I'm a double bassist, so I have more than 12 pitches, unfortunately. ;-)
I think of the 12 tone system as a technology.
Somehow the sound of 12 tones took root, like a meme, we don't know when or why, but it's like the Omicron of tuning systems, and 2500+ years later, it's pandemic.
We know that as a technology, it has co-evolved with culture. Technologies do that. We know something about its history based on things that people wrote. For instance the harmonic series was known to the ancient Greeks (attributed to Pythagoras). Music that used the harmonic series probably existed before Pythagoras, for him to have discovered its underlying secret. We know that they used "diatonic" scales, but don't precisely know which notes they chose for which scales, for instance whether their Dorian scale is the same as ours.
I suspect that the harmonic series made it easy for musicians to make and tune their own instruments, when that became important to them. Musical culture did not just consist of music, but also knowledge about making and playing instruments, and singing. That's what I mean by a technology. A harpsichord needed to be tuned before every performance, by the musician. The need for a tune-able music technology persisted for centuries, swept along by the 12 tone pandemic.
I think of the 12 tone system as a technology.
Somehow the sound of 12 tones took root, like a meme, we don't know when or why, but it's like the Omicron of tuning systems, and 2500+ years later, it's pandemic.
We know that as a technology, it has co-evolved with culture. Technologies do that. We know something about its history based on things that people wrote. For instance the harmonic series was known to the ancient Greeks (attributed to Pythagoras). Music that used the harmonic series probably existed before Pythagoras, for him to have discovered its underlying secret. We know that they used "diatonic" scales, but don't precisely know which notes they chose for which scales, for instance whether their Dorian scale is the same as ours.
I suspect that the harmonic series made it easy for musicians to make and tune their own instruments, when that became important to them. Musical culture did not just consist of music, but also knowledge about making and playing instruments, and singing. That's what I mean by a technology. A harpsichord needed to be tuned before every performance, by the musician. The need for a tune-able music technology persisted for centuries, swept along by the 12 tone pandemic.