Musical Instruments in Nineteen-Tone Equal Temperament
Tillman H. Schafer, W. A. Piehl · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1947
Yasser has proposed a theory of evolving tonality to account for the structural relations of the pentatonic scales used by various primitive peoples to the seven-tone scales used in modern European music. He postulates a series of organically connected scales of increasing complexity and predicts a “supra-diatonic” scale as the logical next stage in tonal evolution. This scale has twelve regular degrees and seven intermediate auxiliaries. The intonation of this scale which appears most practical is nineteen-tone equal temperament. This temperament has been known for centuries as an intonation of the seven-tone scale. The fact that it serves for both scales is a consequence of their interrelations. In this paper, the theory of evolving tonality is sketched, instruments built for testing the theory are described, and both new and old scales and chords in nineteen-tone equal temperament are demonstrated aurally and compared with the nearest equivalents in the conventional twelve-tone equal temperament.