----- Original Message ----- From: "Zach Steiner" <zsteiner@butler.edu>
Can some give a lay person description--relative to most discussions of the topic, assuming some musical literacy on my part--of just intonation? Most descriptions are too much for even friends who have had much more formal theory training than I. Thanks in advance.
I'll try: Tuning by Just Intonation is a system of tuning based on the Harmonic series (like the harmonics on a guitar string). A simple example: The distance between the 3rd harmonic and 2nd harmonic is a bit larger than an equal temperament perfect 5th. The distance between the 5th harmonic and 4th harmonic is a smaller than an equal temperament major third. (-14 cents, to be exact. there are 1200 cents to an octave). This gives us a simple JI major triad. 12 Tone Equal Temperament is out of tune with the naturally occurring Harmonic Series. The thirds are sharp by 14 cents and the 5ths are flat by 2 cents. Why use Just Intonation? A wider variety of intervals and chords are available. An infinite amount, in fact. You have access to intervals smaller than a 12tet half tone (microtones) and the larger intervals can more consonant than 12tet intervals. Why use 12 Tone Equal Temperament? So one can modulate freely around the 12 key centers of 12tet. Can you do that in JI? Yes, but you would need more than 12 notes to make it really flexible. I could go deeper, is this any help? * David Beardsley * microtonal guitar * http://biink.com/db