temperament but eventually conceded to it in relation to the lute in his Sopplimenti musicali in
1588.

Simon Stevin
…
The first mention of equal temperament related to the twelfth root of two in the West appeared in
Simon Stevin's manuscript Van De Spiegheling der singconst (ca. 1605), published posthumously
nearly three centuries later in 1884.[23] However, due to insufficient accuracy of his calculation,
many of the chord length numbers he obtained were off by one or two units from the correct
values.[12] As a result, the frequency ratios of Simon Stevin's chords has no unified ratio, but one
ratio per tone, which is claimed by Gene Cho as incorrect.[24]
The following were Simon Stevin's chord length from Van de Spiegheling der singconst:[25]

Tone Chord 10000 from Simon Stevin Ratio Corrected chord

semitone 9438 1.0595465 9438.7

whole tone 8909 1.0593781

tone and a half 8404 1.0600904 8409

ditone 7936 1.0594758 7937

ditone and a half 7491 1.0594046 7491.5

tritone 7071 1.0593975 7071.1

tritone and a half 6674 1.0594845 6674.2

four-tone 6298 1.0597014 6299

four-tone and a half 5944 1.0595558 5946

five-tone 5611 1.0593477 5612.3

five-tone and a half 5296 1.0594788 5297.2

full tone 1.0592000

A generation later, French mathematician Marin Mersenne presented several equal tempered
chord lengths obtained by Jean Beaugrand, Ismael Bouillaud, and Jean Galle.[26]

In 1630 Johann Faulhaber published a 100-cent monochord table, which contained several errors
due to his use of logarithmic tables. He did not explain how he obtained his results.[27]

Baroque era
…
From 1450 to about 1800, plucked instrument players (lutenists and guitarists) generally favored
equal temperament,[28] and the Brossard lute Manuscript compiled in the last quarter of the 17th
century contains a series of 18 preludes attributed to Bocquet written in all keys, including the
last prelude, entitled Prelude sur tous les tons, which enharmonically modulates through all
keys.[29] Angelo Michele Bartolotti published a series of passacaglias in all keys, with connecting
enharmonically modulating passages. Among the 17th-century keyboard composers Girolamo
Frescobaldi advocated equal temperament. Some theorists, such as Giuseppe Tartini, were
opposed to the adoption of equal temperament; they felt that degrading the purity of each chord
degraded the aesthetic appeal of music, although Andreas Werckmeister emphatically
advocated equal temperament in his 1707 treatise published posthumously.[30]

Twelve-tone equal temperament took hold for a variety of reasons. It was a convenient fit for the
existing keyboard design, and permitted total harmonic freedom with the burden of moderate
impurity in every interval, particularly imperfect consonances. This allowed greater expression
through enharmonic modulation, which became extremely important in the 18th century in music
of such composers as Francesco Geminiani, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Carl Philipp Emmanuel
Bach and Johann Gottfried Müthel. Twelve-tone equal temperament did have some
disadvantages, such as imperfect thirds, but as Europe switched to equal temperament, it
changed the music that it wrote in order to accommodate the system and minimize
dissonance.[31]

The progress of equal temperament from the mid-18th century on is described with detail in
quite a few modern scholarly publications: it was already the temperament of choice during the
Classical era (second half of the 18th century), and it became standard during the Early
Romantic era (first decade of the 19th century), except for organs that switched to it more
gradually, completing only in the second decade of the 19th century. (In England, some cathedral
organists and choirmasters held out against it even after that date; Samuel Sebastian Wesley, for
instance, opposed it all along. He died in 1876.)

A precise equal temperament is possible using the 17th-century Sabbatini method of splitting
the octave first into three tempered major thirds.[32] This was also proposed by several writers
during the Classical era. Tuning without beat rates but employing several checks, achieving
virtually modern accuracy, was already done in the first decades of the 19th century.[33] Using
beat rates, first proposed in 1749, became common after their diffusion by Helmholtz and Ellis in
the second half of the 19th century.[34] The ultimate precision was available with 2-decimal
tables published by White in 1917.[35]

It is in the environment of equal temperament that the new styles of symmetrical tonality and
polytonality, atonal music such as that written with the twelve tone technique or serialism, and
jazz (at least its piano component) developed and flourished.

Comparison of historial approximations of the semitone

…
Year Name Ratio[36] Cents

400 He Chengtian 1.060070671 101.0

1580 Vincenzo Galilei 18:17 [1.058823529] 99.0

1581 Zhu Zaiyu 1.059463094 100.0

1585 Simon Stevin 1.059546514 100.1

1630 Marin Mersenne 1.059322034 99.8

1630 Johann Faulhaber 1.059490385 100.0

Mathematical properties
 One octave of 12-tet on a monochord

In twelve-tone equal temperament, which divides the octave into 12 equal parts, the width of a
semitone, i.e. the frequency ratio of the interval between two adjacent notes, is the twelfth root
of two:

This is equivalent to:

This interval is divided into 100 cents.

Calculating absolute frequencies …

To find the frequency, Pn, of a note in 12-TET, the following definition may be used:

In this formula Pn refers to the pitch, or frequency (usually in hertz), you are trying to find. Pa
refers to the frequency of a reference pitch. n and a refer to numbers assigned to the desired
pitch and the reference pitch, respectively. These two numbers are from a list of consecutive
integers assigned to consecutive semitones. For example, A4 (the reference pitch) is the 49th
key from the left end of a piano (tuned to 440 Hz), and C4 (middle C), and F#4 are the 40th and
46th key respectively. These numbers can be used to find the frequency of C4 and F#4 :
Just intervals

The intervals of 12-TET closely approximate some intervals in just intonation.[37]

By limit
…
12-TET is very accurate in the 3-limit, but as one increases prime limits to 11, it gradually gets
worse by about a sixth of a semitone each time. Its eleventh and thirteenth harmonics are
extremely inaccurate. 12-TET's seventeenth and nineteenth harmonics are almost as accurate as
its third harmonic, but by this point, the prime limit has gotten too high to sound consonant to
most people.

3-limit
…
12-TET has a very good approximation of the perfect fifth (3/2) and its inversion, the perfect
fourth (4/3), especially for the division of the octave into a relatively small number of tones.
Specifically, a just perfect fifth is slightly less than two cents, which is a fiftieth of a semitone,
sharper than the equally-tempered approximation. Because the major tone (9/8) is simply two
perfect fifths minus an octave, and its inversion, the Pythagorean minor seventh (16/9), is simply
two perfect fourths combined, they, for the most part, retain the accuracy of their predecessors;
the error is doubled, but it remains small—so small, in fact, that humans cannot perceive it. One
can continue to use fractions with higher powers of three, the next two being 27/16 and 32/27,
but as the terms of the fractions grow larger, they become less pleasing to the ear.

5-limit
…
12-TET's approximation of the fifth harmonic (5/4) is between a sixth and a seventh of a
semitone off. Because intervals that are less than a quarter of a scale step off still sound in tune,
12-TET has an in-tune fifth harmonic that can be used to generate other five-limit intervals, such
as 5/3 and 8/5, with similarly-sized errors. Western music takes advantage of the in-tune fifth
harmonic, for example using it in the 4:5:6 arithmetic sequence.

7-limit
…
12-TET's approximation of the seventh harmonic (7/4) is about a third of a semitone off.
Because the error is greater than a quarter of a semitone, seven-limit intervals in 12-TET tend to
sound out of tune. In the tritone fractions 7/5 and 10/7, the errors of the fifth and seventh
harmonics partially cancel each other out so that the just fractions are within a quarter of a
semitone of their equally-tempered equivalents, but the tritone still sounds dissonant to most
people.
11- and 13-limits
…
The eleventh harmonic (11/8) is about 550 cents, meaning that it falls almost exactly between
the nearest two equally-tempered intervals in 12-TET and therefore is not approximated by either.
In fact, 11/8 is almost as far from any equally-tempered approximation as possible in 12-TET.
The thirteenth harmonic (13/8) is almost as bad. However, this means that the fraction 13/11
(and also its inversion, 22/13) is accurately approximated by 12-TET (specifically by three
semitones) because the errors of the eleventh and thirteenth harmonics cancel each other out.
However, most people are not used to the eleventh and thirteenth harmonics, so this fraction
would not sound consonant to most people. Similarly, the error of the eleventh or thirteenth
harmonic could be mostly canceled out by the error of the seventh harmonic, but for the same
reason as before, most people would not find the resulting fractions consonant.

17- and 19-limits

…
The seventeenth harmonic (17/16) is only about 5 cents sharper than one semitone in 12-TET. It
can be combined with 12-TET's approximation of the third harmonic in order to yield 17/12,
which is, as the next Pell approximation after 7/5, only about three cents away from the equally-
tempered tritone (the square root of two), and 17/9, which is only one cent away from 12-TET's
major seventh. The nineteenth harmonic is only about two and a half cents flatter than three of
12-TET's semitones, so it can likewise be combined with the third harmonic to yield 19/12, which
is about four and a half cents flatter than an equally-tempered minor sixth, and 19/18, which is
about six and a half cents flatter than a semitone. However, because 17 and 19 are rather large
for consonant ratios and most people are unfamiliar with 17-limit and 19-limit intervals, 17-limit
and 19-limit intervals are not useful for most purposes, so they can likely not be judged as
playing a part in any consonances of 12-TET.

Table
…
In the following table the sizes of various just intervals are compared against their equal-
tempered counterparts, given as a ratio as well as cents. Differences of less than six cents
cannot be noticed by most people, and intervals that are more than a quarter of a step, which in
this case is 25 cents, off sound out of tune.
 Note
Just
Number going Exact Decimal Equally- Just
intonation Justly-
of up value in value in tempered Cents intonation
interval au
steps from 12-TET 12-TET audio interval name
fraction
C

0
⁄12
play (help·inf 1⁄
play (
0 C 2 =1 1 0 Unison 1 =1
o) o)

1 C♯ 2
1

12
⁄12
= 1.05946… play (help·inf 100 Septimal third 28⁄
27 = play (
or √2 o) tone 1.03703… o)
D♭ Just 25⁄
24 = Play (
chromatic
1.04166… o)
semitone
22
Undecimal ⁄21 = play (
semitone 1.04761… o)

Septimal
21⁄
play (
chromatic 20 = 1.04
o)
semitone

Novendecimal 20⁄
19 = play (
chromatic
1.05263… o)
semitone

Pythagorean 256
⁄243 = play (
diatonic
1.05349… o)
semitone

Larger 135
⁄128 = play (
chromatic
1.05468… o)
semitone

Novendecimal 19⁄
18 = play (
diatonic
1.05555… o)
semitone

Septadecimal 18⁄
17 = play (
chromatic
1.05882… o)
semitone

Seventeenth 17⁄ = play (

16
harmonic 1.0625… o)

Just diatonic 16⁄ = play (

15
semitone 1.06666… o)
 2187
Pythagorean ⁄2048 = play (
chromatic 1.06787… o)
semitone

Septimal 15⁄
14 = play (
diatonic
1.07142… o)
semitone

Lesser 14⁄
13 = play (
tridecimal
1.07692… o)
2/3-tone

Major diatonic 27⁄

play (
25 = 1.08
semitone o)

Pythagorean 65536⁄
59049 = play (
diminished
1.10985… o)
third
10⁄ = play (
2
⁄12 9
2 = play (help·inf Minor tone
2 D 6 1.12246… 200 1.11111… o)
√2 o)
9⁄
play (
Major tone 8 = 1.125
o)

Septimal 8⁄ = play (
7
whole tone 1.14285… o)

Septimal 7⁄ = play (
6
minor third 1.16666… o)
13
Tridecimal ⁄11 = play (
minor third 1.18181… o)

Pythagorean 32⁄ = play (

♯
27

D 3 minor third 1.18518… o)

2 ⁄12 = play (help·inf
3 or 1.18920… 300 19

E♭
4 Nineteenth ⁄16 = play (
√2 o)
harmonic 1.1875 o)

Just minor 6⁄
play (
5 = 1.2
third o)

Pythagorean 19683
⁄16384 = play (
augmented
1.20135… o)
second
4
4 E 2 ⁄12 = 1.25992… play (help·inf 400 Pythagorean 8192⁄ = play (
3 6561
√2 o) diminished
1.24859… o)
fourth
 Just major 5⁄ = 1.25 play (
4
third o)

Pythagorean 81⁄ = play (

64
major third 1.265625 o)

Undecimal 14⁄ = Play (

11
major third 1.27272… o)

Septimal 9⁄ = play (
7
major third 1.28571… o)

Just perfect 4⁄ = play (

3

5 fourth 1.33333… o)
⁄12
2 = play (help·inf
5 F 12 1.33484… 500 Pythagorean
√32 o) 177147⁄ play (
131072
augmented
= 1.35152… o)
third

Classic 25⁄
18 = play (
augmented
1.38888… o)
fourth

Huygens' 7
play (
⁄5 = 1.4
tritone o)

Pythagorean 1024⁄
729 = play (
diminished
1.40466… o)
fifth

Just 45
⁄32 = Play (
F♯ 2
6
⁄12 = play (help·inf
augmented
fourth
1.40625 o)
6 or 1.41421… 600
G♭
√2 o) Just 64⁄ = play (
45
diminished
1.42222… o)
fifth

Pythagorean 729⁄
512 = play (
augmented
1.42382… o)
fourth
10⁄ = Play (
7
Euler's tritone
1.42857… o)

Classic
36⁄
play (
diminished 25 = 1.44
o)
fifth
7
7 G 2 ⁄12 = 1.49830… play (help·inf 700 Pythagorean 262144⁄ play (
177147
 12
√128 o) diminished = 1.47981… o)
sixth

Just perfect 3⁄
play (
2 = 1.5
fifth o)

Septimal 14⁄ = play (

9
minor sixth 1.55555… o)

Undecimal 11⁄ = play (

7
minor sixth 1.57142… o)

G♯ 2
8
⁄12 = play (help·inf
Pythagorean 128⁄
81 = play (
8 or 1.58740… 800 minor sixth 1.58024… o)
A♭
3
√4 o)
Just minor 8⁄
play (
5 = 1.6
sixth o)

Pythagorean 6561⁄
4096 = play (
augmented
1.60180… o)
fifth

Pythagorean 32768⁄
19683 = play (
diminished
1.66478… o)
seventh

Just major 5⁄ = play (

3

9
sixth 1.66666… o)
⁄12
2 = play (help·inf 32⁄
9 A 4 1.68179… 900 Nineteenth 19 = play (
√8 o)
subharmonic 1.68421… o)

Pythagorean 27⁄ = play (

16
major sixth 1.6875 o)

Septimal 12⁄ = Play (

7
major sixth 1.71428… o)

Harmonic 7⁄
play (
4 = 1.75
seventh o)

Pythagorean 16⁄ = play (

♯
9

A 10 minor seventh 1.77777… o)

2 ⁄12 = play (help·inf
10 or 1.78179… 1000 Large minor
B♭
6 play (
√32 o) 9⁄ = 1.8
5
seventh o)

Pythagorean 59049⁄
32768 = play (
augmented
1.80203… o)
sixth
 11
11 B 2 ⁄12 = 1.88774… play (help·inf 1100 Tridecimal 13⁄ = play (
7
12
√2048 o) neutral 1.85714… o)
seventh

Pythagorean 4096⁄
2187 = play (
diminished
1.87288… o)
octave

Just major 15⁄

play (
8 = 1.875
seventh o)

Seventeenth 32⁄ = play (

17
subharmonic 1.88235… o)

Pythagorean 243⁄ = play (

128
major seventh 1.89843… o)

Septimal 27⁄ = play (

14
major seventh 1.92857… o)
12
⁄12
2 = play (help·inf 2⁄
play (
12 C 2 1200 Octave 1 =2
2 o) o)

Commas
…
12-TEDO tempers out several commas, meaning that there are several fractions close to 1⁄1 that
are treated as 1⁄1 by 12-TEDO due to its mapping of different fractions to the same equally-
6 10
tempered interval. For example, 729⁄512 (3 ⁄29) and 1024⁄729 (2 ⁄36) are each mapped to the tritone,
12
so they are treated as the same interval; therefore, their quotient, 531441⁄524288 (3 ⁄219) is mapped
to/treated as unison. This is the Pythagorean comma, and it is 12-TEDO's only 3-limit comma.
However, as one increases the prime limit and includes more intervals, the number of commas
4
increases. 12-TEDO's most important five-limit comma is 81⁄80 (3 ⁄24×51), which is known as the
syntonic comma and is the factor between Pythagorean thirds and sixths and their just
counterparts. 12-TEDO's other 5-limit commas include:
8
Schisma: 32805⁄32768=3 ×51⁄ 15=(531441⁄ 1 81 −1
2 524288) ×( ⁄80)
11
Diaschisma: 2048⁄2025=2 ⁄34×52=(531441⁄524288)−1×(81⁄80)2
7
Lesser diesis: 128⁄125=2 ⁄53=(531441⁄524288)−1×(81⁄80)3
3
×34
Greater diesis: 648⁄625=2 ⁄54=(531441⁄524288)−1×(81⁄80)4

One of the 7-limit commas that 12-TEDO tempers out is the septimal kleisma, which is equal to
2
225 ×52
⁄224, or 3 ⁄25×71. 12-TEDO's other 7-limit commas include:
1
Septimal semicomma: 126⁄125=2 ×32×71⁄ 3=(81⁄ )1×(225⁄ −1
5 80 224)
6
Archytas' comma: 64⁄63=2 ⁄32×71=(531441⁄524288)−1×(81⁄80)2×(225⁄224)1
 2
×32
Septimal quarter tone: 36⁄35=2 ⁄51×71=(531441⁄524288)−1×(81⁄80)3×(225⁄224)1
1
×52
Jubilisma: 50⁄49=2 ⁄72=(531441⁄524288)−1×(81⁄80)2×(225⁄224)2

Similar tuning systems

Historically, multiple tuning systems have been used that can be seen as slight variations of 12-
TEDO, with twelve notes per octave but with some variation among interval sizes so that the
notes are not quite equally-spaced. One example of this a three-limit scale where equally-
tempered perfect fifths of 700 cents are replaced with justly-intoned perfect fifths of 701.955
cents. Because the two intervals differ by less than 2 cents, or 1⁄600 of an octave, the two scales
are very similar. In fact, the Chinese developed 3-limit just intonation at least a century before He
Chengtian created the sequence of 12-TEDO.[38] Likewise, Pythagorean tuning, which was
developed by ancient Greeks, was the predominant system in Europe until during the
Renaissance, when Europeans realized that dissonant intervals such as 81⁄64[39] could be made
more consonant by tempering them to simpler ratios like 5⁄4, resulting in Europe developing a
series of meantone temperaments that slightly modified the interval sizes but could still be
viewed as an approximate of 12-TEDO. Due to meantone temperaments' tendency to concentrate
error onto one enharmonic perfect fifth, making it very dissonant, European music theorists, such
as Andreas Werckmeister, Johann Philipp Kirnberger, Francesco Antonio Vallotti, and Thomas
Young, created various well temperaments with the goal of dividing up the commas in order to
reduce the dissonance of the worst-affected intervals. Werckmeister and Kirnberger were each
dissatisfied with his first temperament and therefore created multiple temperaments, the latter
temperaments more closely approximating equal temperament than the former temperaments.
Likewise, Europe as a whole gradually transitioned from meantone and well temperaments to 12-
TEDO, the system that it still uses today.

Subsets

While some types of music, such as serialism, use all twelve notes of 12-TEDO, most music only
uses notes from a particular subset of 12-TEDO known as a scale. Many different types of scales
exist.

The most popular type of scale in 12-TEDO is meantone. Meantone refers to any scale where all
of its notes are consecutive on the circle of fifths. Meantone scales of different sizes exist, and
some meantone scales used include five-note meantone, seven-note meantone, and nine-note
meantone. Meantone is present in the design of Western instruments. For example, the keys of a
piano and its predecessors are structured so that the white keys form a seven-note meantone
scale and the black keys form a five-note meantone scale. Another example is that guitars and
other string instruments with at least five strings are typically tuned so that their open strings
form a five-note meantone scale.
Other scales used in 12-TEDO include the ascending melodic minor scale, the harmonic minor,
the harmonic major, the diminished scale, and the in scale.

See also

Equal temperament

Just intonation

Musical acoustics (the physics of music)

Music and mathematics

Microtonal music

List of meantone intervals

Diatonic and chromatic

Electronic tuner

Musical tuning

References

Footnotes
…
a. also known as 12-TET, 12 equal temperament, 12-ET, 12-tone equal division of the octave,
12-TEDO, 12 equal division of the octave, or 12-EDO; informally abbreviated to twelve
equal or referred to as equal temperament without qualification in Western countries

Citations
…
1. von Helmholtz & Ellis 1885, pp. 493-511.

2. Kuttner 1975, p. 163.

3. Kuttner 1975, p. 200.

4. Robinson 1980, p. vii: Chu-Tsaiyu the first formulator of the mathematics of "equal
temperament" anywhere in the world

5. Needham, Ling & Robinson 1962, p. 221.

. Kwang-chih Chang, Pingfang Xu & Liancheng Lu 2005, pp. 140-.

7. Barbour 2004, pp. 55-56.

. Hart 1998.

9. Needham & Ronan 1978, p. 385.

10. Cho 2010.

11. Lienhard 1997.

12. Christensen 2002, p. 205.

13. Barbour 2004, p. 7.

14. von Helmholtz & Ellis 1885, p. 258.

15. True 2018, pp. 61-74.

1 . Galilei 1584, pp. 80-89.

17. Barbour 2004, p. 8.

1 . Giacomo Gorzanis, c. 1525 – c. 1575 Intabolatura di liuto. Geneva, 1982

19. "Spinacino 1507a: Thematic Index" . Appalachian State University. Archived from the
original on 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2012-06-14.

20. Wilson 1997.

21. Jorgens 1986.

22. "Scintille de musica", (Brescia, 1533), p. 132

23. "Van de Spiegheling der singconst, ed by Rudolf Rasch, The Diapason Press" .
Diapason.xentonic.org. 2009-06-30. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved
2012-03-20.

24. Cho 2003, p. 223.

25. Cho 2003, p. 222.

2 . Christensen 2002, p. 207.

27. Christensen 2002, p. 78.

2 . "Lutes, Viols, Temperaments" Mark Lindley ISBN 978-0-521-28883-5

29. Vm7 6214

30. Andreas Werckmeister: Musicalische Paradoxal-Discourse, 1707

31. "12edo - Xenharmonic Wiki" . en.xen.wiki. Retrieved 4 April 2020. "It is probably not an
accident that as tuning in European music became increasingly close to 12et, the style of
the music changed so that the defects of 12et appeared less evident, though it should be
borne in mind that in actual performance these are often reduced by the tuning adaptations
of the performers."

32. Di Veroli, Claudio. Unequal Temperaments: Theory, History and Practice. 2nd edition, Bray
Baroque, Bray, Ireland 2009, pp. 140, 142 and 256.
33. Moody 2003.

34. von Helmholtz & Ellis 1885, p. 548.

35. White, William Braid. Piano Tuning and Allied Arts. 1917, 5th enlarged edition, Tuners Supply
Co., Boston 1946, p.68.

3 . Barbour 2004, pp. 55-78.

37. Partch, Harry (1979). Genesis of a Music (2nd ed.). Da Capo Press. p. 134 . ISBN 0-306-
80106-X.

3 . Needham, Ling & Robinson 1962, pp. 170-171.

39. Benward & Saker 2003, p. 56.

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0-07-294261-3.
Cho, Gene J. (2003). The Discovery of Musical Equal Temperament in China and Europe in the Sixteenth
Century . E. Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-7734-6941-9.
Cho, Gene J. (2010). "The Significance of the Discovery of the Musical Equal Temperament in the Cultural
History" . Journal of Xinghai Conservatory of Music.
Christensen, Thomas (2002). The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory . Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62371-1.
Duffin, Ross W. How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care). W.W.Norton &
Company, 2007.
Galilei, Vincenzo (1584). Il Fronimo . Venice: Girolamo Scotto.
Hart, Roger (1998), Quantifying Ritual: Political Cosmology, Courtly Music, and Precision Mathematics in
Seventeenth-Century China , Departments of History and Asian Studies, University of Texas,
Austin, archived from the original on 2012-03-05, retrieved 2012-03-20
Jorgens, Elise Bickford (1986). English Song, 1600-1675: Facsimiles of Twenty-six Manuscripts and an
Edition of the Texts . Garland.
Jorgensen, Owen. Tuning. Michigan State University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-87013-290-3
Kuttner, Fritz A. (May 1975). "Prince Chu Tsai-Yü's Life and Work: A Re-Evaluation of His Contribution to
Equal Temperament Theory" (PDF). Ethnomusicology. 19 (2): 163–206. doi:10.2307/850355 .
JSTOR 850355 .
Kwang-chih Chang; Pingfang Xu; Liancheng Lu (2005). "The eastern Zhou and the growth of regionalism".
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Wangping, Zhang Zhongpei, Wang Renxiang. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09382-7.
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Retrieved 2014-10-05.
Moody, Richard (February 2003). "Early Equal Temperament, An Aural Perspective: Claude Montal 1836".
Piano Technicians Journal. Kansas City.
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Needham, Joseph; Ronan, Colin A. (1978). The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 4 - Part 1.
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Robinson, Kenneth (1980). A Critical Study of Chu Tsai-yü's Contribution to the Theory of Equal
Temperament in Chinese Music . Volume 9 of Sinologica Coloniensia. Wiesbaden: Steiner.
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85233-797-4.
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gamelans in Jogjakarta and Surakarta, Gadjah Mada University Press, Jogjakarta 1972. Cited on
https://web.archive.org/web/20050127000731/http://web.telia.com/~u57011259/pelog_main.
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Further reading
…
Sensations of Tone a foundational work on acoustics and the perception of sound by Hermann von
Helmholtz. Especially Appendix XX: Additions by the Translator, pages 430-556, (pdf pages 451-577)]

External links

Xenharmonic wiki on EDOs vs. Equal Temperaments

Huygens-Fokker Foundation Centre for Microtonal Music

A.Orlandini: Music Acoustics

"Temperament" from A supplement to Mr. Chambers's cyclopædia (1753)

Barbieri, Patrizio. Enharmonic instruments and music, 1470–1900 . (2008) Latina, Il Levante
Libreria Editrice

Fractal Microtonal Music , Jim Kukula.

All existing 18th century quotes on J.S. Bach and temperament

Dominic Eckersley: "Rosetta Revisited: Bach's Very Ordinary Temperament "

Well Temperaments, based on the Werckmeister Definition

FAVORED CARDINALITIES OF SCALES by PETER BUCH