>But you may be surprised to learn that the twelve musical tones that shape our very understanding of Western music today is extremely narrow.
Grammar aside, the twelve musical tones that comprise Western music are, well, the good ones. It's not like there are thousands of notes out there and we randomly picked 12 and didn't think about the rest. We picked the 12 best ones.
I find it a bit reductive to say equal temperament has 'the good [tones]'. I think 'the least bad tones' would probably be more accurate, in the sense that no matter what you are playing (i.e. which note(s)/scale(s) the piece is centered on), it'll sound fairly OK, even though some intervals are not what they should be.
It sounds pleasant to the ear because that's what most people hear all day. Other cultures have developed a slightly different relationship with harmony, leading to them considering other tones 'good'.
For a cheeky example of what I mean with 'the least bad tones', feel free to check this short demo by Jacob Collier[1], about just how out of tune equal temperament is.
Grammar aside, the twelve musical tones that comprise Western music are, well, the good ones. It's not like there are thousands of notes out there and we randomly picked 12 and didn't think about the rest. We picked the 12 best ones.
It sounds pleasant to the ear because that's what most people hear all day. Other cultures have developed a slightly different relationship with harmony, leading to them considering other tones 'good'.
For a cheeky example of what I mean with 'the least bad tones', feel free to check this short demo by Jacob Collier[1], about just how out of tune equal temperament is.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGDWXe2u9kw