Tone

From TD Xenharmonic Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Tone as an interval measure was already known in Ancient Greece. Aristoxenus (fl. 335 BC) defined the tone as the difference between the just fifth (3/2) and the just fourth (4/3). From this base size, he derived the size of other intervals as multiples or fractions of the tone, so for instance the just fourth was 2½ tones in size.

From a technical perspective, the tone as an interval with frequency ratio 9/8 and a size of ca. 204 cents is exactly the same as the major diatonic second.

see also The measurement of Aristoxenus's Divisions of the Tetrachord