Xenharmony

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Xenharmonic music describes all tuning systems, and music using those systems, that do not use or approximate the common European twelve-tone equal temperament. The term was coined by Ivor Darreg from xenia (Greek ξενία), hospitable, and xenos (Greek ξένος) foreign. He famously stated: "This writer has proposed the term xenharmonic for music, melodies, scales, harmonies, instruments, and tuning-systems which do not sound like the 12-tone-equal temperament."^[1]

1 Xenharmonic Tunings
2 Xenharmonic Composers
3 Citations
4 Further reading
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Xenharmonic Tunings

Examples of especially Xenharmonic equal temperaments are 13, 23 and 11 tone equal temperament (tET). These tunings, and compositions written in them, almost always stand out to the listener as unusual, since they do not match the intervals of the harmonic series closely. More conventional equal temperaments like 19tET can also be used xenharmonically, but caution is needed. One of the strengths of 19 is as a species of Baroque era extended meantone tuning, providing additional keys in which the wolf interval is avoided. Pieces written in 19tET using traditional common practice era techniques are not xenharmonic. The 22tET is a better example of a xenharmonic temperament, as it matches a number of intervals not matched by the 12tET, but it does not allow for a standard whole tone and thus makes diatonic scales sound inherently out-of-tune.

Almost all nonoctave scales are xenharmonic. Notable examples are Wendy Carlos' alpha, beta and gamma, and the Bohlen-Pierce scale. 88 cent equal temperament is another well-known example.

Tunings derived from the overtones of physical objects with an inharmonic overtone series such as rods, prongs, plates, discs, spheroids and rocks are sometimes used as the basis of xenharmonic exploration. William Sethares is a pioneer in this area.

The Non-Pythagorean scale utilized by Robert Schneider of The Apples in Stereo, based on a sequence of logarithms, may also be considered xenharmonic.

[edit] Xenharmonic Composers

Annie Gosfield's purposefully "out of tune" sampler based music uses non systematic tunings that may be considered xenharmonic. Other composers of xenharmonic music include Elodie Lauten, Wendy Carlos, Ivor Darreg, Brian McLaren, Gary Morrison, and many others.