Orthotonophonium

Last updated
Orthotonophonium
Orthotonophonium, MfM.Uni-Leipzig.jpg
Classification Aerophone
Hornbostel–Sachs classification 412.132
Inventor(s) Arthur von Oettingen
Developed1914
Related instruments
Harmonium, Reed organ

The Orthotonophonium is a free reed aerophone similar to a Harmonium with 72 (sometimes 53) keys per octave, that can be played all diatonic key intervals and chords using just intonation. The instrument was created in 1914 by German physicist Arthur von Oettingen to advance his theories of harmonic dualism (now knows as Riemannian theory).

Contents

Etymology

The word 'Orthotonophonium' is a portmanteau of the Greek words ορθός = correct, τόνος = tone and φωνή = sound.

Background

The concept of true intonation keyboards traces back to the 16th Century, with the work of Italian musicologists Gioseffo Zarlino and Nicola Vicentino. Zarlino tried to reproduce meantone temperament in all keys on a single instrument, without having to retune it. To this end, Zarlino created an instrument called the Archicembalo, which used 19 tone equal temperament. The instrument used two manuals and thirty six keys per octave.

Around 1850, American inventor Henry Ward Poole created an enharmonic organ, which did not require finger substitution upon note changes. [1] In 1863, Perronet Thompson built an organ with 65 keys per octave, which could be played with pure intonation in 21 major and minor keys. [2] The German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz also experimented on this theme during this period, using his own instrument - the Reinharmonium. [3]

German physicist Arthur von Oettingen became interested in microtonal tuning in the 1870s, later developing the idea for a harmonium using 72 or 53 keys, with which almost any chord using thirds, fourths, and fifths. The first Orthotonophonium was built in 1914 by German instrument manufacturer Schiedmayer. [4] [5]

Functionality

When playing in equal temperament, beats are unavoidable due to the Pythagorean comma. This interference can be avoided playing on an Orthotonophonium, since the pitch of a tone can be chosen such that only pure intervals are played. This is achieved by using a different tuning system - 72TET. Unlike a piano, where there are only twelve keys per octave, on an Orthotonophonium, the player has the choice of several pitches per tone. This eliminates enharmonics, since for example, a G♯ can be altered several cents higher than an A♭.

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Just intonation</span> Musical tuning based on pure intervals

In music, just intonation or pure intonation is the tuning of musical intervals as whole number ratios of frequencies. An interval tuned in this way is said to be pure, and is called a just interval. Just intervals consist of tones from a single harmonic series of an implied fundamental. For example, in the diagram, if the notes G3 and C4 are tuned as members of the harmonic series of the lowest C, their frequencies will be 3 and 4 times the fundamental frequency. The interval ratio between C4 and G3 is therefore 4:3, a just fourth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pythagorean tuning</span> Method of tuning a musical instrument

Pythagorean tuning is a system of musical tuning in which the frequency ratios of all intervals are based on the ratio 3:2. This ratio, also known as the "pure" perfect fifth, is chosen because it is one of the most consonant and easiest to tune by ear and because of importance attributed to the integer 3. As Novalis put it, "The musical proportions seem to me to be particularly correct natural proportions." Alternatively, it can be described as the tuning of the syntonic temperament in which the generator is the ratio 3:2, which is ≈ 702 cents wide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meantone temperament</span> Musical tuning system

Meantone temperaments are musical temperaments, that is a variety of tuning systems, obtained by narrowing the fifths so that their ratio is slightly less than 3:2, in order to push the thirds closer to pure. Meantone temperaments are constructed similarly to Pythagorean tuning, as a stack of equal fifths, but they are temperaments in that the fifths are not pure.

Microtonal or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of twelve equal intervals per octave. In other words, a microtone may be thought of as a note that falls "between the keys" of a piano tuned in equal temperament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circle of fifths</span> Relationship among tones of the chromatic scale

In music theory, the circle of fifths is a way of organizing pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths. Starting on a C, and using the standard system of tuning for Western music, the sequence is: C, G, D, A, E, B, F, C, G, D, A, E (F), C. This order places the most closely related key signatures adjacent to one another. It is usually illustrated in the form of a circle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regular temperament</span>

A regular temperament is any tempered system of musical tuning such that each frequency ratio is obtainable as a product of powers of a finite number of generators, or generating frequency ratios. For instance, in 12-TET, the system of music most commonly used in the Western world, the generator is a tempered fifth, which is the basis behind the circle of fifths.

A schismatic temperament is a musical tuning system that results from tempering the schisma of 32805:32768 to a unison. It is also called the schismic temperament, Helmholtz temperament, or quasi-Pythagorean temperament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scientific pitch notation</span> Musical notation system to describe pitch and relative frequency

Scientific pitch notation (SPN), also known as American standard pitch notation (ASPN) and international pitch notation (IPN), is a method of specifying musical pitch by combining a musical note name and a number identifying the pitch's octave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pump organ</span> Free-reed organ musical instrument

The pump organ or reed organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the American reed organ, the Indian harmonium, the physharmonica, and the seraphine. The idea for the free reed was derived from the Chinese sheng through Russia after 1750, and the first Western free-reed instrument was made in 1780 in Denmark.

An enharmonic keyboard is a musical keyboard, where enharmonically equivalent notes do not have identical pitches. A conventional keyboard has, for instance, only one key and pitch for C and D, but an enharmonic keyboard would have two different keys and pitches for these notes. Traditionally, such keyboards use black split keys to express both notes, but diatonic white keys may also be split.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Ward Poole</span>

Henry Ward Poole (1825–1890) was an American surveyor, civil engineer, educator and writer on and inventor of systems of musical tuning. He was brother of the famous librarian William Frederick Poole, and cousin of the celebrated humorist, journalist and politician Fitch Poole.

12 equal temperament (12-ET) is the musical system that divides the octave into 12 parts, all of which are equally tempered on a logarithmic scale, with a ratio equal to the 12th root of 2. That resulting smallest interval, 112 the width of an octave, is called a semitone or half step.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Holford Macdowall Bosanquet</span> English scientist and music theorist

Robert Holford Macdowall Bosanquet was an English scientist and music theorist, and brother of Admiral Sir Day Bosanquet, and philosopher Bernard Bosanquet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">31 equal temperament</span> In music, a microtonal tuning system

In music, 31 equal temperament, 31-ET, which can also be abbreviated 31-TET or 31-EDO, also known as tricesimoprimal, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 31 equal-sized steps. Each step represents a frequency ratio of 312, or 38.71 cents.

Tanaka Shōhei was a Japanese physicist, music theorist, and inventor. He graduated from Tokyo University in 1882 as a science student. On an imperial scholarship, he was sent to Germany for doctoral studies in 1884, together with Mori Ōgai. His dissertation concerned just intonation and practical means to its implementation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Septimal major third</span> Musical interval

In music, the septimal major third, also called the supermajor third, septimal supermajor third, and sometimes Bohlen–Pierce third is the musical interval exactly or approximately equal to a just 9:7 ratio of frequencies, or alternately 14:11. It is equal to 435 cents, sharper than a just major third (5:4) by the septimal quarter tone (36:35). In 24-TET the septimal major third is approximated by 9 quarter tones, or 450 cents. Both 24 and 19 equal temperament map the septimal major third and the septimal narrow fourth (21:16) to the same interval.

<i>Tonnetz</i> Diagram of harmonic relations in music

In musical tuning and harmony, the Tonnetz is a conceptual lattice diagram representing tonal space first described by Leonhard Euler in 1739. Various visual representations of the Tonnetz can be used to show traditional harmonic relationships in European classical music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musical temperament</span> Musical tuning system

In musical tuning, a temperament is a tuning system that slightly compromises the pure intervals of just intonation to meet other requirements. Most modern Western musical instruments are tuned in the equal temperament system. Tempering is the process of altering the size of an interval by making it narrower or wider than pure. "Any plan that describes the adjustments to the sizes of some or all of the twelve fifth intervals in the circle of fifths so that they accommodate pure octaves and produce certain sizes of major thirds is called a temperament." Temperament is especially important for keyboard instruments, which typically allow a player to play only the pitches assigned to the various keys, and lack any way to alter pitch of a note in performance. Historically, the use of just intonation, Pythagorean tuning and meantone temperament meant that such instruments could sound "in tune" in one key, or some keys, but would then have more dissonance in other keys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Generalized keyboard</span>

Generalized keyboards are musical keyboards, a type of isomorphic keyboard, with regular, tile-like arrangements usually with rectangular or hexagonal keys, and were developed for performing music in different tunings. They were introduced by Robert Bosanquet in the 1870s, and since the 1960s Erv Wilson has developed new methods of using and expanding them, proposing keyboard layouts including any scale made of a single generator within an "octave" of any size.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur von Oettingen</span> Baltic German physicist

Arthur Joachim von Oettingen was a Baltic German physicist and music theorist. He was the brother of theologian Alexander von Oettingen (1827–1905) and ophthalmologist Georg von Oettingen (1824–1916).

References

  1. Henry Ward Poole: Key-board for Organs, United States of America Patent, Nummer 73,753, 28 January 1868
  2. Perronet Thompson: Principles and Practice of Just Intonation, illustrated on the Enharmonic Organ, 7th Edition, London (1863)
  3. "H.v.Helmholtz (1896): Lehre von den Tonempfindungen - Beilage XVIII - Anwendung der reinen Intervalle beim Gesang". psychologie.lw.uni-leipzig.de. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  4. Orthotonophonium (Musikinstrumenten-Museum ) in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library), retrieved 9 September 2014.
  5. Klaus Gernhardt, Hubert Henkel, Winfried Schrammek: Orgelinstrumente, Harmoniums, Katalog, Band 6, Musikinstrumenten-Museum der Karl-Marx-Universität, Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig (1983); Beschreibung des Orthotonophoniums im Museum für Musikinstrumente der Universität Leipzig