ThingSound (23.46 cents)

This work can be described as both a musical composition using Pythagorean tuning and equal temperament, and an animation-text work. Pythagorean tuning is a system of musical tuning in which the frequency ratios of all intervals are based on the ratio 3:2. This tuning system was used not only in ancient Greece but also in ancient China, where it was known as the "three-part loss-and-gain method" (三分損益法). From China, this tuning system was transmitted to the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and it has been used in Japanese music since ancient times.

First, a melody based on Pythagorean tuning is played using sine waves. Next, the same melody is then played on a piano, which is tuned using equal temperament. Although the melody is the same in both cases, Pythagorean tuning produces a slight difference in pitch between octaves, known as the Pythagorean comma. When sine waves from two octaves are generated simultaneously, this difference causes fluctuations and interference in the sound. With equal temperament, this does not occur. Equal temperament is a system in which the scale has been adjusted to suppress such fluctuations, sacrificing the "perfect fifths, perfect harmony" of Pythagorean tuning.

The "23.46 cents" in the title, approximately one-quarter of a semitone, is the numerical value of this slight difference, the Pythagorean comma. But in the end, an explanation like this does not really make it clear, so Toshima thinks the only thing to do is to experience it for oneself, by watching and listening.