University of South Carolina
School of Music

BAIN MUSC 726T
Tuning Theory

Summer 2021


MUSC 726T | Blackboard | Listening/Analysis | Handouts


C O U R S E   M O D U L E S
1. The Harmonic Series
2. Generating Scales
3. Pythagorean Tuning
4. Just Intonation
5. Meantone Temperament
6. Well Temperament
7. Equal Temperament
Special Topics

Naxos | Spotify

News

Thanks for a great summer term!

Quotable

Left quote
Numbers...are eternal, and unvarying from culture to culture, from eon to eon.
Right quote

– Kyle Gann, The Arithmetic of Listening

Course Description

Tuning theory for contemporary musicians with a focus on the theory, analysis, and
practice of microtonality in historical and contemporary contexts.

Prerequisite: Undergraduate tonal harmony and voice leading

Textbook

Gann, Kyle. 2019. The Arithmetic of Listening: Tuning Theory and History for the Impractical Musician.
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. {Table of Contents}

Login at: EBSCOhost, or purchase the book {IUP Website}

Course Documents

  1. Syllabus (pdf)
  2. Research Project
  3. Asynchronous Thursday Activities:
  4. Listening/Analysis
  5. Bibliography
  6. Articles
  7. Handouts
  8. Terms & Concepts:
  9. Software

Library Resources

  1. Grove/Oxford
  2. Harvard Dictionary
  3. JSTOR
  4. Naxos Music Library
  5. FindIt @ UofSC

Online Resources

  1. Acoustics
  2. Boston Microtonal Society
  3. Early Music Sources, Tuning & Temperament in Early Music {YouTube Channel}
  4. Gann, Information on Alternate Tunings
  5. Grady, The Wilson Archives
  6. Huygens-Fokker Foundation, Centre for Microtonal Music
  7. Lamb, Sacred Realism
  8. Monzo, Tonalsoft Encyclopedia of Microtonal Music Theory
  9. Sabat, Music & Writings
  10. Sethares, Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum & Scale (Sethares 2005)
  11. Sevish & Weigel, Now&Xen Podcast
  12. Xenharmonic Wiki

Journals

  1. 1/1: The Journal of the Just Intonation Network (1985-2007) {Frog Peak}
  2. Early Music {JSTOR}
  3. Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies {MusicStudies.org}
  4. Journal of the American Musicological Society {JAMS}
  5. Music Theory Online {MTO}
  6. New Music Box {NMB}
  7. Perspectives of New Music {PNM}
  8. Sound American: The Just Intonation Issue {SA20}
  9. Tempo {JSTOR}
  10. Xenharmonikon

Bibliography

BAIN MUSC 726T: Bibliography & Articles

Huygens-Fokker Foundation, Tuning & Temperament Bibliography

References

Benade, Arthur. Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics. 1990. Mineola, NY: Dover. {GB}

Blackwood, Easley. 2014/1985. The Structure of Recognizable Diatonic Tunings.
Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. {GB; Full-text: JSTOR; Table of
Equal Tunings 12-75, pp. 293-294: JSTOR}.

Campbell, Murray and Clive Greated. 2001/1987. The Musician's Guide to Acoustics. New York: Oxford University Press. {GB}

Gann, Kyle. 2019. The Arithmetic of Listening: Tuning Theory and History for the Impractical Musician. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. {GB; Audio Examples; Full text: EBSCOhost}

Pierce, John. 1992. The Science of Musical Sound. New York: W. H. Freeman. {GBd}

Roederer, Juan. 2008/1973. The Physics and Psychophysics of Music: An Introduction, 4th ed. New York: Springer. {GB}

Sethares, William A. 2005. Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale, 2nd ed. New York: Springer. {GB; Website}


Updated: December 9, 2022

Reginald Bain | University of South Carolina | School of Music
https://reginaldbain.com/vc/musc726t/