17 equal temperament



In music, 17 tone equal temperament is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 17 equal steps (equal frequency ratios). Each step represents a frequency ratio of $\sqrt{2|17}$, or 70.6 cents. Alexander J. Ellis refers to a tuning of seventeen tones based on perfect fourths and fifths as the Arabic scale. In the thirteenth century, Middle-Eastern musician Safi al-Din Urmawi developed a theoretical system of seventeen tones to describe Arabic and Persian music, although the tones were not equally spaced. This 17-tone system remained the primary theoretical system until the development of the quarter tone scale.

17-ET is the tuning of the Regular diatonic tuning in which the tempered perfect fifth is equal to 705.88 cents, as shown in Figure 1 (look for the label "17-TET").

Relation to 34-ET
17-ET is where every other step in the 34-ET scale is included, and the others are not accessible. Conversely 34-ET is a subdivision of 17-ET.