Grove Music Online

Tuning systems
Douglas Leedy and Charles Corey

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2252551
Published in print: 26 November 2013
Published online: 16 October 2013

Systems of organization of the pitch scale. Such systems are either

“just” or “tempered.” Just systems consist entirely of pure intervals,
and though literal transposition of patterns or scales may be very
limited, other musically useful symmetries are available. Tempered
systems are those in which the purity of some or all intervals is
deliberately compromised in order to render other intervals less
impure, and thus increase the number of musically serviceable
intervals. Over the course of centuries countless tunings and
temperaments have been proposed, but few have been of practical
importance; of these, 12-tone equal temperament has become the
standard in Western music since the 19th century.

1. History, influences, and theory.

Until about 1850 many organs in New England were tuned to some
practical variant of meantone temperament, while in areas of
German influence (such as the Moravian communities) equal
temperament prevailed. The universal acceptance of 12-tone equal
temperament as standard from the mid-19th century nearly silenced
discussion of alternative systems; only a few isolated composers and
theorists advocated or experimented with non-standard tuning
systems before about 1960. (Even so, an undercurrent of
dissatisfaction with 12-tone equal temperament was expressed even
by figures in the musical mainstream, e.g., Henry Cowell and Paul
Hindemith.)

Experiments in expanded tuning systems and instrument design

were made in about 1850 by Henry Ward Poole who, with Joseph
Alley, built a “euharmonic organ” in just tuning. In 1883, James Paul
White constructed the 53-tone equal-tempered “harmon.” Poole and
White also attempted to design a universal keyboard on which any
transposition of a scale or interval pattern would have the same
configuration of key-levers, and hence of fingering. A just tuning
system was one feature of Thaddeus Cahill’s Telharmonium , a
gigantic electromechanical keyboard instrument developed between
1892 and 1914.

The most colorful 19th-century experiments in tuning systems were

those of George Ives, described anecdotally by his son Charles Ives.
They included empirical quarter-tones, observations of the harmonic

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 structure of the sound of church bells, and exotic scales based on
intervals not found in 12-tone equal temperament. Charles Ives’s
experiments were very much a continuation of his father’s work,
most especially in the plans for the Universe Symphony (1911–28,
unfinished), for which Ives envisioned “continents” of instruments,
each tuned to a different system, including “perfectly tuned
overtones … perfectly tuned correct scales, … scales of a smaller
division than a semitone, scales of uneven division greater than a
whole tone, scales with no octave …”—all to be generated,
apparently, from a 32′ “pedal A.” Although Charles Ives published an
account of a very thorough empirical study of the intervals and
sonorities available in the quarter-tone system, he used quarter-
tones in only a few works, most notably the Three Quarter-Tone
Pieces (1923–4) for two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart.

The quarter-tone movement, a largely European phenomenon,

reached its zenith at a time when quarter-tones seemed a logical
extension of an increasingly systematic and intense chromaticism
(c1920–25). The movement was represented in the United States by
a few composers, the most notable of whom were the immigrants
Mildred Couper (1887–1974) and Hans Barth (1897–1956).

Beginning with the work of harry Partch , the United States became
the center of significant activity in alternative tuning systems. Partch
entirely rejected the development of Western music and, taking his
inspiration from the ancient Greeks, created a unique music, one of
the central features of which is a just system of tuning. His most
famous scale included 43 tones per octave, but Partch lamented the
fact that this was often the total knowledge of his just-intoned
system. Partch assigned to the “unity” ratio, 1:1, the pitch gʹ (392
Hz). From here and from several other pitches, Otonalities (derived
from the overtone series) and Utonalities (the inversions of the
Otonality ratios) were derived, and crucial pitches were identified as
Identities (tones that could be interpreted in multiple tonalities).
This system is fully elucidated in chapters 7, 8, and 10 of his Genesis
of a Music (1949, rev. and enlarged 1974).

For Partch, this tuning system was an inseparable part of what he

called “monophony,” “an organization [of musical materials]
deducible from the sounding of one tone, … or 1/1”; “monophony” is
in turn a part of a “corporeal” or “emotionally ‘tactile’” synthesis of
music, speech, dance, drama, and mime, which was for Partch a
conscious reaction against musical abstraction, and in which the
musical instruments he designed and built are a focal point. As he
sought to organize the virtually limitless array of interval structures
implicit in his just system, Partch’s musical style grew in complexity
and depth, and the number of invented (and iconic) instruments in
his orchestra grew, reaching full maturity in such works as Oedipus
(1951) and Delusion of the Fury (1965–6). A number of composers
who were associated with Partch show the influence of his music and
theories (Jonathan Glasier, Chris Forster, Dean Drummond, Ben
Johnston).

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 Interest in tuning systems has grown rapidly in the United States,
giving rise to an ever increasing body of writings, compositions, and
instruments. The reasons for this interest include a greatly expanded
awareness of non-Western music; a developing interest in
performance practices (including historical temperaments) and
theoretical writings on earlier Western music; the availability of
analog and digital electronic systems to create and analyze music; a
tendency, especially among younger musicians, to reject or question
traditional opinions regarding tuning and intonation; and the
influence of the ideas and music of composers such as Partch and
Ives. Such exploration has proven that no single practical system can
adequately serve every musical need.

The impetus to explore different tuning systems arises from the fact
that no single practical system can adequately serve every musical
need. Considering the two fundamental alternatives—a just system,
consisting entirely of pure intervals, or one that is tempered—there
are three principal differences between them: whereas just systems
consist entirely of pure intervals, equal temperaments contain no
absolutely pure intervals except the octave; just systems are by
nature infinite in size, while equal temperaments are closed and
finite; internal symmetry and the possibilities of transposition are
both complex and limited in just systems, while any equal
temperament offers an evident and readily manipulated structure, as
well as the possibility of uniform modulation through all its degrees
(too much has been made, however, of the presumed disadvantage of
limited transposition in systems that are not equal-tempered—see
Partch, chapter 11). To this end, equal-tempered systems typically
derive their harmonic function out of context, while just-intoned
systems may have harmonic functions inherent in the interval.

Of the tempered tuning systems, the best-known are equal-tempered

systems, in which the octave is divided into a number of theoretically
uniform intervals. Easley Blackwood’s Twelve Microtonal Etudes for
Electronic Music Media, for example, use each of the equal
temperaments in turn from 13 to 24 divisions per octave. However,
equal temperaments that exclude the octave, and new unequal
temperaments (which have been historically important) have been
suggested as well. The family of linear temperaments has been
examined historically through traditional mean-tone and
Pythagorean temperaments and the Helmholtz (⅛-schisma)
temperament. A tuning system may also, as Dane Rudhyar notes, be
developed empirically out of certain chosen sonorities, beat rates,
and combination tones. Finally, a piece may call for the combination
of multiple tuning systems, enabling the composer to exploit not only
the unique features of each tuning but also the differences between
them. The equal temperaments from five to 1200 tones per octave
have been carefully examined (notably in computer analyses by
Ervin Wilson, John H. Chalmers, Jr., and Donald E. Hall), for
closeness of approximation to the intervals of just intonation (see
Chalmers and Wilson). The diverse “moods” of some of these
temperaments have also been extensively described by Ivor Darreg.
Good representation of just intervals is not the only possible

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 criterion: for certain melodic effects, or to obtain a large proportion
of non-harmonic intervals, equal temperaments which avoid just
intervals might be preferred. The optimum equal temperament will
provide the closest approximation to the desired intervals (whatever
they may be) within the smallest number of tones per octave.
Further considerations (some of which apply to other systems as
well) may include the balance of melodic and harmonic factors,
notational convenience, the suitability of the system for some or all
of a traditional repertory of music, and the convenience of adapting
or constructing musical instruments for the system.

Just systems include intervals generated by the prime numbers two

(the octave 2:1), three (the ascending 5th 3:2), and usually also five
(the major 3rd 5:4, which when subtracted from the 5th gives the
minor 3rd 6:5). Each prime, or limit, may be thought of as giving rise
from a starting point (the unison 1:1) in opposite directions to an
endless succession of identical intervals. Incorporating additional
primes (such as 7, 11—Partch’s ratio limit—and 13) allows further
intervallic subtlety, but comes with greatly increased complexity. For
example, a just-intoned minor 7th may be created by adding two
4ths (4:3), or a 5th (3:2) and a minor 3rd (6:5), or by the 11
harmonic alone (7:4), among other possibilities. These three 7ths
are, respectively, 16:9 (996 cents), 9:5 (1018 cents), and 7:4 (969
cents). All three of these are clearly perceived as inflections of the
minor 7th despite their substantial variation in size; such inflections
offer great musical value and differing harmonic implications.

2. Instruments, ensembles, and tuning.

One of the principal and most obvious obstacles to working in

alternative tuning systems is a lack of suitable musical instruments.
Most composers have found ways of adapting traditional instruments
—and their players—to the tuning system in which they have chosen
to work. The voice, unfretted strings, and the trombone offer great
flexibility of pitch, but unfamiliar intervals still have to be learned
aurally.

The potential of the human voice in expanded intonation has

scarcely begun to be explored in the West. For most of the woodwind
instruments, fingerings and embouchure changes have been devised
and charted to produce reliably a greatly expanded repertory of
pitches. Extra valves—usually providing about a quarter-tone drop in
pitch—have been added to some brass instruments, and extra keys
to keyboard instruments. Guitars are readily refretted for any equal
temperament up to a practical limit of about 31 tones per octave or
for other temperaments or intonations (in which case the open string
tuning may need modification). Guitars with interchangeable
fingerboards are also available, providing performers with access to
countless tunings.

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 The invention of special instruments seems a natural concomitant of
the construction of special tuning systems. The instruments in
Partch’s diverse orchestra have been mentioned, but it is important
to note that the design or materials of many of them limited the
number and quality of pitches available—the aforementioned cloud-
chamber bowls, for example, have a definite pitch when struck, but
this pitch cannot be engineered with any degree of reliability when
the instrument is made.

Idiophones and plucked string instruments have become favorite

resources for instrument builders for reasons of practicality,
esthetics, and probably also timbre; the music of Partch, Cowell,
Varèse, Cage, and Lou Harrison has also probably been influential.
Notable instruments (besides those built by Partch and Harrison)
include Dean Drummond’s zoomoozophone, Darreg’s megalyras, and
the tubulons built by Ervin Wilson and his student Craig Huxley
(born Craig Hundley). An important intercultural synthesis is the
American gamelan, a consort of instruments modeled tonally and
structurally on the central-Javanese gamelan, built of a combination
of traditional and modern materials, and suited both to new music
and much traditional (Javanese) repertory (see Gamelan).

The design of English acoustician R.H.M. Bosanquet’s generalized

keyboard has been followed in the construction of most recent
keyboards in new tunings, including the Ervin Wilson–Scott
Hackelman clavichord (19-tone just-intoned) and the Fokker Arcifoon
(31-tone equal-tempered). Conventional keyboard layouts have been
used as well, such as in the equal-tempered pianos (in 24, 36, and 96
tones, among others) designed by Julian Carrillo and built by Carl
Sauter. However, electronics have begun to supersede some of these
keyboard instruments; the technological advances in synthesizers
and samplers and the continued interest in electronic music have
yielded greater precision in the tuning capabilities and greater
variety in the timbral qualities of electronics. This has led to an
increasing number of compositions combining electronics and
acoustic instruments to further explore microtonal nuances
(Drummond, Kyle Gann, Mathew Rosenblum).

3. Intonation and aural perception.

The pitch of a tone, and thus the extent to which it is perceived to be

in or out of tune, is dependent on a number of factors besides its
frequency. One of these is loudness: the pitch of a fixed tone appears
to drop as it gets louder, sometimes by more than half a semitone.
Another important factor is timbre, and so closely tied are tone color
and perceived pitch that their effects often cannot be separated. The
considerable inharmonicity (deviation from correct mathematical
proportion) of the overtones of piano strings is an important part of
their perceived pitch as well as of the instrument’s timbre; this
inharmonicity is one reason why the octaves in the treble and bass of
the piano are “stretched” or widened by, according to various

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 sources, as much as 60 cents. The proper choice of timbre can
ameliorate the effect of inharmonicity in certain intervals and is an
essential consideration in any tuning system.

Studies of auditory response have confirmed beyond doubt that the

musical ear is capable of vastly finer pitch discrimination than is
normally demanded of it today—the typical listener can distinguish
between two pitches only six cents apart. However, the perception,
and meaning, of what is “in tune” is frequently debated and
frequently open to subjective interpretation. Much of our
intonational confusion comes from the lamentable fact that the
systematic study of tuning and intonation has long been absent from
the music curriculum. Discussion regarding tuning is usually
restricted to the size of the major 3rd and sometimes that of the 7th
in the dominant-7th chord. During most of this century American
singers and string players have been taught to favor the wide
(Pythagorean) major 3rd for the sake of high leading tones (a
strange idea, perhaps, as the just leading tone of 15:8 is actually
nearly 12 cents lower than the equal-tempered leading tone—raising
it further simply continues to distort its function) and melodic
brilliance. A noticeable loss of clarity in orchestral sonority has
resulted from the conflict of the latter intonational characteristic
with that of the brass instruments, the construction of which favors
just intonation. While there is emerging evidence today of a renewed
taste for purer harmonic 3rds in playing and singing, the fact
remains that intonation correct for, say, Wagner or Fauré will not be
so for Mozart, let alone Palestrina.

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 H. Partch: Genesis of a Music: an Account of a Creative
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 R. Duffin: How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and
Why You Should Care) (New York, 2007)

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