Uneven intervals make Just intonation scales impossible to transpose freely.
Evidence
The pentatonic scale has other problems, though, not the least of which are too few notes for modern music, and the inequivalence of the notes that do exist. Because the intervals are uneven, from one note to the next, it is not possible to transpose music up or down freely, except by whole octaves. This means that a song composed beginning on the tonic of 100 Hz could simply not be played transposed up to a tonic of 150 Hz. The required notes would not exist, and the substitutions would sound awful. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2383
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
Related
- Uneven scale intervals make free transposition impossible (similarity 0.94)
- No pure integer-ratio system can tune musical intervals without compromise. (similarity 0.83)
- Equal temperament makes any piece transposable without changing tonal relations (similarity 0.81)
- No tuning system can make all diatonic scale intervals perfectly consonant (similarity 0.81)
- Small-integer ratios cannot govern all musical intervals consistently (similarity 0.80)
- No perfect tuning system exists; all musical temperaments are compromised (similarity 0.80)
- No tuning system can make all diatonic intervals have simple ratios (similarity 0.78)
- Just intonation rested on ideological mysticism about small integer ratios (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Just intonation major scales contain two distinct sizes of whole tone
#expands(0.85) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1031 - No pure integer-ratio system can tune musical intervals without compromise.
#expands(0.80) — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2382