# On Microtonality

I like microtonal music. I agree that the diatonic scale has
its limits. Also I consider chromaticism as "microtonality in
spirit". So it is nothing new. But I also think that there are
many problems too.

A problem of microtonal music is "How many tets should you use?".
If you want to escape from 12-tet, there is no real answer. And
you would realise that 12-tet is actually awesome. There are reasons
why a clock has 12 hours. A similar thing comes when you expand
the Bohlen-Pierce scale.



First of all, why 12edo came out? Because in just intonation,

1:2 = (Octave)
2:3 = (Perfect Fifth)
3:4 = (Perfect Fourth) = (Perfect Fifth)^-1

and the chromatic scale came from this. The 12edo is the equal
temperament approximation of that. To avoid the Pythagorean comma.

In Bohlen-Pierce, the scale is based on

1:3 = (Tritave)
3:5 = (C:G)
5:7 = (C:F)

and its 13-tet chromatic scale came from this. Note that 3:5:7 is
consonant. The odd prime numbers.



The diatonic scale and 12edo didn't come out of nowhere. It is the
simplest one. It is just the closure of 1:2:3:4. lcm(1,2,3,4)=12.
The tetraktys. It is the most natural choice. It is overused because
of that.

I agree that 12 might be few. But if you think like that, just use
every frequency between 20-20000 Hz. You can do that just with a
violin. Using finitely many tones is already limiting. The point
of a scale is peras. Not apeiron. You can have apeiron by going
Cage. Not with microtonality.

Though I like microtonal music despite of that. But with reminding
that the purpose is peras. If you want other scales, I think the
best alternative is still the Bohlen-Pierce scale. I don't know.
Maybe also golden scales? If you were a true believer of the golden
ratio and the Fibonacci sequence. But using things like the natural
exponent for a scale is definitely a joke.