17 equal temperament
In music, 17 equal temperament is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 17 equal steps (equal frequency ratios). Each step represents a frequency ratio of 17√2, or 70.6 cents.

17-ET is the tuning of the regular diatonic tuning in which the tempered perfect fifth is equal to 705.88 cents, as shown in Figure 1 (look for the label "17-TET").
History and use
Alexander J. Ellis refers to a tuning of seventeen tones based on perfect fourths and fifths as the Arabic scale.[2] In the thirteenth century, Middle-Eastern musician Safi al-Din Urmawi developed a theoretical system of seventeen tones to describe Arabic and Persian music, although the tones were not equally spaced. This 17-tone system remained the primary theoretical system until the development of the quarter tone scale.[citation needed]
Notation
Easley Blackwood Jr. created a notation system where sharps and flats raised/lowered 2 steps. This yields the chromatic scale:
- C, D♭, C♯, D, E♭, D♯, E, F, G♭, F♯, G, A♭, G♯, A, B♭, A♯, B, C
Quarter tone sharps and flats can also be used, yielding the following chromatic scale:
Interval size
Below are some intervals in 17-EDO compared to just.
17-et | File:Major chord on C in 17 equal temperament.mid |
just | File:Major chord on C in just intonation.mid |
12-et | File:Major chord on C.mid |
Relation to 34-ET
17-ET is where every other step in the 34-ET scale is included, and the others are not accessible. Conversely 34-ET is a subdivision of 17-ET.
References
- ^ Milne, Sethares & Plamondon 2007, pp. 15–32.
- ^ Ellis, Alexander J. (1863). "On the Temperament of Musical Instruments with Fixed Tones", Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, vol. 13. (1863–1864), pp. 404–422.
- ^ Blackwood, Easley (Summer 1991). "Modes and Chord Progressions in Equal Tunings". Perspectives of New Music. 29 (2): 166–200 (175). doi:10.2307/833437. JSTOR 833437.
- ^ Milne, Sethares & Plamondon 2007, p. 29.
Sources
- Milne, Andrew; Sethares, William; Plamondon, James (Winter 2007). "Isomorphic Controllers and Dynamic Tuning: Invariant Fingering over a Tuning Continuum". Computer Music Journal. 31 (4): 15–32. doi:10.1162/comj.2007.31.4.15. S2CID 27906745.
External links
- "The 17-tone Puzzle — And the Neo-medieval Key that Unlocks It" by George Secor
- Libro y Programa Tonalismo, heptadecatonic system applications (in Spanish)
- Georg Hajdu's 1992 ICMC paper on the 17-tone piano project
- "Crocus", 17 equal temperament, 9 tone mode on YouTube, by Wongi Hwang