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In music, just intonation or pure intonation is the attempt to tune all musical intervals as whole number ratios (such as 3:2 or 4:3) of frequencies. An interval tuned in this way is said to be pure, and may be called a just interval; when it is sounded, no beating is heard.
- What is just intonation in music?
- What is wrong with just intonation?
- Why does just intonation sound better?
- Is just intonation Pythagorean?
What is just intonation in music?
Just intonation, in music, system of tuning in which the correct size of all the intervals of the scale is calculated by different additions and subtractions of pure natural thirds and fifths (the intervals that occur between the fourth and fifth, and second and third tones, respectively, of the natural harmonic series ...
What is wrong with just intonation?
Just intonation is extremely impractical for instruments that play chords (guitar or piano), or any instrument with fixed pitches which cannot bend, such as vibraphone or marimba. How many keys do you want in an octave on your keyboard? In the Baroque period, 12-tone equal temperament had not yet been invented.
Why does just intonation sound better?
Our brains tell us that the first interval is more consonant, simply because it requires less effort to process than the second one. Of course, in the real world, things are rarely absolutely perfect and two tones in the ratio of 40001:50001 will be heard as "near enough" to 4:5.
Is just intonation Pythagorean?
Applying the first part of this concept, some scholars refer to Pythagorean tuning as "3-limit just intonation," since all intervals are derived either from fifths (3:2) or octaves (2:1), ratios involving 3 as the largest prime.
