Visualizing Temperaments: Squaring the Circle?

Gilles Baroin (1) , André Calvet (2)

1 ENAC - Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile
2 Chercheur indépendant

Since our hearing system is accustomed to the equal temperament system, best applied to modern western musical instruments, we perceive the other tuning systems as unfamiliar, without being able to describe exactly how and what sounds weird and seems dissonant. This paper describes the construction of new mathemusical models and visualization concepts: Two dimensional static and dynamic models, 3D and 4D animated objects. These tools are designed to graphically compare temperaments and generate visualizations that reinforce/augment the auditory impression. We discuss limits and applications for our models and their different applications. All videos will be available on www.mathemusic.net.

Domaines: Musique, musicologie et arts de la scène; Mathématiques [math]

Gilles Baroin, André Calvet. Visualizing Temperaments: Squaring the Circle?. MCM 2019, Mathematics and Computation in Music, Jun 2019, Madrid, Spain. pp.333-337/ ISBN 978-3-030-21391-6. ⟨hal-02157246⟩