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equal temperament

American  

noun

Music.
  1. the division of an octave into 12 equal semitones, as in the tuning of a piano.


Example Sentences

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“It’s almost universally accepted that 12-tone equal temperament is the only way to tune, but that’s wrong. It felt important for people to know.”

From New York Times ● Dec. 28, 2021

But it also loses in the process a richness, making me wonder what might have happened were it played in a more acoustically natural equal temperament.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2017

Meanwhile there was no such thing back then as equal temperament.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 29, 2016

Soon he challenged the system of equal temperament that has dominated Western music for centuries.

From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2016

This often leads to some "tweaking" of the tuning in real performances, away from equal temperament.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones

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