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~Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. improvisation Musical Technique performance

17 12ths – Just Intonation Interval Music

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17 12ths is a piece inspired by Scott Thompson’s addition of Just Intonation intervals to the xenwiki. The music you hear uses the interval of 17/12 as plucked strings in Kontakt 5 with adaptive “pure” tuning with a harmonic 7th turned on. I improvised and then added reverb in post production. Each key played is an interval of 17/12 and when using multiple keys complex harmonies build up quickly though Kontakt tries its best to interpet and at times you can hear a pitch drift when I add a note to a ringing chord.

The xenwiki says the following about this interval:

In 17-limit Just Intonation, 17/12 is the “second septendecimal tritone,” measuring very nearly 603¢. Its inversion is the “first septendecimal tritone,” 24/17, and the interval that separates them is the small comma 299/298, about 6¢. This difference is usually negligible, and tempering out this comma allows the 600¢ half-octave to function as both septendecimal tritones. Thus, every even-numbered EDO system contains a close approximation to these intervals.

17/12 is the mediant between the two septimal tritones 7/5 and 10/7.

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