Tuning systems and composition?

It's like this, AA. Pay attention:

The reasons for disliking other systems (or liking 12-tet more) are all at best rather questionable and at worst totally bogus. Hence why people constantly step in.

If I tell you that the Harmonic Series is valid (objectively), that any tone produces this series, that the instruments we use in an orchestra (for example) produce this series, that over time these instruments have been re-engineered several times over with 12tET as a priority, that the 12tET system allows me to capitalize on this series using all 12 of its tones (by ET approximation), that my aesthetic is satisfied by this external phenomenon and the system we use to capitalize on it, and that for these reasons, I don't experiment with other tuning systems at this time... if I say all of this, what is "questionable" (at best) or "totally bogus" (at worst) about this?

Let's put it like this, SSC. Pay attention:

If I say...

I like the sky because it's blue.

And you say...

But the sky isn't "actually" blue. You just see "blue" because of the way sunlight reflects off of the Earth's atmosphere. You're disregarding the guidelines by posting this garbage.

We can see how these discussions quickly, decisively degenerate into tautology and outright incendiary remarks about the participant as a result. Not only did this happen to me, it happened to James as well. Accusations of outright ignorance get passed out like candy on Halloween. You even used the Comp HQ guidelines to open the floodgates for further tautology and incendiary remarks toward James, even when he explained that it was only his opinion and politely asked others to back off - far more polite than I would have been.

So, the point some have made is that they use 12tET instead of other tuning systems because it more closely approximates the harmonic series than other Equal Temperament systems. But when someone states this as their reason, they are decisively attacked for believing such a "culturally imposed" idea.

Well, mostly they are decisively attacked because it has been stated numerous times in this thread that this is not the case. It has been stated for non-equal temperament systems, and it has also been stated for other equal temperament systems such as 19TET or 31TET that they more closely approximate the harmonic series than 12TET.

Nobody attacked anybody for using a "culturally imposed" idea - the whole discussion on culture/imperialism/etc. only started in response to a statement of James who had brought up the topic different cultures and their use of 12TET.

It is perfectly fine to state ones reasons for using 12TET. I think there are many good reasons one might state (as I said: Most of my pieces are also in 12TET and I do have my reasons for this). But it gets tiring if again and again the same reasons are stated which have already been refuted by others as factually flawed.

Well, mostly they are decisively attacked because it has been stated numerous times in this thread that this is not the case. It has been stated for non-equal temperament systems, and it has also been stated for other equal temperament systems such as 19TET or 31TET that they more closely approximate the harmonic series than 12TET...

It is perfectly fine to state ones reasons for using 12TET. I think there are many good reasons one might state (as I said: Most of my pieces are also in 12TET and I do have my reasons for this). But it gets tiring if again and again the same reasons are stated which have already been refuted by others as factually flawed.

Okay, so let's clarify...

You're saying that 19tET and 31tET more closely approximate the harmonic series. Others agree that Just intonation is the "equivalent" of the harmonic series, just not equally tempered. Just intonation only has 12 tones per octave. The reason 12tET developed was to equalize all intervals within the octave of 12 tones to establish equal consonance for all keys. Now we're saying that 19tET and 31tET more closely approximate Just intonation than 12tET does? Since when did Just intonation have 19 or 31 tones?

Several things have been stated numerous times, but there are obvious contradictions among these statements. It gets tiring if, again and again, people are touting "facts" that are debatable opinions as evidence of a flaw.

Topic closed due to thread degeneration. Too many space has been wasted arguing over completely off-topic things making reading the thread from page 1 a pain, as well as problematic member behavior being a problem twice already. Twice is enough.

If anyone has interest in the topic still and wishes to post their reply to the OP, they can PM me and a new thread can be created clean of this garbage.

Thanks for your understanding.