source file: mills2.txt
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 04:08:08 -0700

Subject: More from the harpsichord list on Bach's tuning

From: COUL@ezh.nl (Manuel Op de Coul)

Date:         Sat, 23 Sep 1995 09:42:32 -0400
Sender:       Harpsichords and Related Topics <HPSCHD-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU>
From:         Tom Parsons <twp@PANIX.COM>
Subject:      Re: In defense of Rasch.

On Sat, 23 Sep 1995, Paul Hahn wrote:

> Well, I'll give you that (though see Jorgenson for an argument that no
> one really tuned accurate ETs until a century or so ago when beat rates
> were calculated and began to be used), but the point is that the
> evidence that _Bach_, specifically, used ET is tenuous to the point of
> nonexistence.

(a) What I got from Rasch's paper was that we should reserve judgement.

(b) Actually, Jorgenson seems a more persuasive rebuttal to Rasch than
anything else I've seen in this discussion.  How could they use e.t. if
they were unable to tune it?  (And in my experience it's a very touchy
thing.  The intervals are stretched to the limit of tolerance; get one
of them wrong & it sounds like hell.  I use a strobe.)

--
Tom Parsons     | To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing
D.T.L.          |   about intellectual issues; it means taking
                |   pleasure in them.  --Jacob Bronowski