Circulating temperament

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A circulating temperament is a scale with the property that for at least one interval class (the interval class is viewed as forming a closed circle within the tuning, hence the name), all of the intervals in the "circle" can be regarded as approximations of some targeted interval (such as a fixed just interval, or an n-edo interval when the goal is to produce an unequal coloring of n-edo), but which is not an equal temperament. In the best known examples, the interval approximated is a fifth and the scale has twelve notes to an octave.

One of the advantages of these tunings, is that because they are not quite equal, each chord (or key) has a slightly different character because the interval sizes have changed slightly.

Types

A circulating temperament may be classified by method as follows:

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