deceptive diatonicity

A term coined by John Starrett in a Tuning List posting. It refers in his case specifically to the use of certain intervals avalable in 19-tET which aurally resemble intervals familiar from 12-tET in their melodic progression, but which, because of their different size from 12-tET, modulate harmonically into unfamiliar tonal regions that lie 'between the cracks' of the 12-tET pitches.

Use of the term can be generalized to apply to any microtonal tuning system, the main point being the 'punning' involved in the reference to familiar intonational paradigms and their skewed realization in the less-familiar actual tuning.

[from Joe Monzo, JustMusic: A New Harmony]

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