Microtones in Western music - @Foster - Ask any conductor if there are microtones in a string orchestra which is frequently used in all western music, films and more. They will tell you the reason strings have that lush sound is because the entire string section do not play the same note exactly and perfectly in the same pitch as every other stringed instrument in the string orchestra.
There it is in front of any composer, arranger and player's face. Without the microtones, a string orchestra would not sound the way they do.
The details you can get from the Huygens-Fokker foundation who are experts on it because nobody else here is.

 

Here are two more: if you try to play standard stuff in 17 equal, you will notice that the meaning of diatonic and chromatic semitones are swapped, idk, if it is a feature or a bug:

midi arrangement of the piece with pseudo-Indonesian instruments

 

they it evolved is for one part similar to biological evolution: randomness and then selection. the other half i dont know.

it is probably releated to what you said about fifths. however i think one should not overrate those historic contexts.

otoh, the fact alone that there are just and et tunings side by side already shows that the dominance of "7 out of 12" scales is probably not soo deeply releated to math. i think that not only 5 out of 12 or 7 out of 12 work well, one can compose in any other systems, too and i dont feel restricted somehow when using 6 out of 14.

 

@23322332
Thank you so much for these posts...

But please don't get upset about what I'm saying. These pieces are not beautiful to me. When I listen to them, I feel like there's something wrong with them. I've never heard of any western microtonal pieces that can satisfy me. These pieces look like they're just showing possibilities, not beauty.

Even if you read my first post, you can see that there I emphasized a piece that sounds very beautiful that can beat 12-TET but none of these does that.

 

@Denali

 

I'm afraid that doesn't sound good. It's like a thing that tries to force itself into the ear and impress it, but is not successful at all. That's my personal opinion, of course.

 

For beautiful microtonal music, or music with different tunings,
listen to some Proper traditional Hindu, Turkish/Arabic or Gamelan music.

But bear in mind every person/brain/ears are different,
the degree of Enjoyment or Disappointment you get from it will only depend on You and your particular cultural background,
and maybe psychological or physiological build.

So yeah go and listen to it, by all means!
some of it can be EXCELLENT.

But if you don't like it don't blame them, or come back to blame us..

 

Post Western one please...

 

It's not Western. It's an Eastern one using Western instrumentation.

 

They're an Australian group using microtonally modified guitars and keyboards to play psych rock influenced by Turkish music.

At this point I'm beginning to suspect you're asking for something like microtonal Mozart lol

 

As I said it's Eastern.

Yes and even better.

 

16-tone Electronic music with a Singer..

This sounds Good to me,
Different? -> Of course, but that's to be foking expected if you're changing the whole tuning system.
Don't you think?

You cannot ask for microtonal or alternative-tuning music,
and expect it to sound exactly as smooth as western Mikey Mouse music in your westener ears..

 

They're mostly using safe notes from 12-TET or very close to them. Even if they introduce any extra significant note, can be easily detected. All I want from you is a link to a beautiful piece.

 

If you go back in time and listen to Mozart, you will also not find it sound beautiful, considering his father was a violin teacher who taught a gamut of something like 20 notes out of close to 55 equal (based on his private letters; from Chopin's letters it is also known he used meantone temperament)... so why do you want Mozart? You want Mozart that never existed before modern recordings of Mozart.
If you have a favourite song, play it and retune it on your own to Just intonation, if you don't like it then, then forget about alternative musical systems, wow. The only people I know of that have problems with non-12 ET are people with absolute pitch memory, but they will have problems even with 12 ET, if the reference frequency is not A440, so it has nothing to do with musical system.
Do you also find saw waves not beautiful - they are basically the model for good harmonic systems and if you play stacked harmonics, you get saw wave type of buzzing sound.

 

Last edited: Jun 12, 2021

The way that female Singer Digs into the "strange" notes, and applies vibrato is Beautiful.

Also I'm not an expert, (one cannot know everything..)
but I'd say 16-tone temperament could make a lot of the intervals to change already..

 

The interesting part is that 16 is one of the worst equal divisions, imo (it has very-very flat P5, flatter than the wolf fifth in just tuning - whole reason why we use 12 equal). It may be used for specific type of African music that uses inharmonic marimbas. So, if people can find music in 16 to sound good, what can I say, beauty has little to do with some preconceived norms.
Btw, many popular songs by artists like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, J. Hendrix can be considered microtonal - are they also not beautiful according to Foster's criteria? Well, millions of people find these artists as being good enough.

 

True.. it could also be said of Jeff Beck,
the guy has an incredible and unsuspected ability to adjust and make every note fit, and bring the exact amount of expression..

Try to play this track with your guitar, and compare your notes with his,
you'll see how much he changes every note..

And all of it normally happens without one even noticing,
because it's made properly and with good taste.


Besides and in all truth, I find that 16-tone electro track I linked Beautiful,
the more I listen to it the more I like it