View source for Xenharmonic music

{{Short description|Music that uses a tuning system outside of 12-TET}}
[[File:Xenharmonic versus microtonal P4.png|thumb|Xenharmonicity includes intervals larger than those in 12-tet (<12-tet) and microtonality includes intervals smaller than those in 12-tet (>12-tet). {{audio|Xenharmonic versus microtonal P4.mid|Play}}]]

'''Xenharmonic music''' is music that uses a [[musical tuning|tuning system]] that is unlike the [[Equal temperament#Twelve-tone equal temperament|12-tone equal temperament]] scale. It was named by [[Ivor Darreg]], from the [[Greek language|Greek]] ''[[Xenos (Greek)|xenos]]'' ([[Greek language|Greek]] '''ξένος''') meaning both ''foreign'' and ''hospitable''. He stated that it was "intended to include [[just intonation]] and such [[Musical temperament|temperaments]] as the 5-, 7-, and 11-tone, along with the higher-numbered really-[[microtonal]] systems as far as one wishes to go."<ref>{{cite web |last=Darreg |first=Ivor |date=May 1974 |title=Xenharmonic Bulletin No. 2 |url=http://sonic-arts.org/darreg/XHB2.HTM |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205142523/http://sonic-arts.org/darreg/XHB2.HTM |archive-date=February 5, 2012 |access-date=January 13, 2007}}</ref>

John Chalmers, author of ''Divisions of the Tetrachord'', wrote, "The converse of this definition is that music which can be performed in 12-tone equal temperament without significant loss of its identity is not truly ''microtonal''."<ref>Chalmers, John H. (1993). ''Divisions of the tetrachord: a prolegomenon to the construction of musical scales'', p.1. Frog Peak Music. {{ISBN|9780945996040}}.</ref> Thus xenharmonic music may be distinguished from twelve-tone equal temperament, as well as use of intonation and equal temperaments, by the use of unfamiliar intervals, harmonies, and [[timbre]]s.<!--which may be related to the tunings-->

Theorists other than Chalmers consider xenharmonic and non-xenharmonic to be subjective. Edward Foote, in his program notes for ''6 degrees of tonality'', refers to the differences in his response to the tunings he uses, such as [[Kirnberger temperament|Kirnberger]] and DeMorgan, from "shocking," to "too subtle to immediately notice," saying that "[t]emperaments are new territory for 20th-century ears. The first-time listener may find it shocking to hear the harmony change 'color' during modulations or too subtle to immediately notice."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Foote|first1=Edward|title=Six Degrees Of Tonality The Well Tempered Piano - CD notes|url=http://www.piano-tuners.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html|website=UK piano page|date=2001}}</ref>

==Diatonic xenharmonic music==

Music also can share much of the familiar territory of twelve-tone music yet also contain xenharmonic features. For example, [[Easley Blackwood Jr. |Easley Blackwood]], author of ''The Structure of Recognizable Diatonic Tunings'' (1985), wrote many etudes in equal temperament systems ranging from 12 to 24 tones. These etudes bring out connections and resemblances to twelve-tone music as well as various xenharmonic characteristics, reflected in ''[[Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media]]''.

About his 16-tone etude, Blackwood wrote:<ref name=blackwoodprogramnotes>{{cite web|last1=Blackwood|first1=Easley|title=Blackwood: Microtonal Compositions|url=https://www.dramonline.org/albums/blackwood-microtonal-compositions/notes}}</ref> {{quote|This tuning is best thought of as a combination of four intertwined diminished seventh chords. Since 12-note tuning can be regarded as a combination of three diminished seventh chords, it is plain that the two tunings have elements in common. The most obvious difference in the way the two tunings sound and work is that triads in 16-note tuning, although recognizable, are too discordant to serve as the final harmony in cadences. Keys can still be established by successions of altered subdominant and dominant harmonies, however, and the Etude is based mainly upon this property. The fundamental consonant harmony employed is a minor triad with an added minor seventh.}}

Darreg explains: "I devised the term 'xenharmonic' to refer to everything that does not sound like 12-tone equal temperament."<ref>Robert Smith, Robert Wilhite. [https://books.google.com/books?id=RaxNAAAAYAAJ&q=definition+xenharmonic Sound: An Exhibition of Sound Sculpture, Instrument Building and Acoustically Tuned Spaces] : Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, July 14-August 31, 1979, Project Studios 1, New York, September 30-November 18, 1979.</ref>

== Tunings, instruments, and composers ==
{{Refimprove section|date=February 2015}}

Music using scales or tuning other than 12-tone equal temperament can be classified as xenharmonic music. This includes other equal divisions of the octave and scales based on [[Just intonation#Extension of the twelve-tone scale|extended just intonation]].

Tunings derived from the partials or overtones of physical objects with an [[inharmonicity|inharmonic]] spectrum or [[harmonic series (music)|overtone series]] such as rods, prongs, plates, discs, spheroids and rocks occasionally are the basis of xenharmonic exploration. [[William Colvig]], who worked with the composer [[Lou Harrison]] created the ''tubulong'', a set of xenharmonic tubes.<ref>Haluška, Ján (2003). ''The Mathematical Theory of Tone Systems'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=w7yZ1Nzb5awC&q=tubulong p.284]. Marcel Dekker. {{ISBN|9788088683285}}.</ref>

[[Electronic music]] composed with arbitrarily chosen xenharmonic scales was explored on the album ''Radionics Radio: An Album of Musical Radionic Thought Frequencies'' (2016) by British composer [[Meadow House|Daniel Wilson]], who composed with frequency-runs submitted by users of a [[web application]] that replicated [[radionics|radionics-based]] electronic soundmaking equipment used by Oxford's [[George de la Warr|De La Warr Laboratories]] in the late 1940s.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Wilson|first1=Daniel|title=Radionics in Relation to Acoustics (CD notes in ''Radionics Radio: An Album of Musical Radionic Thought Frequencies'')|url=http://www.subrosa.net/en/catalogue/electronics/radionics-radio.html|website=Sub Rosa|date=2016}}</ref> [[Elaine Walker (composer)]] is an electronic musician who writes xenharmonic music by building new types of music keyboards. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Walker |first=Elaine |date=2017-08-03 |title=What is Xenharmonic Music? |url=https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/what-is-xenharmonic-music/ |access-date=2022-08-11 |website=New Music USA |language=en-US}}</ref>

The [[Non-Pythagorean scale]] utilized by [[Robert Schneider]] of [[The Apples in Stereo]], based on a sequence of [[logarithms]], may be considered xenharmonic, as well as [[Annie Gosfield]]'s purposefully "out of tune" sampler-based music using non systematic tunings and the work of other composers including [[Elodie Lauten]], [[Wendy Carlos]], [[Ivor Darreg]], and [[Paul Erlich]].{{citation needed|date=December 2017|reason=If "xenharmonic" is subjective, then this articles needs to cite someone saying, approximately, "this music sounds xenharmonic to me"}}

==See also==
* [[Bohlen–Pierce scale]]
* [[Regular temperament]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Sethares, William (2004) [https://www.springer.com/978-1-85233-797-1 ''Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale'']. {{ISBN|3-540-76173-X}}.

==External links==
*[http://www.microtonalismo.com Microtonality - Web] {{in lang|es}}
*[http://www.huygens-fokker.org/music/discography.html Microtonal music on CD]
*[http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/ Homepage for William Sethares]
*[http://en.xen.wiki/ The Xenharmonic Wiki], formerly at [[Wikispaces]]
*[http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2229924481 Xenharmonic Alliance]
* Barbieri, Patrizio. [http://www.patriziobarbieri.it/1.htm Enharmonic instruments and music, 1470-1900] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215045859/http://www.patriziobarbieri.it/1.htm |date=2009-02-15 }}. (2008) Latina, Il Levante Libreria Editrice
* [https://music.apple.com/album/fanfare-in-19-note-equal-tuning/351739423 Blackwood Microtonal Compositions Easley Blackwood & Jeffrey Kust, on iTunes] Includes ''Fanfare in 19-EDO''. Also includes the ''16 notes Andantino'' as the first of the twelve etudes in that collection.
*[http://www.noahjordan.ca microtonal piano work of Noah Jordan]

{{Microtonal music}}

[[Category:Microtonality]]