User`s manual

• Just (major chromatic): a twelve-tone scale. Just intonation tunes the

most frequently used intervals to be pure (integer ratios in frequency).

These tunings depend on the mode (major or minor) and the key. This

scale is tuned for major mode.

• Just (minor chromatic): (See Just (major chromatic), above)

• Meantone chrom.: a twelve-tone scale. This tuning is a combination of

Pythagorean and just tunings so that music in a wider variety of keys

could be usable.

• Werckmeister III chrom.: a twelve-tone scale. This scale was a first

attempt (about Bach’s time) to allow an instrument to be played in any

scale. It was in response to this scale that Bach wrote Well-Tempered

Clavier.

• Vallotti & Young chrom.: a twelve-tone scale. Another derivative of the

Pythagorean scale designed to allow arbitrary keys.

• Barnes-Bach (chromatic): a twelve-tone scale. A variation of the Vallotti

& Young scale designed to optimize the performance of Bach’s Well-

Tempered Clavier.

Ethnic Tunings:

• Indian: This 22 tone scale is used in India to perform ragas.

• Slendro: This five-tone Indonesian scale is played by ensembles called

gamelans.

• Pelog: This seven-tone Indonesian scale is more interesting than Slendro

and is now the primary scale in Balinese music.

• Arabic 1: This 17 tone scale is the original Arabic scale adopted from the

Pythagorean scale.

• Arabic 2 (chromatic): This twelve-tone scale is the modern version of the

Arabic scale popular in Arabic music today.

Contemporary Tunings:

Equal tempered scales with a large number of tones are typically used to

play common tonal harmony with greater purity of intervals and chords.

The typical approach is to analyze a passage (or less) of music and select

tones from a scale that will best approximate the desired pure intervals.

• 19 Tone: This scale has greater purity of minor thirds and major thirds

(and conversely, minor and major sixths) than twelve-tone equal tem-

perament. A disadvantage is that perfect fifths are narrower than those

found in twelve-tone equal temperament.

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