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Newton’s pitch circle
Isaac Newton arranged the notes of the scale on a circle, like the colours of the spectrum. Click the sections of the circle to hear them.
Switch sound on (“on”), then click. Headphones recommended. Best on a computer.
Historical diagrams of tone systems, made audible. Click on points, circles and lines to hear the intervals the author drew. Created in the research project “Sound Colour Space – A Virtual Museum” at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).
Project website: sound-colour-space.zhdk.ch ↗
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Descartes: hexachord circles
In his “Compendium Musicae” René Descartes shows how the hexachords interlock. Every note of the diagram sounds when clicked.
Switch sound on (“on”), then click. Headphones recommended. Best on a computer.
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Descartes: diatonic scale I
Descartes’ circle of the diatonic scale: major and minor whole tones and semitones as sections of a circle. The original illustration lies underneath; the points sound when clicked.
Switch sound on (“on”), then click. Headphones recommended. Best on a computer.
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Descartes: diatonic scale II
A second version of Descartes’ scale circle with a different division. The original can be shown or hidden, moved and rotated.
Switch sound on (“on”), then click. Headphones recommended. Best on a computer.
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Syntonic circle
Several tuning systems as rings on one circle – Pythagorean, equal temperament with 12 and 53 notes, Zarlino and others – so the small differences between them become audible.
Switch sound on (“on”), then click. Headphones recommended. Best on a computer.
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Syntonic spiral
Just intonation as a spiral and as a note table after Mersenne: because fifths and thirds never quite close the circle, the tuning drifts outwards.
Switch sound on (“on”), then click. Headphones recommended. Best on a computer.