Hacker News Reader

Comment by joeminichino | Hacker News Reader

I tried listening to a 15-tone ET piano piece ones. Sure, maybe I'm not worthy, and too limited in my musical understanding (although I have been a musicians since the age of 6 and i'm now 43), but it just sounded like a piano out of tune. 12-tet is more than enough to experiment with for the rest of my life

View on HN

You have been listening to 12-tet literally your entire life, so microtonal music is inevitably going to sound strange.

Having said that, 15-tet is pretty rancid. 22-tet can be much more consonant.

Try this, which is in just intonation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uZUQqOLyPQ

It's contemporary but still sort-of accessible for many people.

Yes, also this one, which is for microtonal piano (also in JI): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkaGm8B8CZI

Well. I loved the piece you linked! 22-TET does not sound nearly as dissonant to my ears as 15 does. Thank you for sharing.

Part of it could be due to conditioning but part of it is due to the fact that 15 TET is just another type of compromise, one that actually puts the perfect fifth even more out of tune than 12 TET, even though some of the other intervals are less tempered.

I'm sure you've heard about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_intonation

Most people brush off the concept because of a lack of accessible music, and because a lot of musicians writing the music, well, let's just say they lack a sense of popular sentiment. I don't think it discredits the theory, which is based in physics. Potentially, tuning intervals by ratios can be used to write the same style of music we are used to (without tempered intervals) just as well as providing harmonies that we don't have access to in our prevalent (Western) tuning system.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com