Richard Moody wrote: > I have always wondered about "quarter tone" music esp on pianos. How can > that be with only 12 notes to the octave? Or do they tune two pianos a > quarter step apart? Knowing nothing about this I wonder what other than ET > can quarter tone be tuned in? Strict, modern quarter-tone tuning is 24-tone Equal Temperament, for which a number of pianos were built in the first half of the 20th century; it follows that any equal temperament divisible by 24 also will have these intervals, notably 96tET currently which is available in Sauter's Metamorphoser pianos. A number of composers have written ¼-tone music explicitly. Jay Williams published a scheme for tuning two pianos a ¼-tone apart a couple years ago. Often any interval smaller than a semitone is lumped as a ¼-tone. If one slackens to allow for broader notions to a tone, contextually proper ¼-tones may be found in many other systems, or, conversely they might be identified simply by resemblance to the 50 cent interval. The base step-sizes in 22tET are ~54.55 cents. This temperament is fairly simple to tune aurally and presents a number of advantages over 24tET. It has received a fair amount of attention during the past few years: instruments exist, and composers have written for them. Regards, Clark
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