Werner "Journal of Psychology" Interval

I have certainly experienced the feeling of "enlargement" when playing
chromatically with 22-tet. Going back to 12, the semitones sound like whole
tones for a little while.

Someone mentioned playing their office-mate some music in 19 several times
until they got used to it. Then 12 sounded wrong, until they got used to
that again. I found that once I had heard music (Bach, Blackwood) in 19, 12
never sounded quite as good again. Although I use 12 all the time, the
triads have a certain tension, an element of restlessness, that 19 doesn't
have. 19 sounds more peaceful to me. Although it's a subtle difference, I
think much of the 12tet canon (Classical & Romantic, whatever composers may
be in favor at the moment) depends on that restlessness for its musical
effect. Although translating tonal music from one system to the other looks
feasible on paper, the emotional effect, if one can perceive it anew each
time, is often quite different in each tuning. May I venture a
counterfactual: if the great composers has 19tet to work with, they might
have come up with music of a quite different character.


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