source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 22:30:55 -0700 Subject: Re: FWD: Bach's tuning From: Paul Hahn On Mon, 25 Sep 1995, Aleksander Frosztega wrote: > But the > quote in question still refers to equal temperament. Why? Because of the > context: Most ear-tuning instructions for Circular temperaments in 18th- > century Germany relied on setting the *fifths* in order to temper the scale. > I have never seen (I don't think) 18th-century German ear tuning > instruction that use fifths as a tempering device for Equal Temperament. > They all used rows of MAJOR THIRDS which were to be made wide! > (Sorge gave explicit instructions that each successive third should be > made somewhat *wider* than the last.) Eh? If one is wider than another, then they're not equal, are they? > Yes, this is the F#-C# fifth in Kirnberger I though III. However, it is not > tempered by 1/12 Pythagorean comma; it is tempered by the *schisma.* > Kirnberger was not the best mathematician in the world and Marpurg, in > fact, corrects Kirnberger's calculations in Marpurg's _Versuch._ Let me get this straight: you castigate Jorgenson for insisting on .1 cent accuracy, and now you're making a fuss about a difference of (my calculator puts it) .0012817 cents? Sounds like straining at gnats and swallowing camels to me. --pH (manynote@library.wustl.edu or http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote) O /\ "Do you like to gamble, Eddie? -\-\-- o Gamble money on pool games?" Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 26 Sep 1995 13:01 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id EAA03862; Tue, 26 Sep 1995 04:01:22 -0700 Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 04:01:22 -0700 Message-Id: <00996F987A734D82.2639@ezh.nl> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu