Wilfrid Parett

Wilfrid Parett was a music theorist mentioned by Harry Partch in Genesis of a Music.

Todo: intro, expand, research

Parett's 19-tone scale

Parett created a 19-tone just intonation scale discussed favorably by Partch.

Composer Jacob Barton credits this scale as a key part of his discovering microtonality:

I just want to comment that a hugely significant piece of my discovering the power of microtonality was reading, in Partch's Genesis of a Music, about Wilfrid Parrett's 19-tone scale, which I just looked up and is { 1:1, 21:20, 35:32, 9:8, 7:6, 6:5, 5:4, 21:16, 4:3, 7:5, 35:24, 3:2, 63:40, 8:5, 5:3, 7:4, 9:5, 15:8, 63:32, (2:1) }. I was at the time baffled by so many notes as 43, but could fathom 19, and I realized my Proteus-1 XR synth had a 19-tone tuning built in and I was able to actually try it out, and I was off and running.

— J Barton, XA Monthly Tunings Facebook group, 23 Jun 2026

Scala file

! parett19.scl
! Created using Scale Workshop 3.4.0
!
! https://scaleworkshop.plainsound.org/scale/CLzdOb822
!
Parett's 19-tone scale as described by Harry Partch in 'Genesis of a Music'
 19
!
 21/20
 35/32
 9/8
 7/6
 6/5
 5/4
 21/16
 4/3
 7/5
 35/24
 3/2
 63/40
 8/5
 5/3
 7/4
 9/5
 15/8
 63/32
 2/1

This page is a stub. You can help the Xenharmonic Wiki by expanding it.