Equal temperament
Equal temperament is a scheme of musical tuning in which the octave is divided into a series of equal steps. The best known example of such a system is twelve-tone equal temperament (sometimes abbreviated to 12-TET), which is nowadays used in most western music. Other equal temperaments do exist (some music has been written in 19-TET for example), but they are so rare that when people use the term equal temperament it is usually understood that they are talking about the twleve tone variety. The rest of this article concerns itself solely with 12-TET.
Equal temperament was designed to permit the playing of music in all keys with an equal amount of mis-tuning in each.
In an equal-tempered tuning, every note is 21/12 times the frequency of the note a semitone lower. Thus twelve equal-tempered semitones make exactly one octave, although all the intermediate intervals are slightly out of tune.
The composer Terry Riley has been quoted as saying "Western music is fast because it's not in tune".
The following is controversial: see the external link below:
- However, equal temperament also made possible far more harmonically complex music, as it enabled musicians to move rapidly between keys without re-tuning: J. S. Bach wrote The Well-Tempered Clavier to demonstrate the musical possibilities of well temperment, a system similar in intent to just intonation, but one which did not create an octave of 12 identical semitones.
- Interesting article in that link. Perhaps we should invite the author to explain it all here.
The interval 1:21/1200 is also known as a cent: one hundredth of an equal-tempered semitone.