Harmonic Series Tunings: Primes Only

Each tuning comprises twelve consecutive primes. MIDI files and bar charts are provided for each tuning.

After the 59-107 tuning, a set of twelve would no longer adequately fill an octave. If more than twelve tones per tuning were to be used, more different tunings of this kind would be made practically possible.

Primes	Largest Step	Smallest Step	Harmonic Complexity
3-37	160 c	43 c	31.6
5-41	212 c	40 c	33.7
7-43	175 c	37 c	35.6
11-47	175 c	33 c	37.2
13-53	175 c	30 c	38.7
17-59	208 c	28 c	40.0
19-67	208 c	28 c	41.2
23-71	208 c	28 c	42.4
29-73	208 c	24 c	43.3
31-79	208 c	24 c	44.2
37-83	208 c	21 c	45.0
41-89	208 c	21 c	45.8
43-97	186 c	48 c	46.6
47-101	186 c	48 c	47.4
53-103	186 c	34 c	48.0
59-107	169 c	34 c	48.6

2005 by David J. Finnamore
tuning@elvenminstrel.com

Tuning Methods

Harmonic Series Tunings

Primes Only