If there were a musical equivalent of alternative history writing,
Harry Partch would be its best-known author. A hobo in his teen years during the 1920s, Partch grew up to be one of the twentieth century's greatest speculative composers, who created his own set of 27 new instruments that could be played in his specially-designed symphony space. Influenced by the tonal scales of Asian and Native American music, Partch's instruments use the "
Just Intonation" scale, which is composed of 29 tones. This scale is a more direct reflection of the tones we hear in nature, and was used quite commonly in the West before the 12 tone scale (which you know from pianos) was invented about 250 years ago.
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