equal temperament


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equal temperament

n. Music
Modification of the intervals of just intonation in the tuning of instruments of fixed intonation to permit harmonic modulation. It allows one to modulate to or play in any of the 12 major or 12 minor keys.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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Noun1.equal temperament - the division of the scale based on an octave that is divided into twelve exactly equal semitones; "equal temperament is the system commonly used in keyboard instruments"
temperament - an adjustment of the intervals (as in tuning a keyboard instrument) so that the scale can be used to play in different keys
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
The new and practical equal temperament tuning is central to Werckmeister's argument here.
On the piano, with equal temperament, all three pitches are identical--there is only one note on the keyboard for them.
This has been the most fundamental source of errors, misapprehensions and confusions since the 16th century." In this connection, Koukal points out that today's equal temperament, within which the octave is divided into iq equal semitones, asserted itself gradually during the course of the 19th century, and the concert pitch set at 440 Hz was only officially agreed as the international standard in 1939.
This may even result in a retuning of the sounds of the past: "Equal temperament is now universally accepted, but ...
While it listens to you play, your pitch is charted in relation to equal temperament. You can watch it while you are playing, like a traditional tuner, or as Wakefield did, it can also be used to show the pitch of an Audacity recording played back over the computer's speakers.
His two published books, How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care) and Shakespeare's Songbook, have gained international renown.
38a (tuned in Kellner) and two portatives built by David Petty & Associates, one in equal temperament and the other in meantone.
He pairs music and math concepts such as scales and modular arithmetic, octave identification and equivalence relation, intervals and logarithms, equal temperament and exponents, overtones and integers, tone and trigonometry, and tuning and rationality.
It might happen to prick up your ears from a purely avant-garde perspective, but it still doesn't add anything new to our understanding of Bach's lessons in well-temperament as a technological, namely reproducible way forward in musicking (and which incidentally was itself eventually supplanted by the modern system of true equal temperament, which is also what makes playing Das wohltemperierte Klavier on the piano such an ironic exercise to begin with).
How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony: And Why You Should Care, by Ross.