ancient Chinese chromatic scale; twelve pitches of Chinese music theory
Technical term from traditional Chinese music theory, adopted in Japan primarily for gagaku (court music). Refers to the twelve fundamental pitches, analogous to a chromatic scale but with historical tuning differences.
See also: 雅楽
In gagaku, scales based on the twelve pitches are used.
The twelve pitches originate from ancient Chinese music theory.
From Chinese 十二律 (shí'èrlǜ), literally 'twelve pitches'. The term was adopted into Japanese as じゅうにりつ and is used in the context of traditional music theory.